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You may have heard of the term top-level domain, often referred to as TLD, when talking about domain registration. The top-level domain is the .com or other extension that follows your individual domain. They fall into two categories – generic TLDs and country-specific TLDs. Currently there are just over 20 generic top-level domains (the most notable being .com, .net, .org, .gov, .edu, .biz) plus top-level domains for most countries.

What’s in a Domain Name?

A domain is broken into several parts, but it can be simplified to a great degree. Historically when talking about a website, you’d specify www.domain.com when telling someone your web address. However, with most web browsers are now improved to the point where if you simply type “domain.com” the website will resolve without a problem. Everything to the left of the TLD in a domain name is technically a subdomain. The “domain” in www.domain.com is a subdomain of the .com TLD, and the “www” is a subdomain of domain.com.

The domain name system in general can be a little confusing, but it’s much better than having to type in the IP address that the domain name represents. You’d end up typing 216.34.94.184 into your address bar to get to Domain.com without the domain name system. If you’re curious about more domain name system details, the Wikipedia page is a good place to start.

About Those TLDS…

TLDs are one of the primary measures used to structure the internet. ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is the entity that coordinates domains and IP adresses for the internet. This includes managing the creation of TLDs. Each TLD is operated by a registry, and that registry pays fees to ICANN to be able to operate the TLD. Domain Registrars such as Domain.com then pay registries to register domains for end users.

ICANN has historically been very strict about allowing the creation of new TLDs. To this point, new generic TLDs have been rare, with .tel being the newest. Each registry for specific countries controls the use of their country specific TLD. Originally, the country TLDs were intended to help divide the internet geographically, but .com has become the dominant worldwide TLD instead. Some country TLDs are still fairly restricted, while others have been opened to be registered by all. For instance, to register a .ca domain, you have to live in Canada, but .me (Montenegro’s TLD) is open to everyone, and is generally presented as a good TLD to use for a personal website.

The king of TLDs continues to be .com, and part of the shortcomings of the country TLDs was that they were introduced after the .com standard already existed. The intended use of .com for commercial purposes has never been fully followed. Instead, businesses, individuals, and nearly everyone else choose a .com address. The result has been that .net has become a backup if the .com you want to register is taken, while .org is generally used by most non-profits. However, country codes have somewhat fallen by the wayside, particularly in the US. This is beginning to change with new TLDs for specific purposes, such as .me for personal websites, and .tel for contact information.

See a full list of existing TLDs

The Future of the TLD

The stage is set for a dramatic change in TLDs in 2010. ICANN has decided to allow the creation of numerous new generic TLDs as well as TLDs to companies for specific trademarks. The details of the new TLDs and how many new TLDs there will be are still somewhat unclear, but ICANN has indicated that registry creation for new TLDs will be opened for many more generic TLDs than currently exist. Many have suggested that new registries for TLDs such as .blog, .food, and others will spring up. Businesses will also be able to become their own registry as well, resulting in closed registries such as .apple or .nike.

The ongoing debate about this issue is the intent behind creating new TLDs. ICANN is looking at the issue from the perspective that the good .com domains are all taken and they want to reorganize the internet based upon TLDs having more meaning to the domain. From a business standpoint, the new TLDs will allow businesses to fight cyberquatting more effectively. Opponents to the new TLD plan generally argue that ICANN is simply looking for more funding and the changes won’t effectively make the needed changes to the domain name system.

Regardless of the ongoing debate, it appears that new TLDs are definitely coming. When they’re available, be sure to check out Domain.com for more details. Tell us your thoughts on the new TLDs in the comments or vote in our new TLD poll.

Find domains at Domain.com:

.COM | .ORG | .NET | .ME | .TEL | .US | .TV | OTHERS

The importance of having a presence online continues to increase, but how to establish and maintain that presence is changing rapidly. New social networks are popping up all over the internet, and being active on the major social networks online is an important way to make sure you can be found, whether you’re an online business, a blogger, a job hunter, or just an involved web user. However, many people are missing out on the fundamentals of having a robust presence online. Here are some important tips to consider:

Joe Smith? You’re Not Alone

Unless you’re lucky enough to have a completely unique name or organization name, you’ve got competition online whether you know it or not. If you’re a “Joe Smith” or other common name, there are many other Joe Smiths out there that also want to be found online, and they compete with you as far as search engine rankings and on social networks using the same name. There’s also a good chance that at least one of them is semi-famous. How do you make yourself stand out from the crowd? Read on.

A Domain is Still Home Base

The newest social network might be getting all the buzz and attention from media and blogs, but the best method of establishing an online presence is still owning your own domain. Buy yourself your domain name – if www.yourname.com is available, snap it up! If the .COM isn’t available, you’ve got many other solid choices such as .NET, .ORG, or .ME.

What to do with your Domain

Owning your personal domain name is a big step towards being visible online. However, the driving force behind being found online is content. If you have a domain name but it isn’t associated with a website, you won’t get very far. Search engines and social networks alike both value new and fresh content and quality links to that content. A static website is a good start, but depending on your needs a blog can be a better choice. WordPress is the most popular blogging platform available, and you can install it on your own hosting for free! We actually offer an automatic installation of WordPress from our application vault for hosting customers – making it even easier for you to get started. WordPress is great for everyone from beginners to power-users, because it doesn’t require coding or html knowledge, and it has a great intuitive user-interface. WordPress is such a versitile platform, it even powers this blog:

With the growing number of social networks and websites that you can choose to have a presence on, it can be important to have a home-base to link back to. Think of it like the backbone of your online nervous system.

Expanding Outward to Draw Others in

With the proliferation of social networks has come the ability to be in many places at once online. The downside there is that only being in one place online is becoming increasingly ineffective. Creating a profile on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn is a great start. These are some of the biggest social networks, and they’re all great for connecting, sharing information and content and being visible online. There’s more to each of these networks than could be explained in one blog post, but they’re all very intuitive, and the best way to learn them is to dive right in and set up a profile.

If you’re already on the major social networks, consider some others that may be relevant to your interests:

• Flickr – A social network for sharing photos
• Dopplr – Share your travels online
• Yelp – Food buff? Review your favorite restaurants
• Youtube or Vimeo – Share your videos

Search is still what drives a vast majority of online traffic, so page 1 search rankings for the major search engines are key to getting noticed. If you’ve got a common name, this can be difficult. This is where having your own domain comes in. Having www.yourname.com or similar, among other factors, will help you rank high in search engines. Those social networks can also be a great way to rank well for your name. Having twitter.com/yourname ranks well organically and you just might see your Twitter account jump up the search rankings. If you’ve got a rare name, we challenge you to dominate the search rankings for your name!

If all else fails, Google has extended you a great olive branch with Google Public Profiles. You can create a basic profile in Google that will automatically show up at the bottom of page 1 search results for your name.

End Result: Own Your Brand Online

The internet has undergone a huge mentality shift since the early 2000s. In the early days of the internet, privacy was the norm. Unless you were creating an online business, many people preferred to be anonymous and hidden from the public eye. Now with the growth of the social web, being visible online can be important for a variety of reasons. Job hunting, connecting with friends, sharing media, scheduling events, participating in organizations, and creating new connections can all be aided by being present and active online. If you’re new to social networking online, take your time to learn what you’re doing rather than diving in head first, but now is most certainly the time to get your feet wet.

So what are you waiting for? Find a domain and start connecting!