A domain hack is an unconventional domain name that combines domain labels, especially the top-level domain (TLD), to spell out the full "name" or title of the domain, making a kind of pun. The term domain name has multiple related meanings: A name that identifies a computer or computers on the internet. ... “TLD” redirects here. ... A pun (also known as paronomasia) is a figure of speech, or word play which consists of a deliberate confusion of similar words within a phrase or phrases for rhetorical effect, whether humorous or serious. ...

For example the second-level domain (SLD) blo.gs makes use of the TLD .gs (South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands) to spell "blogs" and chronolo.gy makes use of the TLD .gy (Guyana) to spell "chronology". In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a second-level domain is a domain that is directly below a top-level domain (TLD). ... blo. ... “TLD” redirects here. ... . ... Motto Leo Terram Propriam Protegat(Latin) Let the Lion protect his own land or May the Lion protect his own land Anthem God Save the Queen Capital Grytviken (King Edward Point) Official languages English Government British overseas territory  -  Head of State Queen Elizabeth II  -  Commissioner Alan Huckle Area  -  Total 3... For the novel by Michael Crichton, see Timeline (novel). ... “TLD” redirects here. ... .gy is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Guyana. ...

The third-level domains del.icio.us and cr.yp.to make use of the SLDs icio.us and yp.to from the TLDs .us (United States) and .to (Tonga) to spell "delicious" and "crypto" respectively. In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain. ... The website del. ... Daniel Julius Bernstein (sometimes known simply as djb; born October 29, 1971) is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a mathematician, a cryptologist, and a programmer. ... In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a second-level domain is a domain that is directly below a top-level domain (TLD). ... .US is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United States of America, established in 1985. ... .to is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) of the island kingdom of Tonga. ...

In this context, the "hack" represents a clever trick (as in programming), not an exploit or break-in (as in security). Look up hack, hacking in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Computer programming (often shortened to programming or coding) is the process of writing, testing, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. ... This article describes how security can be achieved through design and engineering. ...

Shorter domain names

Domain hacks offer the ability to produce extremely short domain names. A popular real world example is blo.gs with five letters total, versus the comparable blogs.com with eight letters or the often preferred www.blogs.com with eleven letters. Domain hacks default to the omission of the www. prefix, with the side effect of shortening the domain name, as every letter is taken into account as the site's title. blo. ...

This makes them potentially valuable as redirectors (i.am the shortest domain name on record) and as base domains from which to delegate subdomains. V3 may be: V-3 cannon A self-given nickname of Albert Kesselring Motorola RAZR V3 Station V3 The IATA code of Carpatair Area V3 of the visual cortex Version 3 of the Unix research system Kamen Rider V3 V3 Rocket, a fictional soviet rocket in Command & Conquer: Red Alert...

History

On Monday, November 23, 1992, inter.net was registered ^[1]. On Friday, May 3, 2002, icio.us was registered to create del.icio.us, the most visited domain hack, with the prepending of the "del" third-level domain. is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... is the 123rd day of the year (124th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... The website del. ...

Yahoo! acquired blo.gs^[2] on June 14, 2005, and del.icio.us^[3] on December 9, 2005. Yahoo! Inc. ... blo. ... June 14 is the 165th day of the year (166th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 343rd day of the year (344th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Who.is is a whois server, indicating the registered ownership information of a domain. It was established June 12, 2002 and registered to an address in Reykjavík as the .is extension is nominally Iceland. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... is the 163rd day of the year (164th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... Location in Iceland Coordinates: , Constituency Reykjavík North Reykjavík South Government  - Mayor (Borgarstjóri) Vilhjálmur Þ. Vilhjálmsson Area  - City 274. ...

Whocalled.us, a consumer-complaint site listing telephone numbers of known telemarketers, was first registered in 2005. Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Other languages

Domain hacks are by no means restricted to the English language.

Some years ago, a passing fad amongst French-speakers was to register their names in the Niue TLD .nu, which led to so-and-so.NU, which in French and Portuguese means "nude" or "naked"; however, as of 2007, Niue authorities have revoked many of these domain names. The handful that remain are joke domains without actual nudity. Likewise, Dutch, Swedish and Danish speakers sometimes use .nu, as it means 'now' in these languages. .nu is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to the island state of Niue. ...

