The Ultimate Webpreneur’s
Guide to Domain Names

Do you need a domain name?

A domain name is an online address that allows users to access the exact location of a website, which is the Internet Protocol or IP address. The IP address is a unique combination of numbers and characters which is too difficult to remember.

The domain name simplifies it into words so that it’s easy for users to remember and type it in the browser URL whenever they want to access a particular website. In simple words, domain names are like website names, representing your business on the internet and if your website is your office, the domain name is its address.

As we have already established that a domain name is the unique identity of your business, it is essential for any online business to own a domain name. Not only will it make you look professional, but also help you in building credibility, improve SEO, protect your trademarks and copyrights, boost your brand awareness, and so on.

Still not convinced? Here are a few reasons:

• Easier for customers to find you - The end goal of every business is that customers can easily remember and visit back their store, and the chances of that increase by a lot when they buy website domains of their own.
• Makes you look authentic and legitimate - When people look at your website and they are actually subdomains of another company domain, they tend to question the authenticity of the website. But when you have your own domain, customers know that you are a genuine business and have a company domain name of your own.
• Having control As long as you are paying for your domain, you have complete control over it. For instance, if you are using a subdomain of another domain, and for some reason that domain stops existing or changes the way its service works, it might affect your website.
• Better for SEO - Search engines like Google give preference to sites with their own domain names in the SERPs. And you won’t want your website to be ranked lower than your competition right?
• Having an authoritative email ID - Lastly, having a domain name is not only for your website but also for your email address. Instead of having an email ID that ends with gmail.com or yahoo.com, you can have an email ID that ends with your own domain name. Here’s how that helps:
  • Branding - When the emails come from your business domain name and not from a free email service, it makes you look much more professional.
  • Control - You can easily keep control of the email ids after the employees that used them aren’t working with you anymore.
  • Flexibility - You can change your email marketing tool or service whenever you want, without having to inform your customers about any change in email address.

Where Can You Get a Domain Name?

If you want to buy domain online, you need to find a domain registrar that can help you get domain names of your preference for your website. There are a lot of domain registrars out there and everyone promises to give you the best domain registration services.

However, choosing the right domain registrar is highly essential as it saves you from possible future problems. Apart from making the process of domain purchase easy and simple, it also helps in protecting your brand name and facilitates shifting to a different hosting platform if you need it in the future.

The huge amount of options of domain registrars might get a little overwhelming for you. And that is why we have put together some of the best ones to make it easier for you to decide:

1. GoDaddy - One of the oldest and the biggest players in the domain registration industry, GoDaddy has successfully completed over 75 million domain name registrations for more than 18 million customers throughout its existence. Its powerful yet user-friendly domain management interface offers features like domain transfer, contact information updation, name server changes, bulk domain renewal management, and various other domain customizations.

2. Domain.com - Founded in 2000, Domain.com is one of the most popular domain name registrars. It has a domain availability search tool that lets you check domain name availability. It comes with additional tools like free whois, whois privacy protection, top domain registrar including private registration, bulk registration, easy domain transfer, easy DNS domain management, email account, email forwarding, and so many more.

3. Bluehost - Primarily, Bluehost is an official WordPress hosting partner and is one of the largest hosting companies in the world. But besides that, they also offer domain name registration services. If you are taking their web hosting services, you can get a free domain name along with a free SSL certificate for your website. And they provide additional features like the ability to add unlimited subdomains, professional emails through G Suite (Google Workspace), malware protection for websites, and more.

4. Network Solutions - One of the largest domain registrars on the planet with over 7 million domain registrations, Network Solutions provides various other services like website building, web hosting, business email address, website security tools, digital marketing, SEO services, and IT support. Their domain name check tool provides you with instant domain name search features and even shows premium domain names in its results. Additional features include WHOIS privacy, DNS name management, private registration, and so on.

5. HostGator - HostGator is a one-shop stop, where website owners can get both domain names and hosting services for their websites. Besides a great selection of domain extensions, domain privacy, and user-friendly DNS management tools, their domain search tool can help you with instant domain search. Since they have a website building tool, they offer free domain names and hosting if you buy their website building plan. Their domain management platform is user-friendly too and if required, you can carry out a domain transfer easily whenever you want.

6. Namecheap - A great domain registrar, their domain search tool can help you check domain name availability, and gives suggestions when your preferred domain name is unavailable. Their add-on features include premium DNS domain, domain privacy, and whois privacy.

7. DreamHost - Since DreamHost is a web hosting service platform besides being a domain name registrar, it offers free domain names along with domain privacy to the customers who sign up for their shared unlimited hosting plan. However, if you don’t want their hosting services, you can just buy domain online from them along with free private registration. With over 400 TLDs and all necessary domain management tools, it is a great place for domain purchase.

8. BuyDomains - BuyDomains is a registrar for buying premium domain names. Premium domain names are those domain names that are already registered but their owners have put them up for sale. And this usually happens when professional domain buyers buy domain names that are short, memorable, and most importantly brandable, and are valuable enough to be sold in the future at a profit. And that is the reason why they are more expensive than regularly available domain names, and this concept is termed as domain flipping. BuyDomains allows you to check premium domain name availability and gives you premium domain name suggestions if they match your search terms, and accordingly, you can get domain from them.

How do you come up with a good domain name?

Picking a domain name might seem like a very basic task, but only it’s not. A domain name plays a major role for any business, and here are a few considerations you need to make before picking one:

• Easy to type - Get a domain name that’s easy to type, and your customers can type the right thing without having to worry about the exact spelling.
• The shorter the better - A short domain name gives less scope to mistakes or forgetting.
• Incorporate keywords - Incorporating your primary keyword into your domain name will help you optimize your site for SEO.
• Geographic area - If you can include the name of your city or state, it will show up as a result on search engines to your local customers, and will also be easy for them to remember.
• Avoid numbers or hyphens - The more you complicate your domain name with numbers or hyphens, the higher the chances of your customers forgetting it or making mistakes while typing.
• Easy to remember - Get a domain name that is appealing, catchy and easy to remember, and relatable to your brand.
• Do your research - Research and do your homework to make sure that the domain name isn’t copyrighted or trademarked by someone else, to avoid legal troubles.
• Use the appropriate domain extension - Domain extensions are the suffix part of your website names .com, .net, .org, etc. that the web address ends with and you should choose one that is most apt with your brand.
• Protect and build your brand - To protect your brand name, you can buy various domain extensions along with your website names, and also misspelled versions of your domain name. That way you will be preventing competitors or domain flipping professionals from buying similar domain names to yours.
• Act fast - Domain names sell really quickly, and if you have made up your mind about which one you want, and it is available after performing a website domain search, don’t waste any time and buy it quickly.
• Use a Name Generator - Try Namify’s Business Name Generator to find a catchy, memorable, and remarkable name for your online business.

