Domain Names

Domain names serve as humanly-memorable names for Internet participants, It is a series of alphanumeric strings separated by periods, such as www yourname.com. It is the address that identifies the owner. The highest level of domain names of the Internet are .com, .net and .org. Canadians have become very familiar with .ca Domain names are obtained from a Registrar. A domain name Registrar is an accredited organization or commercial entity that manages the reservation of domain names in accordance with the guidelines of the designated domain name registries and to offer such services to the public.

Right to Use The right to use a domain name is delegated by domain name registrars. Registrars usually charge an annual fee for the service of delegating a domain name to a user. 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".

History "The first commercial Internet domain name, www.symbolics.com, was registered on 15 March 1985 by Symbolics Inc., a computer systems firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts. By 1992, fewer than 15,000 .com domains had been registered. In December 2009 there were 192 million domain names." Wikipedia - History