Information Literacy and Research Guide

Domain Names
 

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is responsible for managing and coordinating the Domain Name System (DNS) to ensure that every internet address is unique and that all users of the Internet can find all valid addresses. It does this by overseeing the distribution of unique IP addresses and domain names. It also ensures that each domain name maps to the correct IP address. 

The following information about domain names comes from ICANN’s Generic Top-Level Domains page  and ICANN's FAQs (frequently asked questions) page: 

• The .aero domain is reserved for the aviation community.
• The .biz domain is restricted to businesses.
• The .com domain is a generic top-level domain originally intended for commercial businesses around the world.
• The .coop domain is restricted to use by bona fide cooperatives and cooperative service organizations that ascribe to the Cooperative Principles of the ICA, such as member ownership and control.
• The .edu domain is reserved for postsecondary institutions accredited by an agency on the U.S. Department of Education's list of Nationally Recognized Accrediting Agencies.
• The .gov domain is reserved exclusively for the United States Government.
• The .info domain is an unrestricted domain for websites containing information about you, your organization, your products or any other information you'd like to make available to a global audience.
• The .jobs domain is reserved for human resource managers.
• The kids.us provides the kids.us domain for content that is regularly screened and monitored to ensure that it is appropriate for children and youth. 
• The .mil domain is reserved exclusively for the United States Military.
• The .mobi domain is reserved for consumers and providers of mobile products and services.
• The .museum domain was developed exclusively for the museum community
• The .name domain is reserved for individuals.
• The .net domain is a generic top-level domain used by many types of organizations and individuals globally; it was historically intended for and is still commonly used by Internet service providers.
• The .org domain is unrestricted, but was intended to serve the noncommercial, non-profit organization community.
• The .pro domain is restricted to certified professionals and related entities.
• The .travel domain is reserved for entities whose primary area of activity is in the travel industry.

Two letter domains, such as .uk, .de and .jp (for example), are called country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) and correspond to a country, territory, or other geographic location. The rules and policies for registering ccTLDs vary significantly and a number of ccTLDs are reserved for use by citizens of the corresponding country.  

A list of the two-letter country code top-level domains is available from Internet Assigned Numbers Authority's (IANA) Whois Information page.  

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