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.COM - Generic Top-Level Domain gTLD |
| May 12th, 2008 |
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.com is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) used on the Internet's Domain Name System. It was one of the original top-level domains, established in January 1985. It is currently operated by VeriSign. It is consistently pronounced as a word, dot-com, and has entered the common language this way; in contrast, though some of the other TLDs are also sometimes pronounced as words, they're also frequently spelled out instead, something that is never done with .com.
Although .com domains have always been intended for commercial use, they are currently available for anyone to register. In the 1990s, .com became the most common top-level domain for websites, especially commercial ones, and gave its name to dot-com companies. The introduction of .biz, which is restricted to businesses, has had little impact on the popularity of .com.
Although companies anywhere in the world can register .com domains, many countries have a second-level domain with a similar purpose under their own ccTLD. Such second-level domains are usually of the form .com.xx or .co.xx, where xx is the ccTLD. Australia (.com.au), the United Kingdom (.co.uk), Mexico (.com.mx), New Zealand (.co.nz), People's Republic of China (.com.cn), Japan (.co.jp) and South Korea (.co.kr) are all examples.
Often, noncommercial sites such as those of nonprofit organizations, governments, and so on will use .com addresses, which some find to be contrary to the domain's original purpose. A .org, .gov, or other more specific TLD might be more appropriate for such sites.
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