What is a Domain Name?
Every computer connected through a network has a number assigned to it. This number is unique to the whole network. The number is called the IP address or the Internet Protocol address and is assigned by the network server. If the network happens to be a small office network, the IP address is assigned by the network server within the office and is managed by the network or system administrator. In case of computers connected to the internet, the IP address is assigned by the Internet Service Provider or ISP as they are fondly known.
Computer machines connected to the network communicate with each other using the IP address. These IP addresses are indeed the addresses for computers on the network. Though the machines very easily understand these numerical IP addresses, it is very difficult for humans to remember these addresses. Hence, a new, easy to remember system of naming the computers connected to the network is devised. This is known as Domain Name. Domain names (human memory) in turn are mapped to the IP addresses (computer memory) in a naming server called Domain Name Server.
A domain name can be bought (Buy one now) for one or more years for a fee. At the end of the year, you need to renew it again else the domain name is deleted from the registrar’s record and made available for someone else to register. Once you purchase a domain name, you need to purchase the hosting service also which is generally a monthly service. Because of the nature of the names and finite number of words in the dictionary, there is a huge competition for the domain names. The registration is purely on a first-come-first-served basis unless there is a violation of the copyright or trademark (registered or otherwise). Hence, to expand the number of registerable domain names, several top level domains (TLDs) have been created with different extensions. Each of them have a different purpose too. The most commonly used ones are .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, etc. Apart from these, there are country code top level domains (CCTLDs) pertaining to each country’s two character country code like in, es, uk, us, etc. There could be some restrictions on these country code domain names for registration put up by the respective country registrars.
Some most common examples of domain names are google.com (and not www.google.com), yahoo.com (not www.yahoo.com).