Another French-speaking example is teu.be, where "teube" can be translated as "dumb" or "dick" in English. Louez.ça, which means «rent that», is a listing of rental properties in Montréal, Canada. «Aucun.info», which means «no information», is used as a base for FreeDNS subdomains. {{Canadian City/Disable Field={{{Disable Motto Link}}}}} Motto: Concordia Salus (Salvation through harmony) Ville de Montréal, Québec, Canada Location. ...

German examples are Schokola.de (chocolate), Autom.at or fals.ch (wrong).

In Dutch, company.it stands for information technology company.

Some organisations situated in Switzerland uses TLDs to specifically refer to their canton (like the Belgian TLD .be for the Canton of Berne). The Swiss Canton of Berne is bilingual (German: Kanton  ; French Canton de Berne) and has a population of about 947,000. ...

An Afrikaans example is dieInter.net - "die" meaning "the" in English (The Internet). Email addresses in this domain can then be expressed as "user at the internet". Look up Wiktionary:Swadesh lists for Afrikaans and Dutch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

A Portuguese example is vai.lá, which is equivalent to the go.to in English. Another is notici.as, where «noticias» means "news".

In Russian, the perevodov.net ("No translations") is a translation portal.

In Slovak, rozbaľ.to ("Unpack it") is the home page of a prepaid Internet access service.

In Slovenian, the najdi.si ("Find it yourself") is a popular local search engine.

A Gibraltarian example is gibtele.com - The phone company in Gibraltar is called Gibtelecom and they have used the .com to their advantage.

Criticisms

Using domain hacks weakens the usefulness of country code TLDs. With domain hacks, it becomes harder to judge the country of origin of a website by just looking at the TLD. Breaking up a domain name to subdomains and/or the URL pathname most often renders the actual domain name meaningless and breaks against good naming conventions. A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is a top-level domain used and reserved for a country or a dependent territory. ... A Uniform Resource Locator, URL (spelled out as an acronym, not pronounced as earl), or Web address, is a standardized address name layout for resources (such as documents or images) on the Internet (or elsewhere). ...

Some domain hacks are difficult to remember until you become familiar with them, such as del.icio.us. A common typo is to type the periods in the incorrect location. (To counteract this, del.icio.us has also registered the delicious.com and delicio.us domain names which forward to their site.) The website del. ...

See also

• domain name
• top-level domain
• generic top-level domain
• country code top-level domain

The term domain name has multiple related meanings: A name that identifies a computer or computers on the internet. ... “TLD” redirects here. ... A generic top-level domain (gTLD) is a top-level domain used (at least in theory) by a particular class of organization. ... A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is a top-level domain used and reserved for a country or a dependent territory. ...

Notes

1. ^ Whois domain search [4]
2. ^ Winstead, Jim. blo.gs: sold June 14, 2005.
3. ^ Schachter, Joshua. del.icio.us: y.ah.oo! December 9, 2005.

June 14 is the 165th day of the year (166th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 343rd day of the year (344th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Searches

• Domain Hacks - domain hack search utility

Suggestions

• Domain Hacks Suggest - 300,000+ domain hack suggestions (filtered by first letter, word length, and TLD)
• Domain hunting - 220,000+ domain ideas (requires executing a Perl script to generate domain hack suggestions)

Articles

• Domain Hacks & Email Hacks - domain hacks (and "email hacks") explained
• Non Dot Com Cool Domain Names
• Domain Hacks: Inventive or Poor Attempt at Being Cool? Domain hacks examined in depth by doma.in writers
• List of domain hacks; over a hundred active sites hosting content under clever or unusual hostnames.
• Coolest Hostnames on the Net (1997) list of classic domain hacks & strange hostnames & email addresses

Registration & Hosting

• V3 (Fortunecity's "go.to" series of redirectors)
• FreeDNS afraid.org domain hacks include dre.am, voyez.ça, eat.at, drink.at, sleep.at, trivia.at, shambl.es, 2di.sc, hacked.in, evils.in and aintno.info
• Websear.ch
• family domain name (.fami.ly)
• Arpegg.io (music-related sites)