For example, if I type “www.MyFavoriteDomain.com”, how does my browser (or ISP) know where to go?
Secondarily, is there some way to get a list of domain names that have the word “Portland” somewhere in the name. For example “SeaportLand.com” and “Portland-Maine.com”, etc., would all appear in the list.
Thirdly: I heard that new extensions were soon to be allowes in addition to .com, .org, and .net. What are these new extensiona and when will I be able to sign up for one?
For the 2nd part, Domain Surfer will do what you want: http://www.domainsurfer.com/ssearch.cgi?dom=portland
And here’s a press release announcing the new names: http://www.icann.org/announcements/icann-pr16nov00.htm
Basically:
.aero – airlines
.biz – businesses
.coop – co-op businesses, like credit unions
.info – information services
.museum – duh
.name – for individuals, like john.smith.name
.pro – for professionals, like lawyers and doctors, i.e. johnsmith.law.pro
Try http://www.howstuffworks.com/dns.htm for info on how DNS works.
Now this is something that bugs me. The addition of new domain extensions is supposed to create new names, right. Well, if I own a lucrative domain name, say, like, http://www.straightdope.com do I want somebody else to have http://www.straightdope.biz or http://www.straightdope.info? Of course not, so I buy up these names as well. So how does this increase the total number of names? I think all it does is generate money for the registering companies, and create opportunities for cyber squatting. The same thing happened when they added new “800” phone number prefixes like 888. Businesses like 1-800-FLOWERS howled, and lawsuit hilarity ensued. In my opinion, it’s a short-sighted scam, with no real benefit for domain owners or users.
The “typo” name is not new to the web, nor is it just small guys. The phone companies had a battle when some people couldn’t spell Operator.
They would dial 1-800-OPERATER and get the rival phone company! This was sorted out in court, and now both companies had to change names, to 1-800-COLLECT and 1-800-CALL-ATT.
Still easily misremembered as the other, and that seems to be the point.
Interesting tidbit of information:
As you move up the DNS “tree,” getting to higher and higher level DNS servers which have more knowledge of the various registered domain names, you eventually get to the root server for a given top-level domain (TLD).
Sun used to have an advertising campaign which claims that they “put the dot in dot-com.” This was true, because the server which kept the lists of all domains in the .com TLD (run by Network Solutions, at least, it was last time I remember) was a Sun server. Sometime last year, that server was switched to an IBM computer, effectively ending Sun’s claim.
Just something I find rather interesting, and hey, its on topic, as that is where the master list of domain names for .com are kept