The etymology of the word “generic” can be derived from the French word “générique”. In the context of domains, it means “general”. Domains of this type are commonly available and are not restricted to certain user groups. As opposed to country code domains, they can be registered by anybody worldwide, with no respect to his or her residence.

The open allocation regulations and the global accessibility for registration make these domains very attractive. This results in certain disadvantages, however, since the most interesting domain names are already taken for the “classical” generic top level domains .com, .net and .org.

Fortunately, since the first liberalization of the domain market in 2001, new generic top level domains have been introduced where the registration of the desired domain name possible in many cases, because the desired domain is not yet otherwise assigned. Meanwhile the domain endings .biz, .info and .name are established and have become an important part of the internet.

The second and third liberalization phases of the domain market in 2004 and 2012 have produced a whole plethora of about 2,000 TLDs. However, many of these are not registrable by the general public because they are used by companies for their own use. As registry backend Knipp with the product TANGO Registry Services® operates for example the TLDs .bauhaus, .man, .sap and .seat.

More information about the new generic TLDs that can be registered by anyone. are in the following pages summarized.

 

 

General domain for common and commercial usage. The .com top level domain is the largest of all TLDs.

 

Initially, the .net domain was intended for networkers in a technical sense. Meanwhile, the target group has been expanded to contain everybody who is “interconnected” in some way or the other.

 

Organizations, mostly non-profit ones, use this domain, like the Red Cross, for example, and other charitable organizations.

 

This section comprises all generic top level domains that have newly become registrable via the DRS since the domain market extension in 2012.

 

The name of this top level domain is based on the colloquial acronym for business. The domain is intended for business people. However, there is no verification concerning the purpose of the domain usage when registering .biz domains.

 

.info domains are intended for those who provide information. Strictly speaking, that includes nearly every operator of a web server, of course.

 

The .name domains are intended for the private usage of natural persons. The domain names consists of the last name or first name and last name, respectively.