Domains

An Introduction To Domains

The most basic functionality of a domain name, sometimes referred to as a websites URL, is to provide symbolic representations, i.e., recognizable names, to mostly numerically addressed Internet resources called IP addresses. This abstraction allows any resource (e.g. a website) to be moved to a different physical location in the address topology of the network, globally or locally in an intranet, in effect changing the IP address. This translation from domain names to IP addresses (and vice versa) is accomplished with the global facilities of a Domain Name System, often referred to as the DNS.

Domain names contain clues to the organization and international location hosting the webpage. Using a domain name can help you decide if a webpage will be helpful to your research.

Organization Types

com or co - Commercial | edu or ac - Educational | org - Non-profit Organisations

net - Networking Providers | mil - Military | gov - Government | int - International Organisations

aero - Air transport industry | biz - Business | coop - Cooperatives | info - Unrestricted use

museum - Museums | name - Individuals | pro - Accountants, lawyers, and physicians

Some Countries Codes

my - Malaysia | nl - Netherlands | tv - Tuvalu | uk - United Kingdom | za - South Africa

Most US pages do not include a country code.

Understanding domain names and URLs can help you to make an educated guess about where you might find some information, especially about companies and institutions.

Most companies, especially large ones, use their name as the domain. For example: Microsoft is www.microsoft.com.

Much the same applies to universities and other higher education institutions, although they sometimes use acronyms. For example Australian Universities such as The University of Southern Queensland uses www.usq.edu.au. UK based institutions use .ac.uk , e.g. London School of Economics is www.lse.ac.uk.