This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (May 2008)

The term domain name has multiple related meanings:

• A name that identifies a computer or computers on the Internet. These names appear as a component of a Web site's URL, e.g. en.wikipedia.org. This type of domain name is also called a hostname.
• The product that domain name registrars provide to their customers. These names are often called registered domain names.
• Names used for other purposes in the Domain Name System (DNS), for example the special name which follows the @ sign in an email address, or the Top-level domain names like .com, or the names used by the Session Initiation Protocol (VoIP), or DomainKeys.
• They are sometimes colloquially (and incorrectly) referred to by marketers as "web addresses".

This article will primarily discuss registered domain names. See the Domain Name System article for technical discussions about general domain names and the hostname article for further information about the most common type of domain name. A website, Web site or WWW site (often shortened to just site) is a collection of webpages, that is, HTML/XHTML documents accessible via HTTP on the Internet; all publicly accessible websites in existence comprise the World Wide Web. ... // Uniform Resource Locator (URL) formerly known as Universal Resource Locator, is a technical, Web-related term used in two distinct meanings: In popular usage and many technical documents, it is a synonym for Uniform Resource Identifier (URI); Strictly, the idea of a uniform syntax for global identifiers of network-retrievable... A hostname (occasionally also, a sitename) is the unique name by which a network attached device (which could consist of a computer, file server, network storage device, fax machine, copier, cable modem, etc. ... A domain name registrar is a company accredited, either by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), or by a national ccTLD authority or both, to register Internet domain names . ... The Domain Name System (DNS) associates various sorts of information with domain names; most importantly, it serves as the phone book for the Internet by translating human-readable computer hostnames, e. ... E-mail, or email, is short for electronic mail and is a method of composing, sending, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems. ... “TLD” redirects here. ... The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is an application-layer control (signaling) protocol for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions with one or more participants. ... IP Telephony, also called Internet telephony, is the technology that makes it possible to have a telephone conversation over the Internet or a dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) network instead of dedicated voice transmission lines. ... DomainKeys is an e-mail authentication system designed to verify the DNS domain of an E-mail sender and the message integrity. ... The Domain Name System (DNS) associates various sorts of information with domain names; most importantly, it serves as the phone book for the Internet by translating human-readable computer hostnames, e. ... A hostname (occasionally also, a sitename) is the unique name by which a network attached device (which could consist of a computer, file server, network storage device, fax machine, copier, cable modem, etc. ...

Overview

The most common types of domain names are hostnames that provide more recognizable names to stand in for numeric IP addresses. They allow for any website to move to a different location in the topology of the Internet (or an intranet), which would then have a different IP address. A hostname (occasionally also, a sitename) is the unique name by which a network attached device (which could consist of a computer, file server, network storage device, fax machine, copier, cable modem, etc. ... An IP address (or Internet Protocol address) is a unique address that certain electronic devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard (IP)—in simpler terms, a computer address. ... An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet protocols, network connectivity to securely share part of an organizations information or operations with its employees. ...

By allowing the use of unique alphabetical addresses instead of numeric ones, domain names allow Internet users to more easily find and communicate with web sites and other server-based services. The flexibility of the domain name system allows multiple IP addresses to be assigned to a single domain name, or multiple domain names to be assigned to a single IP address. This means that one server may have multiple roles (such as hosting multiple independent websites), or that one role can be spread among many servers. One IP address can also be assigned to several servers, as used in anycast and hijacked IP space. Routing Schemes anycast broadcast multicast unicast Anycast is a network addressing and routing scheme whereby data is routed to the nearest or best destination as viewed by the routing topology. ...

Hostnames are restricted to the ASCII letters a through z (case-insensitive), the digits 0 through 9, and the hyphen, with some other restrictions. Registrars restrict the domains to valid hostnames, because they otherwise would be useless. The Internationalized domain name (IDN) system has been developed to bypass the restrictions on character allowances in hostnames, making it easier for users of non-English alphabets to be used on the Internet. The underscore character is frequently used to ensure that a domain name is not recognized as a hostname, as with the use of SRV records, for example, although some older systems such as NetBIOS did allow it. To avoid confusion and for other reasons, domain names with underscores in them are sometimes used where hostnames are required. Image:ASCII fullsvg There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ... Example of Arabic IDN Example of Chinese IDN Example of Persian IDN Example of Greek IDN Example of Hebrew IDN Example of Ukrainian IDN An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that (potentially) contains non-ASCII characters. ... An SRV record or Service record is a category of data in the Internet Domain Name System specifying information on available services. ... NetBEUI redirects here. ...

