Top-Level Domain – What is it?
I was thinking the other day that when I started fiddling around with domain names I was completely mystified by some of the terms I came across when doing random domain searches. One of these terms was Top-Level Domain. After thinking and digging and asking questions here is my take on what this term means. I would really like to have your opinion on this. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.
The term top-level domain, also known as (TLD) refers to the highest level of the domain name in a web site’s address. This may be a little confusing as we are taught to read from left to right. When it comes to domain names and their address they are read from right to left, starting with the top-level domain name.
You may most recognize the top-level domain name as .com. This is the part of the domain that is followed by the last dot in the web address. This can also be .net .gov .org and so on.
It is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that is responsible for making sure that the top-level domain gets assigned to responsible organizations capable of maintaining DNS top-level domains (also known as root zones). It is also important to note that ICANN operates Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) as well.
The groups of top-level domains consist of country-code top-level domains and generic top-level domains.
Country Top-level Domains
The Country code top-level domain (ccTLD), are assigned the domain name system by a 2 letter country codes. For example: .uk for United Kingdom, .us for the United States, .sg for Singapore and so on. There are literally hundreds of country coded top-level domains.
Category Top-level Domains
The Categories group is known as the generic top-level domain. These are your .gov, .edu, .com and so on.
So, a general definition of top-level domain name is that it is at the end of the domain name – the portion following the last dot in the address.
