5 Uncommon Top Level Domain names and why you should consider them

A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy within the Internet. They are used in various networking contexts and application-specific naming and addressing purposes. Few domain names or a domain extension majority of the internet users know are .com, .net and .gov.

The .com and .net that we are more familiar with are known as top level domains (TLDs). Under TLDs you have two broad types which are the generic top-level domains and the country code top-level domains. Examples of generic top level domains (gTLDs) would be .com, .info, .net, .edu and .org while country code top-level domains (ccTLDS) would be a country’s online administrative autonomy for example the United States would be .us, the Netherlands would be .nl and Singapore would be .sg.

To dwell further, Generic domain extensions consists of Sponsored extensions and Unsponsored extensions. Sponsored extensions would be like .edu or .gov which is managed by an organization thatm takes care of the policies regarding their registration, while unsponsored extensions would be like .com and .net which are handled by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

A restricted domain extension means having to meet certain requirements before you are allowed to register a domain. For example, only accredited educational institutions are eligible to register a domain with a .edu extension. Also, most country domain extensions are also restricted by citizens or residents of the country that extension refers to.

On the other hand, an unrestricted domain extension like .com or .net can be registered by anyone. Also there are some country domain names which are unrestricted and any one from any country may use it for their website’s domain extension.

Now, as promised let’s move on to 5 relatively unfamiliar but useful domain extension names.

As stated on my previous point, some country domain names can be used by any foreign web developer like us. Take .co for example, it used to be Columbia’s country code, but the Columbian government decided to sell it off to make a lot of money.

Well, the .co is actually a transformed domain name from the .com. Reason is due to the surge in online traffic over the last decade or so, plenty of valuable .com names have been taken up, leaving people constantly looking for a way to allow their SEO rich phrases to be used by their own website. Alas, once the Columbian government gave up their exclusive territorial rights for.co, everyone went scrambling for it to use it for their website.

At the moment, .co is creating substantial traffic among the online community and there have been domain distributers and online entrepreneurs who are publicly informing everyone that .co is a promising and successful extension.

Info as its name suggests, stands for information. ICANN publicized the info domain extension back in 2000. .info is regarded as a gTLD and it’s used for informative websites. The .info domain is unrestricted in terms of the theme or orientation of your website.

Another country code, the .me extension was originally assigned to Montenegro. However, due to the massive attraction of the me word, the Montenegro government decided to let it go. For a price of course!

So, what’s so attractive of .me?
One reason is personalization. The .me domain personalizes one’s web presence in cyberspace. Other trivial reasons would be the letters m & e in .me which can be very versatile for website titles. For example, it can use for completed words like gno.me or phrases such as feed.me.

Most importantly, .ME is a great way to express your website in what it can offer. It allows online customers to be connected to your site as they feel they can rely on your site’s service.

Some of you may know that Google paid up to $25 million in the ICANN’s public auction for the exclusive rights to .app. The very promising .app is to deliver a dedicated domain region for all things that is involved with applications which include desktop applications, cloud applications, mobile applications and web applications and browser-based applications. Basically, it’s where applications developers can go and visit to from now on.

Google may definitely be smart on this investment as the .app domain could be used by developers for a wide array of uses across the many types of application in the many types of platform or provider.

With all the technology advancements that has been increasing exponentially, the .com era may soon be outdated in the not so distant future.
Introducing, the .tech revolution.

This domain extension grants tech users an opportunity to build their website brand with a domain name that truly represents their tech savviness. The .tech narrows down to websites that encompass all things that breathe technology.

Seems like how useful technology websites like the one you are reading this blog from should have a .tech domain in future.