| gTLD |
intended use |
| aero |
the air transport industry. |
| arpa |
reserved exclusively to support operationally-critical
infrastructural identifier spaces as advised by the Internet
Architecture Board |
| asia |
companies. organisations and individuals in the Asia-Pacific
region |
| biz |
business use |
| cat |
Catalan language/culture |
| com |
commercial organizations, but unrestricted |
| coop |
cooperatives |
| edu |
post-secondary educational establishments |
| gov |
government entities within the United States at the federal, state, and local levels |
| info |
informational sites, but unrestricted |
| int |
international organizations established by treaty |
| jobs |
employment-related sites |
| mil |
the U.S. military |
| mobi |
sites catering to mobile devices |
| museum |
museums |
| name |
families and individuals |
| net |
originally for network infrastructures, now unrestricted |
| org |
originally for organizations not clearly falling within the
other gTLDs, now unrestricted |
| pro |
certain professions |
| tel |
services involving connections between the telephone network
and the Internet (added March 2, 2007) |
| travel |
travel agents, airlines, hoteliers, tourism bureaus, etc. |
A
generic top-level domain (
gTLD) is one
of the categories of
top-level
domains (TLDs) maintained by the
Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority (IANA) for use in the
Domain Name System of the
Internet.
Overall, IANA currently distinguishes the following groups of
top-level domains:
The core group of generic top-level domains consists of the
com,
info,
net, and
org domains. In addition, the domains
biz,
name, and
pro are
also considered
generic, however, these are designated as
restricted, because registrations within them require
proof of eligibility within the guidelines set for each.
Historically, the group of generic top-level domains included
domains, created in the early development of the domain name
system, that are now sponsored by designated agencies or
organizations and are restricted to specific types of registrants.
Thus, domains
edu,
gov,
int, and
mil are now considered
sponsored top-level domains, much
like the many newly created
themed domain names (e.g.,
jobs). The entire group of domains
that do not have a geographic or country designation (see
country-code top-level domain)
is still often referred to by the term
generic TLDs.
History
The initial set of top-level domains, defined by RFC 920 in October
1984, was a set of "general purpose domains":
com,
edu,
gov,
mil,
org. The
net domain was added with the first implementation
of these domains. The
com,
net, and
org
TLDs, despite their originally specific goals, are now open for use
for any purpose.
In November 1988, another TLD was introduced,
int.
This TLD was introduced in response to
NATO
's request for a domain name which adequately
reflected its character as an international organization. It
was also originally planned to be used for some Internet
infrastructure databases, such as
ip6.int, the
IPv6 equivalent of
in-addr.arpa. However, in
May 2000, the
Internet
Architecture Board proposed to exclude infrastructure databases
from the
int domain. All new databases of this type would
be created in
arpa (a legacy domain
from the conversion of ARPANET), and existing usage would move to
arpa wherever feasible, which led to the use of
ip6.arpa for IPv6
reverse
lookups.
By the mid-1990s there was discussion of introduction of more TLDs.
Jon Postel, as head of
IANA, invited
applications from interested parties. In early 1995, Postel created
"Draft Postel", an Internet draft containing the procedures to
create new domain name registries and new TLDs. Draft Postel
created a number of small committees to approve the new TLDs.
Because of the increasing interest, a number of large organizations
took over the process under the
Internet Society's umbrella. This second
attempt involved setting up a temporary organization called the
International Ad Hoc Committee (
IAHC). On
February 4 1997, the
IAHC issued a report ignoring the Draft Postel recommendations and
instead recommended the introduction of seven new TLDs
(
arts,
firm,
info,
nom,
rec,
store, and
web). However, these
proposals were abandoned after the U.S. government
intervened.
In September 1998, the
Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was created
to take over the task of managing domain names. After a call for
proposals (
August 15,
2000) and a brief period of public consultation, ICANN
announced on
November 16,
2000 its selection of the following seven new TLDs:
aero,
biz,
coop,
info,
museum,
name,
pro.
Biz,
info, and
museum were activated in
June 2001,
name and
coop in January 2002,
pro in May 2002, and
aero later in 2002.
pro became a gTLD in May 2002, but did not become fully
operational until June 2004.
ICANN added further TLDs, starting with a set of
sponsored top-level domains. The
application period for these was from
15
December 2003 until
16
March 2004, and resulted in ten
applications. , ICANN had announced the approval of several new
TLDs:
cat,
jobs,
mobi,
tel,
travel.
On
26 June 2008, during
the 32nd International Public ICANN Meeting in Paris, ICANN started
a new process of TLD naming policy to take a
"significant step
forward on the introduction of new generic top-level domains."
This program envisions the availability of many new or already
proposed domains, as well a new application and implementation
process.
Observers believed that the new rules could result in hundreds of new gTLDs to be registered.
Unrestricted gTLD
Unrestricted generic top-level domains are those domains that are
available for registrations by any person or organization for any
use. The prominent gTLDs in this group are
com,
net,
org, and
info. However,
info was the only of
these, and the first, that was explicitly chartered as
unrestricted. The others initially had a specific target audience,
however, due to lack of enforcement, acquired the unrestricted
character which was later grandfathered.
Sponsored gTLD
The term
sponsored top-level
domain is derived from the fact that these domains are based on
theme concepts proposed by private agencies or organizations that
establish and enforce rules restricting the eligibility of
registrants to use the TLD. For example, the
aero TLD is
sponsored by the
Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques,
which limits registrations to members of the air-transport
industry.
Geographic gTLD
A
geographic TLD (or
GeoTLD)
is a generic top-level domain using the name of or invoking an
association with a geographical, geopolitical, ethnic, linguistic
or cultural community. As of 2009, only two GeoTLDs existed: the
sponsored domains
cat, for the
Catalan language and culture, and
asia, but many others have been
proposed (see also
proposed
top-level domain).
New top-level domains
The introduction of several generic top-level domains over the
years has not stopped the demand for more gTLDs and ICANN has
received many proposals for establishment of new top-level domains.
Proponents have argued for a variety of models ranging from
adoption of policies for unrestricted gTLDs (see above) to
chartered gTLDs for specialized uses by specialized
organizations.
A new initiative started in 2008, foresees a stringent application
process for new domains that adhere to a restricted naming policy
for
open gTLDs,
community-based domains, and
internationalized domain
names (IDNs). According to a guidebook published by ICANN, a
community-based gTLD is
"a gTLD that is operated for
the benefit of a defined community consisting of a restricted
population." All other domains fall under the category
open gTLD', which
"is one that can be used for any
purpose consistent with the requirements of the application and
evaluation criteria, and with the registry agreement. An
open gTLD may or may not have a formal relationship with an
exclusive registrant or user population. It may or may not
employ eligibility or use restrictions."
The establishment of new gTLDs under this program requires the
operation of a
domain registry and a
demonstration of technical and financial capacity for such
operations and the management of registrar relationships.
A second version of the draft book was published in February 2009.
In May 2009 ICANN anticipated that applications for new domains may
be accepted in the first quarter of 2010.
See also
References
- Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) root
database]
- The IANA's File of iTLD Requests
- ICANN | Biggest Expansion in gTLDs Approved for
Implementation
- ICANN Board Approves Sweeping Overhaul of Top-level
Domains, CircleID, 26
June 2008.
-
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-07may09-en.htm
ICANN announcement 2009-05-07
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