Table 165: Internet DNS Organizational (Generic) Top-Level Domains
Generic
TLD
|
Abbreviation
For
|
Authority
|
Current
Use / Description
|
.AERO
|
Aerospace
|
Société
Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques (SITA)
|
Members of the
aerospace industry, such as airlines and airports. (Yes, that is
French!)
|
.ARPA
|
Address
and Routing Parameter Area
|
Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) / Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN)
|
First
defined as a temporary domain for migration from the older host table
system, the ARPA of course originally stood for the Advanced
Research Projects Agency, creators of the predecessors of the Internet.
Today, the .ARPA domain is used for internal Internet management purposes;
the abbreviation at left was, I believe, manufactured to
fit the letters ARPA. J
The best-known use of this domain is for reverse
DNS lookups.
|
.BIZ
|
Business
|
NeuLevel, Inc.
|
Businesses.
Intended as a competitor to .COM.
|
.COM
|
Commercial
Organizations
|
VeriSign
Global Registry Services
|
Originally
intended for corporations and other commercial interests, .COM is also
widely used for other purposes, including small businesses and even
individuals who like the popularity of the .COM domain.
|
.COOP
|
Cooperative
Associations
|
Dot Cooperation
LLC
|
Cooperative
associations.
|
.EDU
|
Education
|
Educause
|
Originally
intended for all types of educational organizations, now used only for
degree-granting higher education institutions accredited in the United
States. Other educational institutions such as public schools usually
use the country code TLDs.
|
.GOV
|
Government
|
US General Services
Administration
|
Reserved for
the United States federal government.
|
.INFO
|
Information
|
Afilias
Limited
|
A
very generic TLD designed for information resources of various sorts.
It is unrestricted, in that anyone can register any sort of organization
in .INFO. Also positioned as an alternative to .COM.
|
.INT
|
International
|
IANA .int Domain
Registry
|
Used only for
large organizations established by international treaty.
|
.MIL
|
Military
|
US
DoD Network Information Center
|
Reserved
for the United States military.
|
.MUSEUM
|
Museum
|
Museum Domain
Management Association
|
Take a guess.
J
|
.NAME
|
Names
|
Global
Name Registry
|
In
the original generic hierarchy there was no place set aside for individuals
to register names for themselves, so people would instead create domains
like jonesfamily.org. This was non-ideal so .NAME was created
as a place for individuals and families to register a domain for their
names. .NAME also competes with the country code TLDs.
|
.NET
|
Network
|
VeriSign Global
Registry Services
|
This TLD was
supposed to be used only for Internet service providers and other organizations
working intimately with the Internet or networking. Due to the exhaustion
of name space in .COM and .ORG, many .NET domains are registered to
other organizations, however.
|
.ORG
|
Organizations
|
Public
Interest Registry
|
Originally
intended for organizations not fitting into the other generic TLDs,
.ORG quickly became associated with professional and non-profit organizations.
It is possible, however, to have a for-profit company use a .ORG name.
|
.PRO
|
Professional
|
RegistryPro
|
Reserved for
credentialed professionals such as lawyers and doctors.
|