Domain names are often referred to simply as domains and domain name registrants are frequently referred to as domain owners, although domain names, technically, are leased from a registrar.

Examples

The following example illustrates the difference between a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and a domain name: // Uniform Resource Locator (URL) formerly known as Universal Resource Locator, is a technical, Web-related term used in two distinct meanings: In popular usage and many technical documents, it is a synonym for Uniform Resource Identifier (URI); Strictly, the idea of a uniform syntax for global identifiers of network-retrievable...

URL: http://www.example.net/index.html

Domain name: www.example.net

Registered domain name: example.net

As a general rule, the IP address and the server name are interchangeable. For most Internet services, the server will not have any way to know which was used. However, the explosion of interest in the Web means that there are far more Web sites than servers. To accommodate this, the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) specifies that the client tells the server which name is being used. This way, one server with one IP address can provide different sites for different domain names. This feature goes under the name virtual hosting and is commonly used by Web hosts. HTTP (for HyperText Transfer Protocol) is the primary method used to convey information on the World Wide Web. ... In computing, a client is a system that accesses a (remote) service on another computer by some kind of network. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into shared web hosting service. ... Web hosting is a service that provides individuals, organizations and users with online systems for storing information, images, video, or any content accessible via the Web. ...

For example, as referenced in RFC 2606 (Reserved Top Level DNS Names), the server at IP address 208.77.188.166 handles all of the following sites:

example.com

www.example.com

example.net

www.example.net

example.org

www.example.org

When a request is made, the data corresponding to the hostname requested is provided to the user.

Top-level domains

Every domain name ends in a top-level domain (TLD) name, which is always either one of a small list of generic names (three or more characters), or a two-character territory code based on ISO-3166 (there are few exceptions and new codes are integrated case by case). Top-level domains are sometimes also called first-level domains. “TLD” redirects here. ... ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are two-letter country codes in the ISO 3166-1 standard to represent countries and dependent areas. ...

The generic top-level domain (gTLD) extensions are: A generic top-level domain (gTLD) is a top-level domain used (at least in theory) by a particular class of organization. ...

