Domain Trivia
Handy tips to help you steer through the jargon
Ever wondered what TLD stands for? Or how many domain extensions there are? Now you can learn enough to steer you through the basics of the domain name industry.
Domain Glossary
CC.tld - country code top level domain
Expiry date - you buy a domain for a period of time, if you do not renew the domain (pay for further years) before the expiry date, then the domain will no longer belong to you and will be available for someone else to buy.
Extension - the letters after the dot at the end of a domain (ie, .com, .net, .co.uk).
G.tld - generic top level domain (ie., .com, .net etc.)
ICANN - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. This is the authority who has responsibility for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, g.tld and cc.tld domain name system management protocol identifier assignment, and root server system management functions.
IDN`s - internationalised domain names. These are domain names which are written in a language other than English.
Parking - when you have bought your domain name, it will be `parked`until you have either created a website for it, or redirected it to another website. It means that a parking page will appear until you are ready to use your domain.
Registrar - companies who sell domain names and look after them for you.
Registration - the process of buying a domain name.
Renew/renewal - when your domain is nearing the end of the period you bought it for, you will need to renew it - this is the act of paying for further years so the domain remains yours.
TLD - top level domain
Transfer - transferring ownership of the domain, or moving it from one registrar to another.
Whois - this is a search facility which will tell you the owner or those responsible for a domain.
Expiry date - you buy a domain for a period of time, if you do not renew the domain (pay for further years) before the expiry date, then the domain will no longer belong to you and will be available for someone else to buy.
Extension - the letters after the dot at the end of a domain (ie, .com, .net, .co.uk).
G.tld - generic top level domain (ie., .com, .net etc.)
ICANN - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. This is the authority who has responsibility for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, g.tld and cc.tld domain name system management protocol identifier assignment, and root server system management functions.
IDN`s - internationalised domain names. These are domain names which are written in a language other than English.
Parking - when you have bought your domain name, it will be `parked`until you have either created a website for it, or redirected it to another website. It means that a parking page will appear until you are ready to use your domain.
Registrar - companies who sell domain names and look after them for you.
Registration - the process of buying a domain name.
Renew/renewal - when your domain is nearing the end of the period you bought it for, you will need to renew it - this is the act of paying for further years so the domain remains yours.
TLD - top level domain
Transfer - transferring ownership of the domain, or moving it from one registrar to another.
Whois - this is a search facility which will tell you the owner or those responsible for a domain.
Did You Know........?
- there are over 250 top level domain extensions (g.tld´s and cc.tld´s).
- the most common misspelling of the .com extension is .cm and .om. These are the country codes for Cameroon and Oman.
- The extension .tv is widely used and associated with television, but it is actually the cc.tld of Tuvalu, an island in the South Pacific.
- There are two domain markets - the Primary market is where you buy a domain which is not registered, usually from a domain registrar. The Aftermarket is where you can buy second-hand domains - those which have already been registered and belong to somebody else.
- When a new extension is born there is a "sunrise period". This is the period in which trade mark holders register their rights against domains associated with their trade marks. Once that period is over it is open to the public and all domains which haven´t been reserved in the sunrise period are fought over on a first come, first served basis. This is called the "landrush". The premium domains are snatched up in seconds.
- you can get caught up in disputes or legal proceedings if you register a domain which infringes on somebody else´s trade mark. Always check to see if the domain you want to register is a trade mark. Although bear in mind that there are classes of trade mark so you could still use the domain if you intend to use it for a different class.
- you can see what a domain used to look like in the past? A tool called The Wayback Machine allows you to search for a domain and if it has archived it, show you what it used to look like.
Useful Links
Whois search
US Patent and Trademark Office
UK Intellectual Property Office
European Trade Marks
Traffic Rankings
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