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Short for top-level domain. A tld
identifies the most general part of the domain name in an internet address,
specifying either what sort of organisation owns that domain name or which
country it is registered in . generic top-level domains (gtlds)
include .com, which identifies a commercial organisation; .edu, which
indicates an educational establishment such as a school or university; and
.mil, which is reserved for US military organisations. Country-cod top-level
domains (cctlds), such as .uk, .de and .fr identify the country in
which the domain resides.
Controversy surrounds the use and
administration of tlds, which may not always be what they seem.
In 2000, a US company called DotTV agreed to pay $50m over 12 years for the
right to register internet addresses with the .tv tld, once the
exclusive right of the island of Tuvalu in the south Pacific. Now anyone in
the world can register a .tv address, much to the annoyance of internet
purists, who insist that tlds should be maintained for the good of a
country's inhabitants. Others say that the deal has improved the economic
fortunes of the island, whose government used its first $19m cheque to build
roads and improve the education system.
In an attempt to provide a large number of more meaningful internet
addresses, icann finally ratified a new set of seven gtlds - .aero,
.biz, .coop, .museum. .name and .pro - which were introduced in 2001
after much heated discussion. But many say that the changes do not go far
enough and have advocated the introduction of lost of additional tlds
to make the purpose of particular sites more apparent to users. One
suggestion that has been widely applauded is the introduction of a .sucks
domain, which could be used by sites that wish to register their displeasure
with the behaviour of a company or individual.
In the absence of co-operation from icann, support is
growing for an alternate system to create and manage tlds. One such
organisation, the Open Root Server Confederation (orcs), already
maintains a network of name servers that allows people to access and
register domains such as .web, .gallery, .faq and .xxx. Accessing
these new domain generally requires the co-operation of an isp,
however, and as yet few people are even aware that they exist. Icann
outraged supporters of the alternative domain name server system with the
introduction of the .biz tld, which had been up and running on the
alternative system since 1996. |
