Purpose of Domain Names
Domain names serve as humanly memorable names
for Internet participants, like computers, networks, and services. A domain
name represents an Internet Protocol (IP) resource. Individual Internet host
computers use domain names as host identifiers, or host names. Host names are
the leaf labels in the domain name system usually without further subordinate
domain name space. Host names appear as a component in Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) for Internet resources such as web sites.
Domain names are also
used as simple identification labels to indicate ownership or control of a
resource. Such examples are the realm identifiers used in the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), the Domain
Keys used to verify DNS domains in e-mail systems, and in many other Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs).
Keys used to verify DNS domains in e-mail systems, and in many other Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs).
An important function of
domain names is to provide easily recognizable and memorizable names to
numerically addressed Internet resources. This abstraction
allows any resource to be moved to a different physical location in the address
topology of the network, globally or locally in an intranet. Such a move usually requires
changing the IP address of a resource and the corresponding translation of this
IP address to and from its domain name.
Domain names are used to establish a unique identity. Organizations can choose a domain name that corresponds to their name, helping Internet users to reach them easily. For instance IBM's web site is at ibm.com, and GNU's is at gnu.org.
Generic domain names
increase popularity. A generic domain name may sometimes define an entire
category of business that a company is involved in, rather than being the name
of the company. Some examples of generic names include books.com, music.com,
travel.com and art.com. Companies have created successful brands based on a
generic name, and such generic domain names tend to be very valuable.
Domain names are often referred to simply as domains and domain name registrants are frequently referred to as domain owners, although domain name registration with a registrar does not confer any legal ownership of the domain name, only an exclusive right of use.
The use of domain names in commerce may subject them to trademark law. In 2010, the number of active domains reached 196 million.
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