Editing Domain name (section)

==Domain name registration==

===DNS history===
The first commercial Internet domain name, in the TLD ''com'', was registered on 15 March 1985 in the name [[symbolics.com]] by Symbolics Inc., a computer systems firm in Massachusetts.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Schupak |first=Amanda |date=2015-03-13 |title=It's been 30 years since the first ".com" |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/com-domain-30-year-anniversary/ |access-date=2025-04-01 |work=CBS News |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Abell |first=John C. |date=2010-03-15 |title=March 15, 1985: Dot-Com Revolution Starts With a Whimper |url=https://www.wired.com/2010/03/0315-symbolics-first-dotcom/ |access-date=2025-04-01 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028}}</ref>

By 1992, fewer than 15,000 ''com'' domains had been registered.

In the first quarter of 2015, 294 million domain names had been registered.<ref name="investor.verisign.com">[https://investor.verisign.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=920138 Internet Grows to 294 Million Domain Names in the First Quarter of 2015] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171220175258/https://investor.verisign.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=920138 |date=2017-12-20 }}, Jun 30, 2015.</ref> A large fraction of them are in the ''com'' TLD, which as of December 21, 2014, had 115.6 million domain names,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=17231 |title=Thirty years of .COM domains - and the numbers are up |date=Mar 13, 2015 |publisher=Geekzone |access-date=Mar 25, 2016 |archive-date=April 7, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407025259/http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=17231 |url-status=live }}</ref> including 11.9 million online business and e-commerce sites, 4.3 million entertainment sites, 3.1 million finance related sites, and 1.8 million sports sites.<ref>Evangelista, Benny. 2010. "25 years of .com names." San Francisco Chronicle. March 15, p. 1</ref> As of July 15, 2012, the ''com'' TLD had more registrations than all of the ccTLDs combined.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://royal.pingdom.com/2012/07/20/domain-domination-the-com-tld-larger-than-all-cctlds-combined/ |title=Domain domination: The ''com'' TLD larger than all ccTLDs combined |publisher=Royal.pingdom.com |access-date=2012-07-25 |archive-date=2012-07-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723235657/http://royal.pingdom.com/2012/07/20/domain-domination-the-com-tld-larger-than-all-cctlds-combined/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

{{as of|2023|12|31|post=,|df=US}} 359.8 million domain names had been registered.<ref>{{cite web |title=DNIB Quarterly Report Q4 2023 |url=https://dnib.com/articles/the-domain-name-industry-brief-q4-2023 |website=Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB) |access-date=16 February 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

===Administration===
The right to use a domain name is delegated by [[domain name registrar]]s, which are accredited by the [[Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers]] (ICANN), the organization charged with overseeing the name and number systems of the Internet. In addition to ICANN, each top-level domain (TLD) is maintained and serviced technically by an administrative organization operating a registry. A registry is responsible for maintaining the database of names registered within the TLD it administers. The registry receives registration information from each domain name registrar authorized to assign names in the corresponding TLD and publishes the information using a special service, the [[WHOIS]] protocol and its successor [[Registration Data Access Protocol]] (RDAP).

Registries and registrars usually charge an annual fee for the service of delegating a domain name to a user and providing a default set of name servers. Often, this transaction is termed a sale or lease of the domain name, and the registrant may sometimes be called an "owner", but no such legal relationship is actually associated with the transaction, only the exclusive right to use the domain name. More correctly, authorized users are known as "registrants" or as "domain holders".

ICANN publishes the complete list of TLD registries and domain name registrars. Registrant information associated with domain names is maintained in an online database accessible with the WHOIS protocol. For most of the 250 [[country code top-level domain]]s (ccTLDs), the domain registries maintain the WHOIS or RDAP (Registrant, name servers, expiration dates, etc.) information.