How domain names impact your business.

We have already established how essential it is for online businesses to get domain names of their own. In simple words, it can make or break a business, and here’s how:

• Builds your brand - When the domain name coincides with the name of your company, or in other words, your website name is also your company name, it establishes your brand and lets people associate it with your business and remember it easily. If you’re having trouble coming up with a memorable brand name, try our Brand Name Generator. It offers unique, remarkable name suggestions and checks for domain availability on new top-level domain extensions like .store, .online, .tech, .site and more.
• Showcases creativity - Amidst the vast universe of eCommerce businesses, you need a domain name that can show how creative you are and let you stand out from the crowd. A creative domain name increases the chances of the user clicking on it and visiting your website.
• Establishes your niche - A well-chosen domain name can help users understand what your niche is the moment they see it. And if it is something they are interested in, they would click right away, without wasting any time on understanding other domain names. In fact, a good domain extension can play a major role in establishing a niche as well. For instance, when you look at a domain name ending with “.tech”, you will know that it has got something to do with technology, and “.store” will make you think of an eCommerce store.
• Word of mouth marketing - When a domain name coincides with its brand name, is short and simple, and memorable, it automatically promotes word of mouth marketing. Because even when someone tells their friend about your brand, all they have to do is type the name on their search engine, and the first thing they would find would be your website.

What is the recommended length for a domain name?

More than a decade ago, most domain names used to consist of 5-6 characters. The most important reason being that the shorter the domain name, the easier to remember it. However, due to the huge number of websites that have come up since then, the options have considerably reduced and now the recommended length for a domain name is under 12 characters.

Even then, when you use generic domain extensions like .com, .org, .net, etc. the chances of finding short and suitable domain names are negligible. But thanks to new and relevant domain extensions like .press, .store, .space, .fun, .online, and .tech, you can choose a domain name within the ideal length of 12 characters that also match your brand.

A domain name comprising 12 characters or less, including one or two words, will help you stand out from the clutter, and allow your audience to remember you. Moreover, it will be short, crisp, brandable, and unique. For example, if you’re looking for a domain name for your store, looking for a name on Namify’s Store Name Generator will help you find a name under 12 characters using one of our filters and check for availability on a .store domain.

What are domain name rules?

Before making your domain purchase, here are a few rules that you will need to consider. There is a lot of what you can do and what you can’t with your domain name, and here they are:

• Numbers - You’re allowed to have numbers in your domain name, but it’s not something we recommend. Including numbers can have a negative impact, as it might make it difficult to remember and a little complicated. But if the number is a part of your brand name, or the number resonates with something that people are familiar with, then you should include it. For instance, a brand called “before you” might go for the domain name “b4u”, or when familiar terms are used like MP3 or B2C.
• Hyphens - Hyphens are allowed in domain names too, but even they increase the complexity of the domain name. For instance, the name of your brand is brown leather bags, and your domain name is brownleatherbags.site, it’s as simple as it can get. But if the domain name is “brown-leather-bags.site”, it will be complicated for anyone to say it out loud, and the user also might make some mistakes while typing it in or understanding it. Try to avoid hyphens as much as you can and use them only when highly necessary.
• Periods - You cannot use periods in your domain name. However, periods can be used to identify subdomains that are under the main website’s hosting. For instance, if your website is domainname.com, you could keep additional content under the subdomain, subdomain.domainname.com, where the original domain name is free from periods.
• Symbols, Spaces, or Underscores - Any kinds of symbols, special characters, and underscores are not allowed in the domain name. The only symbols allowed are hyphens and numbers. And you cannot include spaces as well.
• Capital Letters - Domain names are not case sensitive, and they treat the lower case and upper case as the same thing. So even if a user types a domain name in capital letters, it will take them to the website with the domain name in the lower case only. Because there won’t be any other website with the same domain name in the upper case. And this is why you cannot register a domain name using the upper case, as it would be of no relevance.
• Character Limit - The total number of characters that can be used in a domain name is 63, which would exclude “https:// (protocol identifier)”, and the domain extension like .site, or .website. However, we don’t advise you to pick this long a domain name.

How to buy a domain name?

Once you have shortlisted a few catchy, meaningful, and relevant domain names, here’s what you have to do to buy domain online:

1. Find a reliable domain registrar

The first step is to find a reliable company that registers and manages domain names, known as a domain registrar. It should be accredited by the non-profit organization, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) which regulates the whole domain industry.

There are many companies that could be running a scam in the name of domains, or have hidden fees and end up burning a hole in your pocket. This is why you need to find a reliable domain registrar, for example, radix.website is a great domain provider in the market.

Since it might get confusing amidst so many domain registrars, here are a few things you can consider before picking yours:

• Pricing - Go through the terms and conditions of the registrar carefully and keep an eye out for any possible hidden costs. You should avoid registrars that charge you less for the first upfront fee but have higher renewal rates.
• Domain expiration policy - If you fail to renew your domain name before it expires, someone else could register it. Go for a registrar that gives you a reminder or has an auto-renewal feature.
• Add-on services - Having add-on services like domain parking or domain privacy could be a great win.
• Domain transfer policy - Due to any possible reason you might need to transfer your domain to another registrar. You need to check what are the charges and formalities for domain transfer with whichever registrar you choose.
• Domain transfer policy - Due to any possible reason you might need to transfer your domain to another registrar. You need to check what are the charges and formalities for domain transfer with whichever registrar you choose.

2. Run a Domain Name Search

Once you have finalized the registrar, you need to run a domain name check or website domain search. It’s also important that you pick the right domain name extension for your business.

The most generic extensions that you would have seen are .com, .net, .org, etc. Country-specific domains are like .us for the USA, .uk for the United Kingdom, .in for India, and so on.

However, if you pick generic extensions like these, it will be really difficult to find the domain name of your choice as they might have been already taken. So we suggest you to go for newer niche specific extensions, that have a wider variety of domain name options for you like:

3. Pick Your Domain

Once you have selected your domain name, you can proceed to the checkout page, where you will have to choose your preferred domain registration period. Most registrars offer a minimum period of one year, but many might require you to pay for two as well.

If you know you’re going to be using it for a long time, and are getting a good discount, you might choose a longer period like 5-10 years as well.

4. Complete the Domain Registration

After completing the payment, you would need to fill out all the details to complete the domain name registration. You will have to provide details like your name, address, contact info, email address, and so on.

5. Verify Domain Name Ownership

The final step for you is to verify your ownership of the domain name which usually happens through your registered email id where you get a verification link on your email. Once you click on it, you can follow the further steps and complete the verification process of your domain name ownership.

