Taofeeq

What is top level domain (TLD)?

Adewuyi Taofeeq O.'s photo
Adewuyi Taofeeq O.
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4 min read

Hello, I hope you are having a codie day. I know you are curious about the term top level domain.

TLD In Short

Top level domain simply refers to the rightmost part of every domain name. I will be using the url of our beautiful blog as an example which is hashnode.com. hashnode.com is the domain name , while the ".com" is what we refereed to as top level domain.

If you are still curios about the main purpose of TLD, then read the full description below.

TLD In Details.

I am guessing you in this section because you are still unsure of what the top level domain name is, I will now be explain in detail with my networking knowledge.

Still considering our dear lovely, adorable hashnode.com.

When we try to access any website on the internet, the first thing that comes to mind is the domain name(google.com, facebook.com, hashnode.com), also referred to as URL.

Every website you see on the internet has what we call an IP address(Internet Protocol), which is so magical that every website you can think of, living on the internet has it own. These numbers contains set of instructions, that allows computer to access stored website data.

We can think of our IP address as phone number, and think of the name we store our phone numbers as on our phonebook as the domain name. In short Phone number >>>>>>>>>>>>> IP Address

Contact number >>>>>>>>>>>> Domain name

Now imagine you have a contact Called MUM on your contact list. I am assuming MUM has two different networks, e.g GLO and MTN. You are probably going to store the contact as Mum Mtn and Mum Glo.

Now that contact is simply telling a story, by telling us the respective type of network(GLO, MTN) stored on the contact list.

This GLO and MTN can be likened to your .com, .ng, .org etc.

So, your TLD tell a story as well, such as geographical area it was created, purpose or the organization that owns it.

Below are examples of commonly used top level domains with description or purpose.

NOTE: TLD is also refered to a 'URL extension'

  1. .com which is majorly or commercial use
  2. .org which is used for organizational purpose
  3. .edu used by educational systems.
  4. .gov used by governmental agencies

You can easily purchase a domain name for yourself by visiting websites such namecheap, whogohost etc.

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