Top-level domain

A Top-Level Domain is the series of characters at the end of a URL after a period.

Generic Top-Level Domains[edit | edit source]

Generic top-level domains include the original 6, with 5 having been release in 1984 and 1 in 1985^[1].

.com. It was originally meant for commercial entities, but now pretty much everyone uses it for everything despite more specific fitting TLD's existing. Teachers will often tell you to avoid using websites that end in .com when citing sources. Soybooru uses this domain.
.org, which was originally meant for non-profit organizations. Teachers say you can trust websites ending in .org (except Wikipedia), even though anyone can use it. This very wiki uses the .org domain.
.edu, which is meant for educational use, but now it's used almost exclusively for colleges and universities.
.gov, which is meant for government agencies but is pretty much exclusively used by America. ~~NEVER TRUST A WEBSITE THAT ENDS IN .GOV~~ You can always trust a website ending in .gov
.mil, which is meant for military use, but again, is only used by America.
.net, which is meant for generic use, but isn't as popular for this purpose as .com. This is the one released in 1985.

Country code top-level domains are domains meant for specific countries^[2].

Many country code top-level domains are used by those who aren't based in the country that the domain is meant for, often because of money.^[a]

Notable TLDs include:

.us, which is meant for America (even though nophono uses it).
.uk, which is meant for the United Kingdom. Since Brits need to be quirky, the .uk domain is often preceded by a second-level domain^[3]. For example, a website meant for commercial purposes would end in .co.uk instead of just .uk.
.cn, which is meant for China. It is the most common country code top-level domain in the world.

.tk, which is meant for Tokelau (a territory of New Zealand), yet is incredibly popular because it was free (not anymore).
.st, which is meant for São Tomé and Príncipe yet the Sharty uses it despite no soyteen being from said country (unless they all secretly are).
.tv, which is meant for Tuvalu yet is used by websites like Twitch because TV is, of course, also the abbreviation for television.
.ly, which is meant for Libya but is used by the website Bitly so the URL can spell bit.ly.
.be, which is meant for Belgium but is used in the shorter domain for YouTube since it spells youtu.be.
.io, which is meant for British Indian Ocean Territory but is used by browser games and websites about technology since IO also stands for input-output.
.se, a certified Swedish Win.
.rs, which is meant for Serbia, but is used for Rust

↑ Some obsessed countries do require the registrant to either be a citizen of the country or have a registered business in the country.

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