That’s all there is to it. Now you know how to buy domain or website names and complete the initial registration process.

How to buy a domain name from another person?

When you have to buy domain online, in some cases you might not be able to find the exact domain name you want, as it’s already owned by someone else. But you need not lose hope, as it’s still possible that it’s available, and you will just have to buy it from the person who owns it instead of a domain registrar, which would be like a domain transfer.

Here are the steps involved when you have to buy domain name from another person:

1. Find out who is the existing owner

Start by looking for the existing owner on the WHOIS directory, which is like the White Pages of domain name owners. You can find their contact details there unless they have chosen to keep it private.

Even in those cases, there might be a private email address listed, to which if you send an email, it’s most probably going to reach the owner. If that doesn’t work too, there’s also a chance that the owner’s contact details are provided on the domain’s website.

2. Negotiate a Fair Price

Once you have made contact and received a response, you will have to make an offer for the domain purchase. If you are not very familiar with domain name costs, especially premium domain names, like in this case you could hire a domain broker to help you in facilitating the deal. Some professionals buy valuable domain names for domain flipping and want to sell them at a good profit later. You will have to be very careful in buying from such domain flippers, as their aim is to sell it at the highest possible price, and yours is to buy it at the lowest possible price.

3. Complete the payment

Once the deal is finalized, the last step is for you to complete the payment for the domain transfer, and this is the tricky part. You want to make sure that you actually get the ownership of the domain you pay for, and since this might not be through an official registrar, taking extra precautions are of the essence. You could use an escrow service so that both the parties are safe and satisfied.

What is a Domain Name?

Just like a house needs an address, a website needs a domain name. Every website has its unique IP or Internet Protocol address. Now the IP address is a unique set of numbers distinguished by periods, which is impossible to memorize. Because there’s not just one site that a user would want to visit, and imagine how many IP addresses would they have to remember to visit these sites.

That’s where the domain name comes into play. A domain name is the name that you choose for your website’s address, and whenever users enter it on their search browser, they will land up on your website. So in a way, domain names are website names.

Now DNS domain is the naming database that is responsible for locating the domain names and translating them into IP addresses. DNS or domain name system maps the domain name of a website to the IP address that is linked to it so that people can reach it easily.

For instance, your website’s IP address could be 66.261.67.1, whereas your domain name could be mybusiness.store.

What’s the difference between a domain name and a website?

Even though websites and domain names are closely knit, they are not the same thing. A website is a collection of web pages that together store and display content and convey specific information to its visitors. Besides HTML pages that display content, it also comprises CSS stylesheets that govern styles like font type and size, spacing around elements, button color, and so much more. There are images and other media files on the website like audio and video files.

Now the name that you need to type in to land on this website is the domain name or the website name. Website names or domain names are simply the addresses that take you to the websites they represent when you type them in your search browser. For example, imagine you own a clothing brand and want to create a website for it, or you are planning on starting one and look up a name for it on Namify’s Clothing Brand Name Generator, your next step would be to register a domain for your brand name which will serve as the web address your customers would have to enter to visit your website. Something like — www.myclothingbrand.store or www.myclothingbrand.site

You can have a domain name without having a website, meaning you can buy domain names beforehand and keep them with you. But you can’t have a website without having a domain name.

How Does a Domain Name Work?

We have already established that when you type the domain name on the search browser, you land up on the website. But how does that exactly happen, let us understand!

There is something called the DNS (domain name system), which is a set of servers that store the IP addresses linked to their correct domain names. Whenever you enter a domain name in your search browser, it sends a request to this very DNS.

Now this DNS will look up the IP address associated with your domain name and pass it on to the location that has stored the website. It will then fetch the website contents and send it back to the browser that searched for it, and the desired website will display on your screen.

Who is responsible for the domain name system?

The global non-profit organization, ICANN is responsible for coordinating the Internet’s core systems of unique identifiers, known as the Domain Name System (DNS). As explained above, the role of DNS is to translate easy and memorable domain names to their respectively linked IP addresses.

DNS follows a very hierarchical model of the organization where ICANN is responsible for coordinating and designating TLD name database operators or registries.

The TLD registries provide authoritative online database services that are accessible to the public, for their respective top-level domain name (i.e. .net, .de, .info). And the registrants who have registered second or third level domain names are responsible for the DNS services that relate to their own domains.

In this whole framework, the responsibility is distributed where ICANN’s primary role is to set global policies for the TLD and IP address registries. It helps in assuring the integrity and stability of the naming and address allocation systems of the internet.

For TLDs that are not country-specific, ICANN acts as the neutral accrediting body for the competitive registrars. It monitors their compliance with their published DNS standards and accreditation agreements.

Besides that, ICANN also provides various services like the management of the DNS domain root zone file. It includes the authoritative list of the TLD registries and the master name servers for each of them, that have been publicly made available through a system of 13 root name servers. These services are commonly known as the “IANA functions” because before ICANN was created in 1998, these were being performed by the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority).

Which device is responsible for DNS domain?

A DNS server is responsible for the functionality of the DNS domain. It is a computer server that helps in translating the domain name that a user types in their browser into something that a computer can understand to locate a website.

Humans can understand domain names and computers can understand IP addresses, and the DNS server helps in connecting the two. This process can be divided into a few parts:

• DNS Resolver - Also known as the recursive resolver, it is a server that receives the DNS query from a web browser and another application. It receives a hostname like www.hostname.com and its responsibility is to track down the IP address for that hostname. It could be operating on an internet service provider, local network, WiFi, mobile carrier, or a third party, and it looks in its local cache or of the OS on a local device to locate it. If found, it resolves the query then and there, else it contacts the DNS root server.
• DNS root server - It is the first step in translating the hostname into an IP address. Placed at the top of the hierarchy, it publishes the root zone file. This root zone is the top level domain list containing gTLDs like .com, .org, .net, etc. and ccTLDs like .us, .uk, .se, etc. This root zone comes from IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), which is a part of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). For instance, if the user searched for www.hostname.com, it will look at just the TLD, that is .com, and provide the DNS resolver information about the TLD server that stores information about it.
• TLD name server - The TLD name server responds to the query by providing information about the server that stores the complete domain name. From the above example, the DNS root server guided the DNS resolver to a particular TLD server that had information about .com domains. And now the TLD server will guide the DNS resolver to an authoritative name server that stores information about the specific domain, www.hostname.com.
• Authoritative name server - This is the last stop in the translation process, where it takes up the query about the domain name, looks into DNS records, and responds to the DNS resolver with the correct IP address for that particular domain name. In some cases, the authoritative name server might have to route the DNS resolver further to another name server for information about subdomains. DNS zones are used to organize authoritative name servers, and each zone has a particular set of these servers.