The country code top-level domain (ccTLD) extensions are: A generic top-level domain (gTLD) is a top-level domain used (at least in theory) by a particular class of organization. ... .biz is a generic top-level domain (TLD) intended for domains to be used by businesses; the name is a phonetic spelling of the first syllable of business. ... This article is about the generic top-level domain . ... .edu (education) is the generic top-level domain for educational institutions, primarily those in the United States. ... .gov is the generic top-level domain used by the United States federal government. ... .info is a generic top-level domain intended for informative websites, although its use is not restricted. ... .int is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) used on the Internets Domain Name System. ... .mil is the generic top-level domain for the United States Department of Defense and its subsidiary organizations. ... .name is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) intended for the use of individuals. ... This article is about the top-level domain . ... .org (organization) is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) used in the Internets Domain Name System. ... A sponsored top-level domain is a generic top-level domain proposed by an independent agency, with that agency establishing and enforcing rules restricting the eligibility of registrants to use the TLD. For example, the . ... .aero is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) used on the Internets Domain Name System. ... .asia is a generic top-level domain proposed by the DotAsia Organization, with the back-end registry to be operated by Afilias. ... .cat is a top-level domain submitted to ICANN for approval as a sponsored TLD. It would be used to highlight Catalan language and culture. ... .coop is a generic top-level domain intended for the use of cooperatives. ... .jobs is a top-level domain approved by ICANN on April 8, 2005 as a sponsored TLD as part of the second group of new TLD applications submitted in 2004. ... .mobi (also known as DotMobi) is a top-level domain approved by ICANN and managed by the mTLD global registry dedicated to delivering the Internet to mobile devices via the Mobile Web. ... .museum is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) used exclusively by museums, museum associations, and individual members of the museum profession, as these groups are defined by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). ... .pro (professional) is a generic top-level domain. ... .tel is a top-level domain submitted to ICANN for approval as a sponsored TLD. It would be restricted to internet communication services, and provide a supplement to the traditional numeric namespace for telecommunication services (i. ... .travel is a top-level domain approved by ICANN as a sponsored TLD in the second group of new TLD applications evaluated in 2004. ... .arpa is an Internet top-level domain (TLD) used exclusively for Internet-infrastructure purposes. ... . The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions. ... There are several proposed top-level domains which have not yet been approved by ICANN, as of 2007: .berlin . ... .berlin (dotBERLIN) is a proposed new top level domain (TLD). ... . ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... .bzh (dotBZH) is a proposed top-level domain for sites about the Breton culture and language. ... .cym (dotCYM) is a proposed top-level domain for sites written in the Welsh language. ... .gal is a proposed top-level domain for sites from Galicia, or related to this Spanish nationality. ... .sco (dotSCO) is a proposed top-level domain. ... .geo is a generic top-level domain proposed by SRI International to be used to associate Internet resources with geographical locations, via a system of georegistrars and georegistries with hierarchical addresses representing locations in a grid encircling the Earth. ... .mail is a generic top-level domain proposed by Spamhaus, but unapproved by ICANN. It would attempt to reduce the spam problem by creating addresses which have been authenticated as not belonging to spammers, and with verified contact information, paralleling the actual addresses (in other TLDs) of servers used to... .web is a generic top-level domain operated as an alternative registry, not in the official root, by Image Online Design since 1995. ... .post is Top-level domain submitted to ICANN for approval as a sponsored TLD. It would be restricted to the use of national and regional postal services, and private businesses that provide similar services. ... .xxx is a proposed top-level domain (TLD) intended as a voluntary option for sexually explicit sites on the Internet. ... .kids is a proposed top-level domain that its supporters hope would deter the spread of pornography to minors. ... .nato is a former Internet top-level domain. ... “TLD” redirects here. ... .example is a reserved top-level domain not intended for real use in the global DNS. It was defined in June 1999 by RFC 2606, along with . ... jhjhjh ... .localhost is a Reserved top-level domain never intended for actual use in the global DNS. Its reservation is to avoid misuse with the common localhost See also Reserved top-level domains RFC2606 - Reserved domains list and information Generic top-level domains .aero . ... .test is a Reserved top-level domain never intended for actual use in the global DNS. It was not one of the original top-level domains established in 1985. ... .bitnet was a pseudo-domain-style suffix used in the late 1980s when identifying a hostname not connected directly to the Internet but possibly reachable through inter-network gateways. ... .csnet was a pseudo-domain-style suffix used in the late 1980s when identifying a hostname not connected directly to the Internet but possibly reachable through inter-network gateways. ... .ip is a Pseudo top-level domain which is used to indicate that the rest of the hostname is either an IP address or a masked IP address. ... .local is a domain used by Apple Computers Bonjour protocol. ... .onion is a pseudo-domain-style address suffix (similar in concept to such endings as . ... .uucp was a pseudo-domain-style suffix used in the late 1980s when identifying a hostname not connected directly to the Internet but possibly reachable through inter-network gateways. ... In addition to the Internets main DNS root (currently consisting of 13 nominal root nameservers working in agreement with ICANN), several organizations operate alternative DNS roots (often referred to as alt roots). ... A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is a top-level domain used and reserved for a country or a dependent territory. ... A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is a top-level domain used and reserved for a country or a dependent territory. ...

A generic top-level domain (gTLD) is a top-level domain used (at least in theory) by a particular class of organization. ...

Other-level domains

In addition to the top-level, or root, domains, there are second-level domain (SLD) names. These are the names directly to the left of .com, .net, and the other top-level domains. As an example, in the domain en.wikipedia.org, wikipedia is the second-level domain. In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a second-level domain is a domain that is directly below a top-level domain (TLD). ...

