Re: The Problem With Keeping It Plain And Simple?

[Lou Quillio <public -at- quillio -dot- com>]

Char James-Tanny wrote:
> They're called "domain suffixes" and indicate the category (for
> example, .com) or the country (for example, .au for Australia), or
> both.
> 
> .ca is Canada.

In fact they're called "top-level domains".  In the following

  www.example.com

... `com` isn't modifying `example` (as "suffix" would imply),
rather the reverse, hence "top-level".

`example` would be termed the "second-level" domain.  `www` is a
"subdomain", and there might be more subdomains beneath it.  The
IANA domain naming convention is a right-to-left affair.  If you
seek to register and use `example.com`, the first question to answer
is whether `example` is available within `com`.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-level_domain

Some call subdomains "third-level" domains, but that's a colloquial
extension of the metaphor.  We really don't know that the registrant
of `example.com` preserves a hierarchy:  it's a private affair at
that point.  Also, domain registrants are not obliged to use a `www`
subdomain for Web content.  Personally, I always alias `www` to the
null subdomain, though I might create other subdomains for special
purposes.

For example, at the STC Member Forum we direct Apache to rewrite
anything like `www.stcforum.org` to `stcforum.org`, so that things
work with or without the `www`.  But we use `dev.stcforum.org` for a
functionally separate site.

Certain Internet TLDs are _intended_ for certain purposes, but
enforcement is uneven.  You can get a `.org` registration without
proving you're a not-for-profit.  Country-code TLDs (ccTLDs) come
with varying restrictions.  For instance, the Canadian Internet
Registration Authority insists that `.ca` domain name registrants be
somehow Canadian -- though it's not clear how CIRA's authority takes
the force of law.  They just claim it, I guess.

  http://www.cira.ca/en/faq-menu-cpr.html
  http://www.airbagindustries.com/archives/005885.php

The only way to tie California to an Internet domain name is via the
second-level domain of the `.us` TLD, as in:

  example.ca.us

While nearly any entity residing or doing business within the U.S.
(including individuals) may register a `.us` domain name, the
two-letter state abbreviations are reserved second-level domains
within `.us`, and are controlled by the states.

Other TLDs impose no restrictions, and there's lots of room for
cleverness with TLDs.  For example, this ostensibly Italian domain
name is registered to a French address:

  http://forgetabout.it/

The poor Pacific island nation of Tuvalu makes money selling
registrations within its `.tv` TLD to westerners.

If you're in the U.S., you can do things like this

  http://del.icio.us/

Such tricks are usually called "domain hacks":

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_hack

LQ
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