Rolling Out the Web Domains
Wednesday, October 12, 2005 at 3:15 AMScanning my old ACM Technews articles, I came across a mid-September item on the approval of a new World Wide Web domain, .cat (sites that promote the Catalan language and culture). A decision on whether or not to approve the controversial .xxx domain was deferred, as was the case for the .asia domain.
If you'd ask me, I'd prefer to just have a site under either .com or .net domains, and maybe .ph. As if I can afford it. Anyway, most people love to have choices, and ICANN, the 'big brother' of Internet addressing, has got a lot of those to offer.
Presently, there are over 260 domain names, a number that's going to balloon as people find more and more 'genres' to chop up the Internet into. Most familiar of these are the 'generic' domains -- .com (commerce), .edu (educational institutions), .org (organizations), .net (network providers), .gov (US Federal Gov't). Other generic domains include .int (international entities), .mil (US military), .biz (businesses), .info (information), .mobi (mobile services), and .name (you guessed it right -- people's names). Throw in the country domains (.ph, .us, .ch) and you've got a veritable domain paradise.
Of course, there are no draconian rules on who's allowed to get this and that domain. Except of course for the .gov and .mil domains, everything else might be considered fair game. Chances are you've visited a personal site (yes, cheesy stories on high school crushes and all) under a .com domain, or a business enterprise under a .org guise.
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