Next are third-level domains, which are shown immediately to the left of a second-level domain. In the en.wikipedia.org example, en is a third-level domain. There can be fourth- and fifth-level domains, and so on, with virtually no limitation. An example of a working domain with five levels is www.sos.state.oh.us. Each level is separated by a dot, or period symbol.

Domains of third or higher levels are also known as subdomains, though this term technically applies to a domain of any level because even a top-level domain is a "subdomain" of the "root" domain (a "zeroth-level" domain that is designated by a dot alone). In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain. ...

Traditionally, the second-level domain has been chosen based on the name of a company (e.g., microsoft.com), product or service (e.g., gmail.com). The third level was commonly used to designate a particular host server. Therefore, ftp.wikipedia.org might be an FTP server, www.wikipedia.org would be a World Wide Web server, and mail.wikipedia.org could be an email server. Modern technology allows multiple servers to serve a single subdomain, or multiple protocols or domains to be served by a single computer. Therefore subdomains may or may not serve any real purpose.

Official assignment

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has overall responsibility for managing the DNS. It controls the root domain, delegating control over each TLD to a domain name registry. For ccTLDs, the domain registry is typically controlled by the government of that country. ICANN has a consultation role in these domain registries but cannot regulate the terms and conditions of how a domain name is allocated or who allocates it in each of these country-level domain registries. On the other hand, generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are governed directly under ICANN, which means all terms and conditions are defined by ICANN with the cooperation of each gTLD registry. ICANN headquarters ICANN (IPA /aɪkæn/) is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ... The AMS-IX mirror of the K root-server. ... A domain name registry, also called Network Information Centre (NIC), is part of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet which converts domain names to IP addresses. ... A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is a top-level domain used and reserved for a country or a dependent territory. ... A generic top-level domain (gTLD) is a top-level domain used (at least in theory) by a particular class of organization. ...

Domain names are often seen as being similar to real estate in that (1) domain names are virtual properties on which a website (like a house or commercial building) can be built and (2) the highest quality domain names, like sought-after real estate, tend to carry significant value, usually due to their online brand-building potential, use in advertising, search engine optimization, etc. Real estate is a legal term that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings. ... A typical search results page Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via natural (organic or algorithmic) search results for targeted keywords. ...

A few companies have offered low-cost, below-cost or even free domain registrations with a variety of models adopted to recoup the costs to the provider. These usually require that domains be hosted on their website within a framework or portal that includes advertising wrapped around the domain holder's content, revenue from which allows the provider to recoup the costs. Domain registrations were free of charge when the DNS was new. A domain holder (often referred to as a domain owner) can generally give away or sell infinite subdomains on their domain name. For example, the owner of example.edu could provide subdomains such as foo.example.edu and foo.bar.example.edu to interested parties. In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain. ...

Abuses

This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (May 2008)

As domain names became attractive to marketers, rather than just the technical audience for which they were originally intended, they began to be used in manners that in many cases did not fit in their intended structure. As originally planned, the structure of domain names followed a strict hierarchy in which the TLD indicated the type of organization (commercial, governmental, etc.), and addresses would be nested down to third, fourth, or further levels to express complex structures, where, for instance, branches, departments and subsidiaries of a parent organization would have addresses that were subdomains of the parent domain. Also, hostnames were originally intended to correspond to actual physical machines on the network, generally with only one name per machine.

However, once the World Wide Web became popular, site operators frequently wished to have memorable addresses, regardless of whether they fit properly into the structure; thus, because the .com domain was the most popular and memorable, even noncommercial sites began to obtain domains in that gTLD, and sites of all sorts wished to have second-level domain registrations even if they were parts of a larger entity where a subdomain would have been logical (e.g., abcnews.com instead of news.abc.com). A website found at ''http://www.example.org'' will often be advertised without the http:// and, in most cases, can be reached by just entering example.org into a web browser. In the case of a .com, the website can sometimes be reached by just entering example (depending on browser versions and configuration settings, which vary in how they interpret incomplete addresses). This article is about the generic top-level domain . ...