Some domain name registries, often called ''network information centers'' (NIC), also function as registrars to end-users. The major generic top-level domain registries, such as for the ''com'', ''net'', ''org'', ''info'' domains and others, use a registry-registrar model consisting of hundreds of domain name registrars (see lists at ICANN<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.icann.org/registrar-reports/accredited-list.html|title=ICANN-Accredited Registrars|publisher=ICANN|access-date=2012-09-13|archive-date=2019-05-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190519065459/https://www.icann.org/registrar-reports/accredited-list.html|url-status=live}}</ref> or VeriSign).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.verisign.com/en_US/domain-names/domain-registrar/index.xhtml|title=Choose A Top Domain Registrar Of Your Choice Using Our Search Tool|publisher=Verisign|access-date=2015-08-10|archive-date=2015-09-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904040636/http://www.verisign.com/en_US/domain-names/domain-registrar/index.xhtml|url-status=live}}</ref> In this method of management, the registry only manages the domain name database and the relationship with the registrars. The ''registrants'' (users of a domain name) are customers of the registrar, in some cases through additional layers of resellers.

There are also a few other [[alternative DNS root]] providers that try to compete or complement ICANN's role of domain name administration, however, most of them failed to receive wide recognition, and thus domain names offered by those alternative roots cannot be used universally on most other internet-connecting machines without additional dedicated configurations.

===Technical requirements and process===
In the process of registering a domain name and maintaining authority over the new name space created, registrars use several key pieces of information connected with a domain:
* ''Administrative contact''. A registrant usually designates an administrative contact to manage the domain name. The administrative contact usually has the highest level of control over a domain. Management functions delegated to the administrative contacts may include management of all business information, such as name of record, postal address, and contact information of the official registrant of the domain and the obligation to conform to the requirements of the domain registry in order to retain the right to use a domain name. Furthermore, the administrative contact installs additional contact information for technical and billing functions.
* ''Technical contact''. The technical contact manages the name servers of a domain name. The functions of a technical contact include assuring conformance of the configurations of the domain name with the requirements of the domain registry, maintaining the domain zone records, and providing continuous functionality of the name servers (that leads to the accessibility of the domain name).
* ''Billing contact''. The party responsible for receiving billing invoices from the [[domain name registrar]] and paying applicable fees.
* ''Name servers''. Most registrars provide two or more name servers as part of the registration service. However, a registrant may specify its own [[authoritative name server]]s to host a domain's resource records. The registrar's policies govern the number of servers and the type of server information required. Some providers require a hostname and the corresponding IP address or just the hostname, which must be resolvable either in the new domain, or exist elsewhere. Based on traditional requirements (RFC 1034), typically a minimum of two servers is required.

A domain name consists of one or more labels, each of which is formed from the set of ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens (a–z, A–Z, 0–9, -), but not starting or ending with a hyphen. The labels are case-insensitive; for example, 'label' is equivalent to 'Label' or 'LABEL'. In the textual representation of a domain name, the labels are separated by a [[full stop]] (period).

===Business models===
Domain names are often seen in analogy to [[real estate]] in that domain names are foundations on which a website can be built, and the highest ''quality'' domain names, like sought-after real estate, tend to carry significant value, usually due to their online brand-building potential, use in advertising, [[search engine optimization]], and many other criteria.

A few companies have offered low-cost, below-cost, or even free domain registration with a variety of models adopted to recoup the costs to the provider. These usually require that domains be hosted on their website within a framework or portal that includes advertising wrapped around the domain holder's content, revenue from which allows the provider to recoup the costs. Domain registrations were free of charge when the DNS was new. A domain holder may provide an infinite number of [[Subdomain|subdomains]] in their domain. For example, the owner of example.org could provide subdomains such as foo.example.org and foo.bar.example.org to interested parties.

{{anchor|Domain name suggestion}}
Many desirable domain names are already assigned and users must search for other acceptable names, using Web-based search features, or [[WHOIS]], [[Registration Data Access Protocol|RDAP]], and [[Domain Information Groper|dig]] operating system tools. Many registrars have implemented '''domain name suggestion''' tools which search domain name databases and suggest available alternative domain names related to keywords provided by the user.