New Domain Suffixes: If You Build It, They Will Dot.Com
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Where do new domain suffixes come from?Why are there so few domain suffixes (also called domain extensions) – and why does my grandmother, who just wants to post pictures from her vacation, have to call herself a “dot.com?”
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the internet’s chief oversight agency and the group that gets to decide upon “top-level domain” suffixes, has approved a few new domain suffixes – but only “dot.info” and “dot.biz” have been widely available for private use.
If you’re a school, you can register a web site with the domain extension “dot.edu” (which stands, of course, for “education.”) If you’re an organization and you want people to know you are not a commercial operation, you might prefer “dot.org.”
Then there’s the mysterious domain suffix “dot.net,” used by both businesses and organizations who found their preferred “dot.com” name had already been taken another business or organization. There are more than 20 million domains registered using the “dot.com” suffix, and there can only be one “something.com.” The first one to purchase that domain name gets to use it. Therein lies the problem.
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