The popularity of domain names also led to uses which were regarded as abusive by established companies with trademark rights; this has become known as cybersquatting, in which a person registers a domain name that resembles a trademark in order to profit from visitors looking for that address. To combat this, various laws and policies were enacted to allow abusive registrations to be forcibly transferred, but these were sometimes themselves abused by overzealous companies committing reverse domain hijacking against domain users who had legitimate grounds to hold their names. Such legitimate uses could include the use of generic words that are contained within a trademark, but used in a particular context within the trademark, or their use in the context of fan or protest sites with free speech rights of their own. Cybersquatting, according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad-faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. ... The term reverse domain hijacking refers to the practice of acquiring domain names from owners by accusing them of violating trademarks with the domain name, and demanding that the domain be transferred. ...

Laws that specifically address domain name conflicts include the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act in the United States and the Trademarks Act of 1999 in India. Alternatively, domain registrants are bound by contract under the UDRP to comply with mandatory arbitration proceedings should someone challenge their ownership of a domain name. The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (also known as Truth in Domain Names Act), a United States federal law enacted in 1999, is part of A bill to amend the provisions of title 17, United States Code, and the Communications Act of 1934, relating to copyright licensing and carriage of broadcast... UDRP - Uniform Domain Name Resolution Policy A document used by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for the purpose of creating guidelines for use when disputes arise regarding the registration of internet names (domain names). ...

Generic domain names—problems arising from unregulated name selection

Within a particular TLD, parties are generally free to select an unallocated domain name as their own on a first come, first served basis, resulting in Harris's lament, all the good ones are taken. For generic or commonly used names, this may sometimes lead to the use of a domain name which is inaccurate or misleading. This problem can be seen with regard to the ownership or control of domain names for a generic product or service. First come, first served (sometimes first-come, first-served or simply FCFS) is a service policy whereby the requests of customers or clients are attended to in the order that they arrived, without other biases or preferences. ... It is proposed that this article be deleted, because of the following concern: Notability is not established If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. ... A generic brand product is one made by a manufacturer the customer doesnt know much about who may or may not put thier name on the product. ...

By way of illustration, there has been tremendous growth in the number and size of literary festivals around the world in recent years. In the current context, a generic domain name such as literary.org is available to the first literary festival organization that is able to obtain the registration, even if the festival in question is very young or obscure. Some critics argue that there is greater amenity in reserving such domain names for the use of, for example, a regional or umbrella grouping of festivals. Related issues may also arise in relation to noncommercial domain names. A literary festival, also known as a book festival or writers festival, is a regular gathering of writers and readers, typically on an annual basis in a particular city, A literary festival usually features a variety of presentations and readings by authors, as well as other events, delivered over a...

Unconventional domain names

Due to the rarity of one-word dot-com domain names, many unconventional domain names, domain hacks, have been gaining popularity. They make use of the top-level domain as an integral part of the Web site's title. Two popular domain hack Web sites are del.icio.us and blo.gs, which spell out "delicious" and "blogs", respectively. 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 website del. ... blo. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Unconventional domain names are also used to create unconventional email addresses. Non-working examples that spell 'James' are j@m.es and j@mes.com, which use the domain names m.es (of Spain's .es) and mes.com, respectively. .es is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Spain. ...

Premium domain names

In the business of marketing domain names, "premium" domain names are often valuable, and have particular characteristics. For example, the names are short and memorable, or may contain words that are regularly searched on search engines, or keywords that help the name gain a higher ranking on search engines. They may contain generic words, so the word has more than one meaning, and they may contain common typos. A typographical error or typo is a mistake made during the typing process. ...

Resale of domain names

The resale of previously registered domain names is known as the "domain aftermarket".

Various factors influence the perceived value or market value of a domain name. They include 1) the natural or "organic" traffic that can be attributed to web surfers typing in a domain name in their web browser as opposed to doing a search for the site through a search engine. 2) Branding Opportunity. The ability to have a term recognized and easily recalled as a brand for a company or entity. 3) Re-sale value. The ability to spot trends and predict the value of a name based on its length (short is preferred), clarity, and commercial use. The word loan is far more valuable than the word sunshine.

