On the surface, top-level domains help identify websites and classify their features. However, there is more to them than that. This article, which is the first of a whole new TLD series, will help you understand what they are and how they work.
It is obvious that to successfully run and operate an organization in this age of the internet, the organization needs to have an evident online presence. Social media is probably the most common and popular way to establish this online presence. Aside from social media presence, however, other channels like websites are very important means to create awareness and provide information about such organizations.
Domain names help internet users identify internet resources like websites, networks, and services with easily memorizable text-based strings instead of numerical Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Domain names establish and identify a unique identity on the internet. Ideally, organizations should choose a domain name that corresponds to their identity — usually the name of the organization, thus helping users of the internet to easily access them.
Hence, it is important for organizations to understand what domain names are, the different types of domain names, how they work, and which domain name best identifies their organization before registering a domain name.
To get started, you should understand how domain names function with IP addresses.
Domain Name System (DNS)
Every device on the internet has an Internet Protocol (IP) address — a unique signature that differentiates devices connected to the web. These IP addresses identify networks and their locations. This allows computers connected to the web to locate and communicate with each other. These IP addresses, however, are distinct numerical signatures that are not easy to memorize, track, organize and manage as more computers and networks were added to the internet. The Domain Name System was built to solve this problem by linking these numerical signatures to unique strings called Domain names. This means that instead of accessing an internet resource by memorizing and typing in ‘192.34.357.958.72,’ you just have to remember a Domain name like ‘/www.thedomaindao.org /.’
Domain name syntax
Domain names are made up of one or more parts called labels. The labels are distinguished and sequenced by dots. The hierarchy of domain labels descends from the right to the left. The main domain labels in domain names are the Top-Level Domain (TLD) and the Second-Level Domain (SLD). A Top-Level Domain is the domain label just after the dot, while the second-level domain is the domain label to the left of the TLD. For instance, in the ‘www.thedomainfo.org’ domain name, ‘.org’ is the TLD and ‘thedomaindao’ is the SLD.
Top-Level Domains
As stated earlier, a Top-Level Domain (TLD) is the domain label that comes after the period. TLDs are the highest level in the internet’s hierarchical Domain Name System (DNS). TLDs are important in describing the type of organizations that bear the Domain name. For instance, commercial organizations usually make use of ‘.com’, network organizations use ‘.net’, educational institutions use ‘.edu’ and governmental bodies make use of the ‘.gov’ TLD. An organization’s TLD choice, therefore, affects how easy it is to identify them with their business category.
Choosing a Top-Level Domain for your organization
The entity responsible for running the TLD system is the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) — an integral part of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
Despite being able to choose any TLD they desire, organizations need to understand that some TLDs are reserved and designated for specific use cases. They also need to consider the fact that whatever TLD chosen would be generally describing these organizations to internet users and would ultimately determine how these users perceive them.
In the ensuing articles in this series, we would continue to discuss how chosen TLDs help identify organization types, and why Decentralized Autonomous Organizations need their own ‘.dao’ TLD. Stay tuned!
