Domain Names Explained

If you are totally new to the internet then you may not realize that the web address you type into your browser is known as a domain name. A domain name is an easy way for humans to understand and navigate the internet.

A domain name is a string of characters used to make a name. There can be up to 63 characters in a domain name which can consist of all the letters in the English alphabet plus the numbers zero to 9 and the hyphen or dash symbol. The name can consists of a mixture of these characters but they cannot start or end in a hyphen. The hyphens are used to separate words within a domain name to make them more readable for humans.

All domain names must have a top level domain suffix. The top level domain extensions are the characters at the end of your domain name after the last dot. This extension is used to describe the country or type of website that the domain name represents. The most popular top level domain extension is com and this will probably continue to be so for some time due to it's ingrained relationship with the internet. Web business's are mostly referred to as dot com's.

Domain names can be purchased from a domain name registrar. Domain name registration is a process of registering a domain name, much like you would register a new car or the birth of a new baby.

The cost of domain name registration will vary depending on the registrar and the domain extension that you choose. To register a dot com name you should expect to pay about ten dollars for a years registration. You can register a name for up to ten years and you would usually expect to get a small discount for this.

Allan is the webmaster at NameSearchDomain.com where you canfind out all about Domain names.

Man charged in $111k domain name theft Register A New Jersey man has been charged with stealing the p2p.com domain name and selling it to a professional basketball player for more than $111000 in the ... Man charged with domain name theftGlobal Gold Internet Services all 5 news articles »

KBCI CBS 2

Union County man is indicted for allegedly stealing Internet domain names The Star-Ledger - NJ.com A Union County man who is accused of pilfering an Internet domain name from a Miami-based company and then selling it to a ... Union County man charged with theft of Internet domain namenewjerseynewsroom.com P2p Stolen And Sold To NBA Playermyfoxny.com all 128 news articles »

TG Daily

Domain names with Chinese characteristics Alibaba News Channel Now that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has allowed the use of Chinese characters in domain names, chances to ... Egypt creates first Arabic domain nameTG Daily Internet Change Will See Non-English Domain NamesAHN Non-Roman alphabet domain names hit the webYahoo! Tech The Associated Press -TopNews United States -Mediapost.com all 676 news articles »

CPA Global

Internationalized Domain Names Jawa Report (blog) (Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt) Get ready for domain names in Chinese, Korean, Arabic and Japanese characters. The first applications were accepted on Monday for ... ICT - Arabic Domain Names May Soon Be Coming to the InternetGlobal Arab Network - English News Tunisia: upcoming launch of internet domain names in ArabicTunisia Online News Multilingual web address system approvedEthio Planet News Scotsman -CPA Global all 7 news articles »

Phillyist

Hackers Indicted for Jacking Comcast Blogger News Network (blog) When the hackers called Comcasts technical contact to let him know all 200 Comcast domain names and Comcast homepage were vulnerable, he hung up on them. ... Feds Charge 3 With Comcast.net HijackingWired News all 163 news articles »

PitchFest is Good and LaunchFest Needs Work Elliot's Blog (blog) LAUNCHFest: Prior to the conference, applicants can choose one of ten domain names (owned by sister company Portfolio Brains, LLC), and five selected ... PITCHfest and LAUNCHfest Come to DOMAINfestDomain Name Wire (blog) pitchfest, launchfest Contests to Debut at domainfest Global 2010 ConferencePR Newswire (press release) DomainFest Introduces Two Pitch Opportunities for EntrepreneursDomain Name News all 7 news articles »

FreeCreditReport Wins Over 1000 Domain Names In Dispute Process Techdirt Still, it's quite impressive to hear that FreeCreditReport.com was able to get 1017 separate domain names in a single dispute (found via Slashdot) ... Razorbacks.com: Legitimate Use of a Trademark TermElliot's Blog (blog) Rate of Domain Cybersquatting Hits All Time LowDomain Name Wire (blog) all 3 news articles »

ICANN Weighs Non-Latin Domain Names PC Magazine Those accustom to writing in Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, et al, are out of luck when it comes to plugging domain names into their address bar. ... ICANN Wants To Fast Track Non-Latin Character Domain NamesChannelWeb Internet Body Allows Use of Non-English Domain NamesBloomberg ICANN approves non-Latin domain namesCNET News TG Daily -Food Consumer -Computerworld all 1,357 news articles »

DotAsia to Launch Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) in 2010 PR Newswire (press release) 18 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Following announcements by ICANN to approve the use of Internationalized Domain Names (IDN), the global top- level domain ". ... and more »

Fi-domain name campaign has begun Linex Legal (registration) Source: Suomi.fi - Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority FICORA has launched a fi-domain name campaign, the aim which is to enhance the interest of ...