As soon as the DNS resolver receives the response from the authoritative name server, the website is displayed on the user’s screen. Now even though this process might seem long with a lot of back and forth, it actually happens within a couple of seconds or less.

Which device is responsible for DNS domain?

There’s a common misconception that keeps floating around that there is a total number of 13 DNS root servers, but it is not the case. It is because due to certain limitations in the original architecture of the DNS domain, the maximum number of server addresses in the root zone couldn’t exceed 13. And for each of the 13 addresses, there was supposed to be only one server, most of them located in the United States.

However, at present, each of the 13 IP addresses has various servers, like a cluster of servers. They together help in creating a huge network of servers all around the globe using Anycast routing and distributing the requests based on their load and proximity. There are more than 600 DNS root servers spread out across various continents, which helps in decentralizing, and if there is any issue with any server, the other servers don’t let the process stop.

ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) hosts the DNS servers for one of the 13 IP addresses and has delegated the operations of the other 12 to different organizations in the world. Here is a list of all the organizations along with the DNS root servers and IP addresses they host:

Hostname	IP Address	Organization
A.root-servers.net	198.41.0.4	VeriSign, Inc.
B.root-servers.net	199.9.14.201	University of Southern California (ISI)
C.root-servers.net	192.33.4.12	Cogent Communications
D.root-servers.net	199.7.91.13	University of Maryland
E.root-servers.net	192.203.230.10	NASA
F.root-servers.net	192.5.5.241	Internet Systems Consortium, Inc.
G.root-servers.net	192.112.36.4	US Department of Defense (NIC)
H.root-servers.net	198.97.190.53	US Army (Research Lab)
I.root-servers.net	192.36.148.17	Netnod
J.root-servers.net	192.58.128.30	VeriSign, Inc.
K.root-servers.net	193.0.14.129	RIPE NCC
L.root-servers.net	199.7.83.42	ICANN
M.root-servers.net	202.12.27.33	WIDE Project

How to protect your brand name in the domain name world.

Your brand name is directly connected to your domain name, and any potential risk to your domain name would be a potential risk to your brand name as well. It has happened with companies where a past employee, the website developer, or the competitor was in dispute, and they attacked the business by taking control of their domain name.

To protect your brand, you will need to protect your domain name in the following ways:

• 1. Pay attention to the administrative details - When you do your domain name registration, you need to make sure you are listed as the registrant (legal owner), administrative contact (alteration rights), and technical contact (responsible for technical issues). If you control all of these, then no one can take control of your domain name.
• 2. Ensure communications with your domain name registrar - Protect your domain registrar account with a strong password. Provide them with your permanent email address and make sure that their emails don’t go to your spam folder.
• 3. Lock your domain transfer - Most domain registration platforms give you the option to lock your domain transfer so that it can’t be transferred, modified, or deleted without your permission. Take it!
• 4. Monitor expiration dates - If your domain expires and you do not renew it, it is vulnerable to be taken over by anyone else. Either pay for a longer period at once instead of short ones and set reminders for renewal before expiration. Many registrars come with the reminder feature as well that you can take.
• 5. Register your domain name as a trademark - You can register your domain name as a trademark or service mark if it represents your products or services. This may prevent any other party from using a similar domain name.
• 6. Implement extensible provisioning protocol - By implementing EPP, you set a particular code that needs to be provided to the registrar before domain transfer, adding an extra layer of security, and preventing any unapproved domain transfer.
• 7. Obtain similar domain names - You can obtain similar domain names and link them with each other so that there is no confusion in the future of someone else using a similar domain name. For instance, if your brand name is “Before You”, you can get both the domain names beforeyou.store and b4u.store. And link them in a way that they both lead to the same website. And you can also get similar top level domain names and link them with each other. For instance, you can get the domain names mybrand.store and mybrand.online.
• 8. Beware of spammers and hackers - Having said that, there is always a risk from hackers and cybercriminals who can do you harm on the internet. Be cautious when responding to emails, especially pretending to be your registrar, and use a good firewall and other cyber security features.

How Is a Domain Name Structured?

A complete domain name known as a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) is structured into three parts. It starts with the host or machine name (like “www” indicating world wide web), followed by the website name, and ends with the TLD or top level domain (like .website or .site). All three parts are separated by periods to form an FQDN like www.mywebsite.site.

We will be covering TLDs separately in detail below. Before that, let’s look at the other parts of the domain name structure.

Second-Level Domain (SLD)

The second level domain or SLD represents the actual website name without any extension or host name. From the above-mentioned example, your SLD would be mywebsite.

The SLD plays a major role because your audience will associate it directly with your brand name, and that is what will need to be stuck in their heads for them to visit your website in the future.

SLD can be anything and you can pick any SLD you want. But for the domain name availability, you will need to find a unique combination of the SLD and TLD that is currently not being used by anyone else and is available for you.

For instance, you might not get mywebsite.com but you might get mywebsite.site. So settle on the SLD first, because that needs to be your brand name or at least somehow relating to it, and then find a TLD that belongs to your niche and has your preferred SLD available.

With most domain registration platforms, you will have a domain name check option where you can find the domain name you require for your website.

Third Level Domain

The third level domain is the name the complete domain name starts with and in most cases, you will see that it's www or world wide web. However, for very large companies the third level domain is not always this and you might see third level domains like www1 or www2.

Subdomain

A domain that is located under another domain according to the DNS hierarchy, is a subdomain. By definition, SLD is a subdomain too, but it is just the TLD’s subdomain.

But when you talk about a subdomain, you are usually referring to the SLD’s subdomain, and in that way, it could be the third level domain as well. So, “www” is kind of a subdomain as well.

A subdomain is a part of the main domain, is easily changeable, and can be used to create a unique page for the site to drive traffic from there to the main site. Here are a few examples of subdomains:

• blog.mywebsite.site – where you can publish informative and relevant content for your audience
• support.mywebsite.site – this could be a separate landing page for your customer support
• store.mywebsite.site – this could be for the eCommerce aspect of your business

What Different Types of Domain Extensions (different types of TLDs) Are There?

Top Level Domains or TLDs

A Domain Extension is also known as top level domain or TLD and you would see it as the suffix of your website URL. The most common ones that you must have heard would be .com, .org, .net, and so on. Initially, these TLDs used to suffice but with the growth in the number of websites on the web, the demand for unique domain names increased too, and so did the need for newer TLDs.

