The big three Top Level Domains are known around the world as .com/.net/.org. With some exceptions of local or country specific top domains, these big three are king of the hill and are considered universal. The term generic means that no matter where you are, the generic top level domain will be accessible and search engines that serve up local content will show the domain in the search results. Search engines will provide results showing the generic top level domains and any country specific or country code top level domain for the region where the search originates.
If you were to search for information on coffee in the USA, you will see the search results for the gTLD extensions, but you will not see country specific TLD results like .co.uk or .jp.
.net
The first TLD ever was used for computer networks and a shortened version of the term NETwork. Some of the very first public domains were the .net varity and many still prefer the .net extension over all others because of it. There are many who believe that .net is the preferred generic TLD available. You will see a lot of internet providers, hosting services, and netword services like cloud services using the .net generic top level domain because of it’s history.
.com
The 800lb gorrilla of the domain world. This gTLD was origionally for commercial properties, but quickly became an unrestricted generic domains extension. This top level domain took off with marketers and news media and became a trademark for the internet in every major publication. Most businesses and domain investors believe that .com is the only generic top level domain to consider when deciding to bring your brand online.
.org
It began it’s life to house organizations that did not fall into the commercial property or network classifications. It was later classified as generic and took off in popularity as the internet boomed. To this day it still holds a feeling of being a part of something bigger. The .org gTLD is the top level domain preferred by non profit organizations, charitable organizations, trade unions, trade associations and public arts organizations around the world. Acronym domains make up a large number of .org generic top level domains for these types of organizations.
.biz
.biz is relatively new to the game but it is important to note that is is also considered a generic top level domain. It has been set up because of the high registration rate of the three previously mentioned generic top level domains. The only requirement for .biz registration is that it be intended for actual business use, and not be used for personal sites or private purposes outside of business. There have been a lot of newer companies using .biz after finding that other gTLD’s have been registered, now this extension has a younger new generation feel to it.
.co
The newest of the generic top level domains, the .co extension was released by Columbia as their country specific TLD. It has only recently been given generic status and busniesses are jumping on board as the next best thing to the .com extension. The .co has positioned itself as a better and shorter alternative to .com, and with length restrictions of today’s social media a shorter extension has a better chance of success with more options for use. the domain O.co is being used by Overstock.com for their marketing and advertising and G.co was purchased by Google for use in their Google Maps marketing platform.
| gTLD | intended use |
|---|---|
| aero | the air transport industry. |
| asia | companies, organizations and individuals in the Asia-Pacific region |
| biz | business use |
| cat | Catalan language/culture |
| com | commercial organizations, but unrestricted |
| coop | cooperatives |
| edu | U.S. post-secondary educational establishments |
| gov | U.S. government entities at the federal, state, andlocal levels |
| info | informational sites, but unrestricted |
| int | international organizations established by treaty |
| jobs | employment-related sites |
| mil | the U.S. military |
| mobi | sites catering to mobile devices |
| museum | museums |
| name | families and individuals |
| net | originally for network infrastructures, now unrestricted |
| org | originally for organizations not clearly falling within the other gTLDs, now unrestricted |
| pro | certain professions |
| tel | services involving connections between the telephone network and the Internet |
| travel | travel agents, airlines, hoteliers, tourism bureaus, etc. |
| xxx | pornography |