The Internet

Introduction

Top level domain (TLD) is the part of the domain name located after the dot in a web address. There are many examples top level domains used all over the world. Top level domain (TLD) is also known as Domain Extension and the most commonly used and known types of these domains include, .COM, .ORG, .NET, .INFO, .BIZ, .IN, and, .EDU. There are two types of top level domain, these are Generic Top Level Domain (TLDs) and Country code Top Level Domains (TLDs). Examples of Generic Top Level Domain (TLDs) include .com, .org, and .biz among others while country code Top Level Domain (TLDs) include the ones which end with the initials of a country such as .uk, .us, .ca among others. Some of these Top Level Domains (TLDs) for instance generic Top Level Domains (TLDs) are open to everyone, anyone can use them and access them, while others are restricted to specific users (Shelly et a, 2008).

All the TLDs are unique in one or the other and has a specific use. These Top Level Domains (TLDs) are used as follows; .com – represents the word “commercial”, and is the most widely used, and highly recognized domain extension in the world; .net – represents the word “network”, and is most commonly used by Internet service providers, Web-hosting companies or other businesses that are directly involved in the infrastructure of the Internet; .org – represents the word “organization”, and is primarily used by non-profits groups or trade associations; .info – signifies a “resource” web site. It’s the most popular extension beyond .com, .net and .org; .name -It is a domain extension that is specifically designed for personal use (Gourley and Totty, 2002).It is commonly used for easy to remember email addresses and personal web sites that display photos or personal information about an individual; .biz – It is used for small business Web sites. These are the uses of some of the world leading Top Level Domains (TLDs) (Gourley and Totty, 2002).

Summary

The Generics Top Level Domain (TLDs) has more number of users as compared to country code TLDs. These results from the provision that most types of the Generics Top Level Domains (TLDs) are public and open to everyone on the other hand country code Top Level Domains (TLDs) are to some extent private and only selected users can access them. All the Top Level Domains (TLDs) are unique and important they have specific uses ranging from personal, educational, business, commercial, and governmental or organizational usages. Getting or knowing these Top Level Domains (TLDs) is not difficult since one can use any internet search engine to locate them online (Shelly et a, 2008).The search engines to be used include yahoo, google, find me among other search engines. One just chooses his or her preferred search engine.

There are many websites which use these different Top Level Domains (TLDs) depending on their purposes of operation. Examples of this links are, www.facebook.com this is a commercial website, www.mu.org this is an organizational website, www.muic.net this is network for interaction for sharing ideas and for discussions  or an interactive website, www.nationmediagroup.org, this is a website of an organization also known as an organizational website; www.yahoo.uk or www.yahoo.us these two websites are for the two nations. Only people in these countries can sign up for their accounts. However anyone can interact with their account holders through the mail services and chats even if they are not from the two countries.

References

Gourley, D., & Totty, B. (2002). HTTP: The definitive guide ; [understanding web internals].   Beijing [u.a.: O’Reilly.

Shelly, G. B., & Vermaat, M. (2008). Discovering computers 2009: Complete. Boston, Mass: Thomson Course Technology.