The TLDs are divided into different kinds as well:

• Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) - ccTLDs are domain extensions that are specific to a particular country, and you can use them if you want to market to a particular country or location. A few examples of ccTLDs are .us for the USA, .uk for the UK, .ca for Canada, .in for India, .au for Australia, .sg for Singapore, .nz for New Zealand, .ie for Ireland, and many more. You might have to get different kinds of TLDs if you are targeting a more global audience. For instance, .us for your home audience, and .com for your global audience.
• Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) - gTLDs are the kind of domain extensions that you would normally use and have also been seeing mostly. .com, .net, are the most common types of gTLDs. There are also specific types of gTLDs like .biz for business, .info for information, .org for organization, .gov for government, .edu for education, .blog for blogs, and so on.

Now, these had been working really well too, but with the huge number of websites out there, the availability of unique domain names with these TLDs has considerably decreased as well. If you want to purchase domain names that are unique and of your choice, here is a top level domain list that you can pick from:

• .Store
• .Online
• .Tech
• .Site
• .Fun
• .Uno
• .Website
• .Space
• .Press

Apart from being new and unique, these TLDs are highly niche-specific and you can use the one that suits your brand the best. For instance, if you have an eCommerce store you could pick .store, for a tech startup you could pick .tech, for a media and press brand you could go with .press, and so on.

How Much Does a Domain Name Cost?

There are a lot of factors that influence the cost of a domain name. But before we get into those, let’s understand that every domain registrar has its own pricing structure as well, which includes standard pricing, renewal fee, packages, and accessorial fees. Roughly, domain purchase costs $10-15 per year.

Sometimes, there are hidden fees involved that you find out later and you end up paying four times the original amount. In most cases, it is the domain transfer charge that registrars usually charge to prevent their customers from leaving.

In some other cases, registrars fraudulently offer a discounted price for a longer period of time but don’t actually pay for that period and keep the extra money for themselves. When you learn about it later, they say that they have a no refund policy and put you in a bad position.

You need to beware of such scams happening if you want to pay the right amount for your domain purchase. There are also such third party platforms that can help you with keeping a check if you’re getting whatever you pay for.

Now let’s look at the factors that influence the domain pricing so much that they can cost you in single-digit dollars or in millions of dollars as well.

• Availability - The first and foremost factor is the availability of the domain name you need. If it’s already taken by someone else and only that person can sell it to you then obviously the price will be higher. Many people deliberately buy potential domain names so that they can sell them at a higher price later. But if it’s easily available, it can be rather economical.
• Keywords - Since the whole world of the web is impacted by keywords, and that’s how search engines work too, they play a major role in deciding your domain price. For instance, www.lasvegas.com had sold for $90 million. Las Vegas has a huge search volume, and people who keep visiting the place, also keep using the keyword for search places to stay, rental cars, and other touristy things, etc.
• Domain extension - Domain extensions or TLDs can also impact the domain price because some TLDs have been so much in use that their availability is minimal, and hence the prices are high. For instance, almost half of all the domains on the whole web is .com, and so the price for it is quite high too. Even other common domain extensions like .net, .info, or .biz are pretty pricey too. If you want a unique domain name for your website without having to pay a huge price, the best way is to go for newer and lesser used yet niche specific domain extensions. Here is a top level domain list for such extensions:
  • .Store
  • .Online
  • .Tech
  • .Site
  • .Fun
  • .Uno
  • .Website
  • .Space
  • .Press

Extra Costs

Lastly, you need to keep in mind the additional costs that come with owning a domain name. Most people just look at the one-time fee and forget about the renewal costs, and that comes as a surprise later.

Every domain name has a validity period and needs to be renewed every year unless you have paid for a longer period at once. But whenever that period ends, you will still need to pay for the renewal.

Besides the renewal cost, there are also addons like privacy protection that can help you secure your business or personal details for an additional charge. Even though these don’t charge you a huge amount, you will still need to consider them to estimate your domain price.

What will you need to pay?

From the above-mentioned factors, you must have understood there is no fixed domain price and it can cost you anywhere from tens to millions of dollars. If you are a little flexible about your domain choice and are not after a specific aftermarket domain, you should be able to find something within a minimum budget. Moreover, if you go for newer and niche-specific TLDs as we mentioned above, you should be able to get an even better deal.

Can you own multiple domain names?

Not only can you own multiple domain names but you should own multiple domain names. Owning multiple domains can play a major role in various areas like marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), brand, legal reasons, and so on. Let’s understand why it’s important to own multiple domain names for any business:

• Misspellings and typos - More often than you expect, users type in the wrong text or just don’t know the correct spelling of a particular website they want to visit. What happens then is that they land somewhere else and the traffic that was supposed to come your way is driven away. For instance, Google owns “googel.com”, “gooogle.com”, “googl.com”, and “gogle.com”, and if you type any of these, you will still land on the official Google website. You can just buy domain names with similar spellings and link them with their original domain name, so whenever someone types them, they are redirected directly to your official website.
• Brand poachers - In many cases, new businesses and sometimes even established ones, deliberately buy domain names that are very similar to yours, for unethical driving of traffic to their website. Sometimes this is genuine as a new business might have named their business which is similar to yours, but even in that case, it’s not fair to you. After years of building a brand and business, if someone else reaps the benefits just because their name is similar to yours, it’s not good for business. You should just buy similar domain names in the very beginning to avoid such situations later.
• Creative campaign - Multiple domain names can come in handy when you have to launch creative campaigns and promotions. For instance, let’s say that your company domain is mybrand.online and you are coming up with a really fun campaign to tap and engage with a newer and younger target audience with it. Now you could create a landing page called mybrand.online/funcampaign but it would be too long and difficult to promote. Instead, you could just get a new domain name called mybrand.fun, and this would be your landing page for the exciting new campaign.
• Different lines of business - Sometimes a business might have different product lines, and for each one, you will need a website or a landing page. Now you could get various subdomains under the main company domain, but that might not always be the best idea. For instance, your original website is called mybrand.online, and now you are planning to launch two different product lines of tech products and fun gaming products. Won’t it be better if you get separate domain names like mybrand.tech and mybrand.fun respectively, instead of complicated subdomains like, mybrand.online/techproducts and mybrand.online/fungames?
• Marketing and promotions - Sometimes a company name is too long and complicated, which makes it difficult for marketing and promotional purposes. It’s not advisable to promote such domain names through email marketing, and it doesn’t work best for your word-of-mouth marketing either. The best idea would have been to have a shorter and simpler domain name in the first place, but what if the company name is already complicated, and what if you got this domain name five years ago? You already have an established audience and you don’t want to lose them by changing the domain name completely. So the best option is to get a shorter and simpler version, use it for marketing purposes, and link it to the original website.

Categories of domain extensions.

