A web site is often an important front to a business or organisation. It is therefore important in the promotion of the business or organisation that the title of the web site has a relevant, easy to remember domain name. Since they were first introduced, there has been a scramble for domain names that are relevant to existing companies or organisations and for important words and phrases through which a business can trade. In fact for many businesses, the domain name is probably now as important as its actual trading name.
Domain names can be obtained from many sources on the web.
Top of the list have been the .coms, so much so that "dot.com" has become synonymous with the internet business revolution. However, there are other domain name endings. A list is given below.
.ac.uk Academic (UK)
.biz Information
.com Company or Commercial Organisation
.co Company or Commercial Organisation (.uk, .nz)
.edu Educational Institution
.gov Government
.info Information
.mil Military
.net Internet Gateway (although now used more generally)
.org Non-profit organisation
If a country is not specified then it will generally be regarded as anywhere in the world, although mostly they will apply to the USA. Often the country where the web site originates is specified in the domain name, for example:
.au Australia
.ca Canada
.cc Cocoa Islands
.de Germany
.es Spain
.fr France
.jp Japan
.nl Netherlands
.no Norway
.uk United Kingdom