Generic domain names have sprung up in the last decade. Certain domains, especially those related to business, gambling, pornography, and other commercially lucrative fields of digital world trade have become very much in demand to corporations and entrepreneurs due to their importance in attracting clients.

The most expensive public sale of an Internet domain name to date, according to DNJournal, is porn.com which was sold in 2007 for $9.5 million cash.^{[citation needed]}

There are disputes about the high values of domain names claimed and the actual cash prices of many sales such Business.com. Another high-priced domain name, sex.com, was stolen from its rightful owner by means of a forged transfer instruction via fax. During the height of the dot-com era, the domain was earning millions of dollars per month in advertising revenue from the large influx of visitors that arrived daily. The sex.com sale may have never been final as the domain is still with the previous owner. Also, that sale was not just a domain but an income stream, a web site, a domain name with customers and advertisers, etc. Two long-running U.S. lawsuits resulted, one against the thief and one against the domain registrar VeriSign ^[1]. In one of the cases, Kremen v. Network Solutions, the court found in favor of the plaintiff, leading to an unprecedented ruling that classified domain names as property, granting them the same legal protections. In 1999, Microsoft traded the name Bob.com with internet entrepreneur Bob Kerstein for the name Windows2000.com which was the name of their new operating system. ^[2] The Internet domain name sex. ... Dot-com (also dotcom or redundantly dot. ... VeriSign, Inc. ... Network Solutions, LLC is a technology company which was founded in 1979. ...

One of the reasons for the value of domain names is that even without advertising or marketing, they attract clients seeking services and products who simply type in the generic name. This is known as Direct Navigation or Type-in Traffic. Furthermore, generic domain names such as movies.com (now owned by Disney) or Books.com (now owned by Barnes & Noble) are extremely easy for potential customers to remember, increasing the probability that they become repeat customers or regular clients. In the case of Movies.com, Disney has built a stand-alone portal featuring branded content. More and more large brands are beginning to employ a more comprehensive domain strategy featuring a portfolio of thousands of domains, rather than just one or two. Direct Navigation describes the method individuals use to navigate the Internet in order to arrive at specific websites. ... Type-in traffic is a term describing visitors landing at a web site by entering a word or phrase in the web browsers address bar rather than following a hyperlink from another web page, using a browser bookmark, or a search-box search. ... A typical Barnes & Noble bookstore. ...

Although the current domain market is nowhere as strong as it was during the dot-com heyday, it remains strong and is currently experiencing solid growth again. ^[3] Annually tens of millions of dollars change hands in connection with the resale of domains. Large numbers of registered domain names lapse and are deleted each year. On average, more than 25,000 domain names drop (are deleted) every day.

It is important to remember that a domain (name, address) must be valued separately from the website (content, revenue) that it is used for. The high prices have usually been paid for the revenue that was generated from the website at the domain's address (URL.). The intrinsic value of a domain is the registration fee. It is difficult to appraise a current market value for a domain. The Fair Market Value of a domain can be anything from nearly nothing to millions of dollars. Factors involved may include previous sales data of similar domains, however a single letter difference can completely alter the value. The value of the domain (or any sum resp. division etc.) are usually added to the current or expected revenue from the web content (advertising, sales, etc.). The price of a domain (name + ext.) should not be confused with that of a website (content + revenue). Intrinsic value can refer to: Intrinsic value (finance), of an option or stock. ... Market capitalization, or market cap, is a measurement of corporate or economic size equal to the stock price times the number of shares outstanding of a public company. ... Fair Market Value is a term in both law and accounting to describe an appraisal based on an estimate of what a buyer would pay a seller for any piece of property. ...

An estimate by an appraiser is always the addition of what they would like a domain to be worth together with the effective/expected/desired revenue from the web content. Some people put value on the length of the SLD (name) and other people prefer description capability, but the shorter an SLD is, the less descriptive it can be. Also, if short is crucial, then the TLD (extension) should be short too. It is less realistic to get a domain like LL.travel or LL.mobi than a domain travel. LL or mobi. LL. This illustrates the relativity of domain value estimation. It can be safely put that the revenue of web (content) can be easily stated, but that the value of a domain (SLD.TLD aka name.ext) is a matter of opinion and preference. In the end, however, any sale depends on the expectations of the domain seller and the domain buyer.