As we mentioned earlier, a domain extension is a top level domain or TLD, that comes as the suffix of the website name. For instance, the most common one is .com, and apart from that, a few other common ones are .org, .net, and many more.

With the growth in the number of websites in the past decades, the demand for these extensions also kept increasing, and the number of domain extensions today has crossed 1500, from just a handful back in the day.

Domain extensions are mainly divided into two broad categories:

• ccTLDs (Country Code Top Level Domains) - These are those domain extensions that are specifically created for a particular country like .us for the USA, .uk for the United Kingdom, .ca for Canada, and so on. And you are allowed to use this domain only if you are based in that country, your website caters to the audience in that country, or your website is connected to that country in some way or the other.
• gTLDs (Generic Top Level Domains) - These domain extensions are generic in nature but are further subdivided into 3 categories:
  • Unrestricted domain extensions - This is the most common type of domain extension you see on the web, like .com, .net, .site, etc. There is no restriction whatsoever on their usage and you can freely do the domain registration for your website with any of these domain names. However, since the most common ones have been overcrowded in all these years, here is a top level domain list of newer domain extensions that can do wonders for your website:
    • .Store
    • .Online
    • .Tech
    • .Site
    • .Fun
    • .Uno
    • .Website
    • .Space
    • .Press
  • Restricted domain extensions - These domain extensions are restricted to be used by specific organizations to fulfill a specific purpose. For instance, only Government organizations can use the extension .gov, only educational institutes can use .edu, military organizations can use .mil, and so on.
  • City level gTLDs - ccTLDs are specifically created for countries. However, there are other location-based gTLDs that are not for a whole country but for specific cities across the globe. For instance, if your business is based in New York City, or you want to create a separate website to cater to the people living in New York even if your business is in London, you can use the extension .nyc. Other similar domain extensions are .tokyo, .london, .berlin, and so on.

What are the top 10 domains?

If you come to look at it objectively, anyone would think that .com is the top domain. And why wouldn’t it be? With half the websites in the world under its domain, it is the king of domains. Besides that, there are other really famous domains like .net and .org as well.

However, just because they have covered a major portion of the market share, getting the advantage of being the oldest players, is it really fair to call them top domains today? Before we tell you what the top 10 domains according to us would be for you, you need to know why famous domains like .com are not the best choice. Here’s why:

• Oversaturation - The biggest con of a common domain extension, especially .com, is that almost all names are taken. Not just that, but even the typos and misspellings of those names are taken. It’s highly unlikely that you will find the domain name of your choice due to the oversaturation and you might have to look for various alternatives until you find one and like it.
• Expensive - The oldest rule of economics is that anything that has more demand will have a high price, and the same applies here. Since most domain names under common domain extensions are taken, they pose high demand and hence can get expensive. Sometimes, people have bought these just for the sake of selling them at a good profit later, and that would again mean expensive.
• Highly generic - Common domain extensions like .com and .net say nothing about your website or what it’s about. They’re so generic that your website might get lost in the crowd. But that is not the case with some of the great new TLDs, which we will talk about below.

Here are the top 10 domains that could give your website a unique identity, and authenticity, and that too at a budget:

• .STORE - .Store Domains break away from the clutter on the Internet because they are modern and contextual, and help you enrich your online retail presence. If the primary goal of your website is to sell, nothing says it better than a .store. Whether on a search engine listing or a print ad, users know that a .store is a place to buy from.
• .ONLINE - .Online is one of the most popular new domain extensions in the world with almost 2 million domain registrations under itself. The word “online” is understood in more than 24 languages in the world, and this gives it a great global presence and a universal image. If you are an online business, this domain extension would go really well with that and suggest the same to your audience. It would give you SEO advantages as well, as people normally search the word “online”, when they are looking for something to buy on the web. For instance, a user could search “buy men’s shoes online”, and if you are an online shoe business with a website under .online, the chances of your website showing would increase.
• .TECH - A .tech domain gives you the opportunity to get a web address that truly showcases your tech brand and highlights what you love about the tech space. It is for anyone who is passionate about or works in the tech space and it empowers them to build a brand that truly represents their business, their interests, and everything 'tech-y' they stand for. If you’re looking to name your tech site, product, blog, startup, or event, or simply find a name for your personal or professional tech brand, you should get a .TECH domain name.
• .SITE - .Site is short for website, and it gives you a simple domain name to share your website with the world. With more than 1 million domain name registrations across the globe, it shows how trusted it is. If you want a generic domain extension but can’t find the website name of your choice on .com or .net, you can get it on .site.
• .FUN - .Fun is a web address for individuals or organizations who wish to entertain the target audience or engage them in a fun way. A .FUN extension creates a brand image that is seen as young, vibrant, and flexible - apt for an entertainer. If your brand is about media, tourism, events, gaming, blogging, or content, this .fun could be a creative and unique domain extension for you.
• .UNO - .Uno is a short, versatile domain extension that is globally recognized to mean 'number one'. With its universal applicability and large availability of names, there’s a .UNO domain name for everyone, everywhere. It could work well for individuals, blogs, startups, or even enterprises.
• .WEBSITE - .Website is one of the first truly generic domain extensions suitable for a wide variety of websites for companies and individuals alike. You might not find the domain name of your choice with a common domain extension like .com or .net, but it’s highly likely that you will with .website. It offers first choice, good quality names and helps you establish a unique and memorable identity online.
• .SPACE - .Space could be your clean slate. A new beginning, a bright new canvas, a crisp new notepad, a sanctuary of creativity, a stroke of inspiration, and all it needs is your imagination. If you are passionate about what you do and are any of the below-mentioned professionals, then .space is the perfect domain choice for your online presence:
  • Visionary

  • Freelancers

  • Inspiring

  • Writers

  • Futuristic

  • Designers

  • Free-spirited

  • Artists

  • Passionate

  • Bloggers

  • Contemporary

  • Photographers

  • Swanky Art

  • Galleries

  • Welcoming

  • Co-working

  • Spaces

  • Innovative

  • Entrepreneurs

  • Bold

  • Start-ups
• .PRESS - .Press domains were launched with the objective of creating a differentiated namespace for journalists on the web. With the growth of digital journalism, it has become extremely critical for journalists to create strong web identities and .PRESS Domains help them build these identities. Doesn’t matter if you are a journalist, writer, publisher, photographer, or any other individual of the journalism and news media community, or have a press association. .Press domains can help you power your online presence with a relevant domain name; leveraging the credibility that the word PRESS evokes.
• .HOST - Besides giving your website a higher chance of popping up on search engines, this domain strengthens the credibility of your website and conveys your single-minded dedication to your services. If you want to provide hosting services to your customers, why have a website called websitename.com or websitename.net, when you can have wesitename.host?

