Page 103 - Electronic Commerce

Chapter 2

sponsored top-level domains (sTLDs), which are TLDs for which an organization other
than ICANN is responsible.
78 Thesponsor ofaspecific sTLDmustbearecognizedinstitutionthat has
expertise regarding and is familiar with the community that uses the sTLD. For
example, the .aero sTLD is sponsored by SITA, an air transport industry association that
has expertise in and is familiar with airlines, airports, and the aerospace industry.
Individual countries are permitted to maintain their own TLDs, which their residents
can use alone or in combination with other TLDs. For example, the URL of the
University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia is www.uq.edu.au, which combines .edu
with .au to indicate that it is an educational institution in Australia. Figure 2-4 presents
a list of some commonly used TLDs, including gTLDs and some of the more frequently
used country TLDs.

TLD Use
.com U.S. commercial
.edu Four-year educational institution
.gov U.S. federal government
.mil U.S. military
.net U.S. general use
.org U.S. not-for-profit organization
.us U.S. general use
.asia Companies, individuals, and organizations based in Asian–Pacific regions
.biz Businesses
.info General use
.name Individual persons
.pro Licensed professionals (such as accountants, lawyers, physicians)
.au Australia
.ca Canada
.de Germany
.fi Finland
.fr France
.jp Japan
.se Sweden
.uk United Kingdom

Source: Internet Assigned Numbers Authority Root Zone Database, http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/
FIGURE 2-4 Commonly used domain names

Although ICANN has always chosen new gTLDs after much deliberation and careful
consideration, many people have been highly critical of the selections (see, for example,

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