In: Computer Science
The development of the world wide web has led to a variety of Top Level Domains (e.g., Generic, Country Code, Branded). What has led to these diferent types of TLDs? What are the implications to businesses? What are the implications to customers? Please respond with 2-3 paragraphs
Answer:-
When choosing a domain name for your site, you’re likely to focus most of your attention on the Second-Level Domain (SLD), which is the middle section that comes after the https:// and before the final period. This is where you’ll likely include your business or brand name, as well as any relevant keywords (for example https://mycompanywebsite).
Second-level domains are followed by Top-Level Domains. These come at the very end of the domain name, and are sometimes referred to as ‘domain extensions.’
It probably won’t surprise you to learn that the most popular TLD is .com (short for ‘commercial’), followed by .org (‘organization’), and .net (‘network’). You’ve probably also come across industry-specific options, such as .edu (‘education’) and .gov (‘government’). These are commonly referred to as ‘generic Top-Level Domains’ or gTLDs for short.
In addition to these options, there are also several country code TLDs (ccTLDs) available, which are usually reserved for a specific country or region. However, some of these have become popular international options as well, such as .io. Initially, this was created for the British Indian Ocean Territory but is now very popular in the tech community as an abbreviation for Input/Output .
In fact, multiple TLDs were created with an explicit type of website or geographic location in mind but quickly grew to be used across industries and territories. While there were numerous options available, many people still desired more freedom in the TLDs they could use. This resulted in a years-long debate that culminated not long ago.
While some new top-level domain names were added over the years, they amounted to little in the way of variety. However, this all changed in 2014, when the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) introduced the New gTLD Program.
The purpose of the program was to increase the number of generic top-level domains by enabling users to submit applications for new additions. In total, ICANN received nearly 2,000 TLD requests during the application window and had a goal of adding up to 1,300 of these as new TLDs.
If an application was successful, that TLD was added to the internet with general availability for anyone to use. Some companies even purchased brand TLD extensions, such as .bmw and .barclays.
Another significant change heralded by this program is the introduction of internationalized domain names or non-latin TLDs. In fact, some of the earliest additions after the application deadline included 游戏 (Chinese for ‘game’), сайт (Russian for ‘site’), and شبكة (Arabic for ‘network’ or ‘web’).
Naturally, this landslide of new TLDs has led to a lot of debate. Should you stick with one of the old faithful options, such as .com, or go with a newcomer like .club or .blog?
To help you pick the right domain for you, let’s look at the pros and cons of these new TLDs.