What are restricted domain names?

Restricted domain names are those that are not allowed to be used by any and every individual, business, or other organizations. These domain names are there to denote a specific purpose or geographic location.

Whoever satisfies the particular prerequisites of such restricted domain names, can use them. Most ccTLDs come under the restricted category.

For instance, you can’t buy and use the TLD .us if you are not based in the US. You will need to have a valid address, citizenship, or in some way be affiliated to the US if you want to use that domain extension. Similarly, you can’t use .nyc if you are not based in New York city.

Same applies to TLDs like .uk, .au, .in, and so on. Apart from ccTLDs, many gTLDs are also restricted for use by everyone.

For instance, you can’t use the domain extension .gov, if you do not belong to the government, and your website is not representing the government. Similarly, you can’t use .edu, unless your website is created for educational purposes, or .ngo unless your website represents a valid non-governmental organization.

Which TLDs can be registered without restriction?

Any TLD that is not created for a very specific purpose and does not represent a particular country or location can be registered without any restriction. For instance, you can use .com, .net, .site, and many such TLDs without any restriction.

There are many niche-specific domains like .tech, .fun, .store, etc. that represent a particular area but do not come with a mandate that you can’t use them for a website representing something else as well. However, to convey the right message to your audience, we recommend that you pick such TLDs to match your niche. For example, there’s no point in using .tech for a website that has nothing to do with technology.

How to choose a domain extension.

Many people think that domain extensions don’t matter as much as website names that represent the second level domains. However, that is not at all true. Let us tell you how you should choose a domain extension and why:

• Think relevance - A carefully picked domain extension can tell your potential audience what your website is about even before they open it. For instance, if your website is an eCommerce store, and your domain extension is .store, it will give you the advantage of relevance. Similarly, if you own a brand that is into journalism and media, you can go for the domain extension .press. A user who is searching for a media or journalism website on Google, and sees two results like mybrand.com and mybrand.press, would be likely to click on mybrand.press for obvious reasons. Not only will it help with the audience but this will also help with search engines as well, as they will understand the relevance and rank your website better in SERPs.
• Geographical advantage - If your business is restricted to a specific location you can consider getting ccTLDs. ccTLDs are country specific like .us for the USA, .uk for the United Kingdom, and so on. There are also city-specific TLDs like .nyc, .london, .tokyo, etc. You can get such domain extensions depending on where you are located and if you want to target the audience specifically located there. Firstly, it will give your audience a clear idea of where you are situated and it will also help in optimizing your website for local SEO. But if your business is global in nature, you can continue with a domain name like mybrand.store, and get a separate domain just for your New York store like mybrand.nyc to get advantages from both.
• Stand out from the crowd - A regular TLD like .com or .net makes you come across as very generic and you will get lost amidst the huge ocean of websites. There are so many businesses with similar brand names, and sometimes even the same name. Now if everyone keeps using the highly generic TLDs, people will not even be able to differentiate between your websites. .com alone covers more than 40% of the whole domain world. But domain extensions like .tech or .press will help you stand out from the crowd according to the nature of your website and you won’t have to worry about your SLD being similar to or being exactly the same as that of other websites. If you own a blog, buying a domain name with the .online extension will not only stand out but be more memorable than a generic .com, .co or .net. If you are looking for a blog name, we’d suggest you check our Blog Name Generator, which will also check for domain name availability on .online and other new top-level domain names.
• Substitute subdomain - Every brand or business needs different pages for various purposes like special campaigns, new launches, vendors, support, feedback, and so on. Instead of creating long URLs with subdomains every time, you can also use exclusive TLDs when they fit the bill. For instance, if you came up with a fun new challenge for your audience to boost your engagement, you could get the domain name mybrand.fun instead of on mybrand.store/newcampaign for its landing page.

The history of domains.

Published in 1967, ARPANET laid the foundation for the internet that we all use today, by introducing a concept for the network. The idea was first put into practice In 1969, with the interconnection of four computers, and kept growing over the years.

However, their concept was highly complex, and to simplify it, Domain Name System or DNS was introduced in 1983 and published by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It helped in transforming the internet into a more diverse, collaborative, and user-friendly environment.

The domain name industry has been constantly evolving and so many new gTLDs have been added to the existing gTLDs and ccTLDs. Without domain names, users would have had to enter long numeric IP addresses, and browsing the web would be a really difficult process.

Building the internet that we have today, has taken more than 4 decades, and a lot of research and technology agreements all around the globe. The domain name has been an inherent part of this technology and continues to contribute to its growth.

At present, there are over 1,500 domain extensions that people can choose from to buy domain online. But let us have a look at how we got here since the inception:

• 1969 – First message that was sent using the Arpanet network The United States Department of Defense had developed the first computer network, called ARPANET to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. And October 29, 1969, marks a very important day as on this day at 10:30 pm, the first message was sent using ARPANET, the precursor of the internet and the inception of domain name history.
• 1971 – Birth of email In 1971, Ray Tomlinson sent the first email, and he chose to separate the local part from the domain using the @ sign. He had sent the email to himself and the first email address ever was “tomlinson@bbntenexa".
• 1972 – Socket numbers registered Jon Postel recorded the socket numbers for the ARPANET in 1972, and this registry went on to become the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) in 1998 which is the essential numbering authority of the internet. He founded this organization and ran it for years allocating IP addresses globally.
• 1983 – The DNS name popped up The DNS or Domain Name System is the Internet’s essential naming system that gives the system its structure. Since using a single hostname registry was very hard to achieve, Paul Mockapetris created the DNS in November 1983 as a distributed directory service. And the first domains were used via the DNS in the ARPANET for the first time in history at this point.
• 1984 – Six TLDs available In October 1984, six TLDs or top level domains were made available: .com, .net, .org, .edu, .mil, and .gov. Domains were considered to be administrative entities, and the purpose and expected use of domains were to divide the name management so that the central administration can assign them to sub-administrations.
• 1985 – nordu.net The oldest domain name that is active today as well is nordu.net which was registered on January 1, 1985. NORDUnet is a research and education network established between Nordic countries and their domain registration was done with the aim of creating a root server. Nordu.net is the world's first domain registration and even today it serves as a home to NORDUnet’s corporate website.
• 1985 – The first ever .com domain registration On March 15, 1985, Symbolics Inc., a computer company based in Massachusetts, USA, registered the first ever .com domain, symbolics.com. In all these years, the ownership of that domain name kept changing hands, and currently, it is owned by an online museum about the internet and the world wide web. The first 10 domain registrations are mentioned below:
  • March 15, 1985 - symbolics.com
  • April 24, 1985 - bbn.com
  • May 24, 1985 - think.com
  • July 11, 1985 - mcc.com
  • September 30, 1985 - dec.com
  • November 7, 1985 - northrop.com
  • January 9, 1986 - xerox.com
  • January 17, 1986 - sri.com
  • March 3, 1986 - hp.com
  • March 5, 1986 - bellcore.com
  .com domains became the most registered domain extension or TLD in the whole world.
• 1986 – Domain name registration went public Only the organizations that had access to the ARPA network allowed domain registration Before February 24, 1986. But at this point came a turning point in the world of the internet where everyone was entitled to domain name registrations.
• 1988 – .int was created NATO wanted a specific domain name to represent international organizations, and based on that request, .int was created in November 1988. Since its inception, the .int domain was being managed by the Southern California / Information Science Institute (USC/ISI) for the secure and stable administration of the domains, but ICANN took over it later.
• 1993 – InterNIC was created with the purpose of organizing the Internet In 1993, The National Science Foundation (NSF) created the Network Information Center, which came to be known as InterNIC. It was partly a governmental body and aimed to organize and support DNS records and X.500 directory services. It was created because the exponential growth of the internet was required to be accommodated by a new organization, but later it was merged with ICANN in 1998.
• 1994 – Whitehouse.gov launched During the Clinton Administration, whitehouse.gov, the official domain of the White House, launched as the domain of its official website in October 1994, which was owned by the United States government. The public has complete access to the content of the White House website and the purpose of their website is to provide information about the ongoing operations of the President during his presidency. Besides that, Whitehouse.gov also contains information about the President, Vice President, their families, proclamations, press releases, executive orders, and also a transcript of speeches given by White House officials.
• 1995 – Domain name registration had to be done at a price Domain registration was free for everyone before September 1995. But when the number of commercial domain name registrations was rising considerably, NSF allowed Network Solutions Inc (NSI) to charge $50 as the annual fee for domain registration. In September 1995 itself, the idea of two-year domain name registration was also floated for $100.
• 1996 – DENIC eG was founded In 1996, a non-regulated and not-for-profit organization was founded, called DENIC eG for providing DNS name, registration, and management services for the German ccTLD, .de.
• 1996 – google.com was born The world’s most famous search engine, Google registered its domain name google.com on September 15, 1996. They just wanted to complete the domain purchase at this point and launched the website later on September 27, 1998. And we all know that today it is the most viewed website and the biggest search engine of the world.
• 1997 – Saturation of three-letter .com domain names By 1997, all possible permutations and combinations of .com domain names with three alphabets had been exhausted. Meaning a total of 3,276 three-letter domain name registrations had been completed.
• 1998 – Privatization of DNS In 1998, President Clinton had urged the US Department of Commerce to issue a proposal for the privatization of the DNS domain. They did so with two main goals, to increase the overall competition in the market and to encourage better global participation. On July 30, 1998, a document, called the Green Paper, was created for transferring its management to a private non-profit organization.
• 1998 – ICANN was founded The process of privatization was not smooth and received a lot of criticism from the internet community as well. To resolve the issue, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) drafted another document, called the White Paper, on September 18, 1998. This modified version of the previous document led to the creation of what we all know as ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. And while ICANN's creation was publicly announced on September 18, 1998, it was incorporated in California a few days later on September 30, 1998.
• 1998 – InterNetX was founded InterNetX, an internet service provider, was founded in Regensburg, Germany, in 1998. In the current day, it manages almost 4 million domains and offers over a thousand TLDs. It is a registry of domain extensions like .ltda and .srl and is an accredited ICANN registrar.
• 1999 – Launch of Sedo In 1999, Sedo was founded with headquarters in Cologne (Germany) and Boston (USA). At present, it is the largest domain distribution network with almost 20 million on sale domain names and five million parked domain names catering to 2 million customers.
• 2000 – Seven new gTLDs After a call for proposals on August 15, 2000, and a short period of public consultation, on November 16, ICANN announced the launch of seven new generic TLDs. Here’s that top level domain list:
  • .aero
  • .biz
  • .coop
  • .info
  • .museum
  • .name
  • .pro
• 2003 – Truth in Domain Names Act The Truth in Domain Names Act was passed in 2003, and along with the PROTECT Act, it served as the first legislative act for punishing those who fraudulently registered domain names that would lure visitors to pornographic sites without their consent.
• 2004 – More new gTLDs Between 2003 and 2004, a number of sponsored gTLDs were added by ICANN to the DNS domains like .asia, .cat, .jobs, .mobi, .tel, .travel.
• 2008 – A new Applicant Guidebook was created for the new gTLDs In 2008, ICANN started developing a guide for the application of new gTLDs which underwent several updates in the following years and serves as an important guide for the purpose now.
• 2012 – New call for new gTLDs On November 26, 2012, seven gTLDs entered the Sunrise Phase, and here’s that top level domain list:
  • .bike
  • .clothing
  • .guru
  • .holdings
  • .plumbing
  • .single
  • .ventures
• 2012 – Almost 15,000 domain names were registered in 24 hours April 2012 is a memorable month in the world of domains, as Mike Mann, a domain name speculator, successfully executed 15,000 domain name registrations in just a span of 24 hours.
• 2013 – .com domain saturation with four letters December 2013 marked the exhaustion of every possible combination of four-letter domain names under the TLD .com, meaning that a total of 456,976 .com combinations of domain registrations were made. But it should be noted that the letters considered here were only Latin alphabets.
• 2013 – More than 100 new gTLDs After years of intensive planning, the new gTLD program came into play adding more than 100 new gTLDs over and above the already existing TLDs to increase the opportunities for new domain name registrations. Along with this new gTLD program came the responsibilities like registrar relationship management, domain registry operations, and demonstration of technical and financial capacities for such operations. In total, there were over 1,000 new gTLDs to pick from for domain registration at this point.
• 2019 – The biggest cash sale of a domain As per DNJournal’s report, 2019 marked the biggest cash sale of a domain name. The domain that was sold was voice.com for 30 million US dollars and was purchased by a blockchain company that was launching its new social media platform, called “Voice”.
• 2020 – Dealing with the pandemic to keep the DNS domain safe The outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic created chaos and all the important bodies and organizations like ICANN, registries, registrars, internet engineers, and security experts signed the COVID-19 Cyber Threat Coalition. This was done to mitigate the possibility of domain names being misused to take undue advantage of the pandemic.
• Ongoing The domain industry is futuristic and forever evolving, and new developments keep taking place. For instance, new gTLDs are expected to be launched in the near future, and sophisticated technologies like the blockchain are going to play an influential role in the way DNS functions.