A webmaster creating a new web site either buys the domain name directly from a domain name registrar, or indirectly from a domain name registrar through a domainer. People who buy and sell domain names are known as domainers. People who sell value estimation services are known as appraisers. A webmaster is a person responsible for designing, developing, marketing, or maintaining Web site(s). ... A domain name registrar is a company accredited, either by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), or by a national ccTLD authority or both, to register Internet domain names . ... A domain name registrar is a company accredited, either by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), or by a national ccTLD authority or both, to register Internet domain names . ... A domainer is an entrepreneur making his or her fortune in the field of domain names by offering domain-name related services to clients; or by investing in individual domain names for resale or development (domaining). ... A domainer is an entrepreneur making his or her fortune in the field of domain names by offering domain-name related services to clients; or by investing in individual domain names for resale or development (domaining). ...

Domain aftermarket prices and trends

Domain name sales occurring in the aftermarket are frequently submitted to the DNJournal. The sales are listed weekly and include the top aftermarket resellers which include but are not limited to Sedo, Traffic (auctions), Afternic, NameJet, Moniker and private sales.

To date, and according to Guinness World Records and MSNBC, the most expensive domain name sales on record as of 2004 were: Business.com for $7.5 million in December 1999, AsSeenOnTv.com for $5.1 million in January 2000, Altavista.com for $3.3 million in August 1998, Wine.com for $2.9 million in September 1999, CreditCards.com for $2.75 million in July 2004, and Autos.com for $2.2 million in December 1999. ^[4] Guinness World Records 2008 edition. ... For the news website, see msnbc. ...

The week ending January 27, 2008, DNJournal reported that CNN, a cable news channel purchased iReport.com for $750,000. This signifies another turning point in domain name sales. This name has neither organic traffic, nor does it have a dictionary term alone. Instead it is a highly brandable domain name utilizing the second most popular prefix for a "dictionary" and commercial word. is the 27th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini/Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ...

Popular domain prefixes - "E" and "I"

In addition to a domain placing value on the shortness of the word, ease to spell, commercial appeal, and organic capacity to generate natural traffic, today's domain names are being valued for the branding potential. The domain name sale iReport although not an organic or dictionary term alone, is actually preferred as a highly brandable term, in that it is has a popular pre-fix "i" which indicates the "report" to be online.

The prefixes and dashes between words were once considered second, but now due to brandability, if the term is a commercial term, a prefix is often preferred. Example eLoans markets with an e to indicate to its potential customers that a loan may be obtained online.

The two primary prefixes are "E", for electronic, and "I", for Internet. Both indicate the word or phrase to be accessible online. Because of that, in terms of branding, an i or e combined with a commercial term are highly desirable. In domain sales typically an e has been preferred, and i slightly less in terms of demand. eBrooklyn sold for approximately $2500 whereas once it would have been available to register at the price of a domain name (which ranges from $8 to $30 us dollars depending on the registrar). The rapidly increasing use of prefixes in conjunction with main dictionary and or commercial terms is here and for some predominantly internet based companies, or high technology, high profile companies, the prefix is now preferred.

One of the details that make a domain with a prefix more valuable for a brand, is the ability to simply promote the name without the use of ".com" in the promotion. If a domain owner had report.com he would be forced to use the .com to indicate it was on the net at that address, however a domain name with a one letter prefix does not need to use the ".com".

Someone could promote "iReport" as a brand, and assuming it was a world class brand, visitors would know they could find it at "iReport.com without seeing the .com. However if it was a .net, it would be wise to state iReport.net. This option to simply state the name of the company or entity is particularly valuable in that it is brief and clear in indicating that a report can be either made or found on the "i"nternet.

eLoans similarly does not have to state "eLoans.com". eLoans, in the minds of most is clearly an online entity offering electronic loan applications.

