Generic top-level domain
Also called: gTLD or generic top-level domain
The abbreviation gTLD stands for generic top-level domain. A top-level domain (TLD) is a domain name at the highest level of the DNS system. Generic top-level domains are a category within TLDs that are for general use and are not tied to a country or geographic region.
Generic top-level domains are of particular interest to companies operating internationally. Instead, a TLD that is linked to a country or territory is called a country code top-level domain(ccTLD).
For the first few decades, the Internet had a limited number of gTLDs:
- .com, intended for commercial establishments, has no restrictions;
- .edu, intended for education, in practice limited to universities and colleges in the United States;
- .gov, intended for governments, in practice limited to U.S. government agencies;
- .mil, intended for military purposes, is used only within the US;
- .org, originally only for other organizations(non-profit), initial restrictions were later lifted;
- .net, originally for networking, today without restrictions
As with other domain extensions, within a generic top-level domain, each unique name can only be registered once. As a result, the number of interesting names available is often limited. This is especially true with popular top-level domain names such as .com.
New gTLDs
Since 2011, organizations wishing to create and manage their own gTLDs can apply to ICANN to do so. This has significantly increased the number of available gTLDs. Domain extensions with non-latin characters (such as Arabic, Chinese and Cyrillic) have also been allowed since then. Some popular generic top-level domains created as a result are .mobi, .top, .xyz, .site, .online and .shop.
Several companies have established their own brand names as gTLDs. Examples include .google, .booking, dell, .nike and .amazon. Generally, these brand top-level domains are managed only for their own use and to protect a brand name.
The gTLDs also include geographically bound top-level domain names that are not based on a country code. These include domain extensions for cities (such as .amsterdam, .nyc (New York), .berlin and .tokyo) and for regions (such as .frl (for Friesland), .cat (for Catalonia) and .vlaanderen).