Some alternative domains that avoid the use of ".com" in their promotion are "WebMD" as the word web as a prefix suffice to indicate the information is online and likely at a .com extension.

Branding with a domain name

Brands are greatly affected by the ability of the company to obtain the matching domain name. If a company builds a brand around a name to which it does not own the domain name, it can end up directing traffic to another domain owner's site. If it is a competitor, this would be a problem.

Today's advertising development of a great brand is strictly confined to the availability to synchronize the brand with a domain name. Any confusion might result in a competitor gaining valuable internet traffic and possible customers.

Domain name confusion

Intercapping is often used to clarify a domain name. However, DNS is case-insensitive, and some names may be misinterpreted when converted to lowercase. For example: Who Represents, a database of artists and agents, chose whorepresents.com^{[citation needed]}; a therapists' network thought therapistfinder.com looked good^{[citation needed]}; and another website operating as of August 2007, cummingfirst.com, website of the Cumming First United Church in Cumming, GA^{[citation needed]} and powergenitalia.com, a website for an Italian Power Generator company^{[citation needed]}. In such situations, the proper wording can be clarified by use of hyphens. For instance, Experts Exchange, the programmers' site, for a long time used expertsexchange.com, but ultimately changed the name to experts-exchange.com. CamelCase is the practice of writing compound words or phrases where the words are joined without spaces, and each word is capitalized within the compound. ... Cumming is a city in Forsyth County, Georgia, United States. ... Experts-Exchange, founded in 1996, is a collaboration platform for information technology professionals, designed to address specific areas of situation-based knowledge. ...

Leo Stoller threatened to sue the owners of StealThisEmail.com on the basis that, when read as stealthisemail.com, it infringed on claimed trademark rights to the word "stealth". ^[5] There is no word mark for "stealth" in the USPTO trademark database and Leo Stoller's trademarks on this term are now canceled. Some of the claimed famous trademarks in Stollers Rentamark. ...

References

1. ^ Sex.com Settles With VeriSign
2. ^ Windows2000.com owner sells domain to Microsoft
3. ^ Domain name sells for $2.75 million
4. ^ Domain name sells for $2.75 million
5. ^ Steal This v. Stealth Is: Community Technology Collective Bullied Over Misreading of URL

See also

Domaining is the business of buying, selling, developing and monetizing Internet domain names. ... 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. ... Domain hijacking is the process by which internet domains are basically stolen. ... Domain tasting, also known as domain kiting, is a practice of registrants using the five-day grace period at the beginning of a domain registration for ICANN-regulated generic top-level domains to test the marketability of a domain name. ... Domain name warehousing is the common practice of registrars obtaining control of domain names with the intent to hold or “warehouse” names for their use and/or profit. ... A fully qualified domain name (or FQDN) is an unambiguous domain name that specifies the nodes position in the DNS tree hierarchy absolutely. ... ICANN headquarters ICANN (IPA /aɪkæn/) is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ... Example of Arabic IDN Example of Chinese IDN Example of Persian IDN Example of Greek IDN Example of Hebrew IDN Example of Ukrainian IDN An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that (potentially) contains non-ASCII characters. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... // Uniform Resource Locator (URL) formerly known as Universal Resource Locator, is a technical, Web-related term used in two distinct meanings: In popular usage and many technical documents, it is a synonym for Uniform Resource Identifier (URI); Strictly, the idea of a uniform syntax for global identifiers of network-retrievable... The World Wide Web and WWW redirect here. ... A screenshot of a web page. ... A website, Web site or WWW site (often shortened to just site) is a collection of webpages, that is, HTML/XHTML documents accessible via HTTP on the Internet; all publicly accessible websites in existence comprise the World Wide Web. ... The term geodomain refers to domain names that are the same as those of geographic entities, such as cities and countries. ...

External links

• RFC 1034, Domain Names — Concepts and Facilities, an Internet Protocol Standard.
• RFC 1035, Domain Names — Implementation and Specification, an Internet Protocol Standard.
• ICANN - Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
• UDRP, Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy.
• Internic.net, public information regarding Internet domain name registration services.
• IANA generic TLD
• IANA Two letter Country Code TLD