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The domain name glossary is a list of domain name related terms explained. This list will be updated as and when new terms arise.
Administrative Contact:
The administrative contact is an individual or role account authorized on behalf
of the domain name registrant to deal with administrative matters relating to a
domain name.
Adsense:
Contextual advertising by Google. Website publishers earn a portion of the
advertising revenue for placing Google sponsored links on their site.
Appraisal:
An evaluation carried out to establish the potential market value of a domain
name.
Authentication:
The process of verifying the identity of an individual or organization.
Authentication allows the recipient in an electronic transaction to be confident
of both the identity of the sender and the integrity of the message.
Authorization:
A process to verify that an individual or organization that has requested an
action actually has the right to make the request. Requiring a password to
modify a domain names' registration information is an example of authorization.
Billing Contact:
The billing contact is the person or role account designated to receive the
invoice for domain name registration fees and renewal (re-registration) fees.
Broker:
A company in the business of buying and selling domain names. Domain name
brokers usually act as facilitators between buyers and sellers, but very rarely
buy for their own account.
Cybersquatter:
The illegal act of buying up domain names and “sitting” on them with the intent
of making a large profit off the sell. Cybersquatters will often buy out large
quantities of names, trademarks, or highly marketable names to try to make a
buck or prevent others from lawful use of the name.
Deletion:
The process of removing a domain name and its corresponding record from the
Domain Name System (DNS) and InterNIC' domain name database.
Deleted Domain:
A previously registered domain name whose registration has been cancelled by the
registrar, possibly due to a dispute over ownership or a breach of contract. A
dropped domain is available for registration by the public.
Domainers:
Domainers is a slang term for individuals, companies, or organizations whose business model includes accumulating a portfolio of generic internet domain names. Although controversially and mistakenly compared to cybersquatters, Domainers differentiate and legitimize themselves by avoiding trademarked names and potentially contentious domain names, and refraining from typosquatting. They consider their conduct in buying, selling, and developing domain names to be in the same spirit as real estate investing. Domainers generate revenue via domain parking, through the resale of domain names and by developing domain names into fully functioning websites. Domainers are also sometimes referred to as domain investors and commercial registrants and bulk registrants.
Domain Host:
The business or registrar responsible for a domain name’s server and keeping
their web site “live”.
Domaining:
The business of buying, selling, and developing domain names. It is also used to describe the practice of monetizing domain name registrations (e.g. through pay per click (PPC) or parking pages).
Domain Kiting:
A practice in which a registrant returns a name just before the five-day period expires and re-registers it again as soon as it becomes available.
Domain Monetization:
The business of purchasing domains and running advertising on a landing page to earn ad revenue from traffic. The traffic to these domains comes from a variety of sources: old bookmarks, people typing in the domain i.e. “direct navigation”, residual traffic from the previous web site or search engine results.
Domain Name:
A domain-name is your own cyber-estate. This estate, just like its physical
counterpart, has its value depending on its address (name) and its content. A
domain name in short is what brings visitors to your website, your own space on
the Internet.
Domain Name Disputes:
Disputes that arise over conflicting positions as to who has the right to
register a specific domain name.
Domain Name Space:
An Internet addressing scheme that is hierarchical in nature and uses a "tree"
structure to organize information that describes networks and computers.
DNS (Domain Name System):
The system used to translate alphanumeric domain names into Internet Protocol numbers.
Domain Parking:
An advertising practice used primarily by domain name registrars and internet advertising publishers to monetize type-in traffic visiting an under-developed domain name. The domain name will usually resolve to a page containing relevant advertising listings and links that are targeted to the predicted interests of the visitor. Some major domain monetization and parking companies are Sedo, NameDrive.com and DomainSponsor.
Domain Tasting:
Is a practice of registrants using the free five-day “grace period” at the beginning of a domain registration for ICANN-regulated generic top-level domains to test the marketability of a domain name.
Drop-catching:
The process of using automated systems to register expired domains within a fraction of a second of their being cancelled by the registry.
Dropped domain:
A previously registered domain name whose registration was allowed to lapse by
the original owner, who refused to pay the renewal fee. The domain name returned
to the "available" pool of domain names.
Email Forwarding:
A process to redirect your incoming mail to a specific mailbox.
Escrow:
A third party service that will essentially hold on to the buyer’s payment when
selling a domain name, thereby protecting both the buyer and seller.
Expired Domain:
A domain that has not been reregistered by the owner in the grace period
allotted eventually becomes expired, or unusable by the owner, and is placed
into the pool of available names again.
Hold Status:
A domain name that has not been reregistered by its owner, but not yet in the
pool of available names may be said to be on hold status.
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers):
Headquartered in Marina Del Rey, California, ICANN is a non-profit corporation that was created on September 18, 1998 in order to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly on behalf of the U.S. Government by other organizations, notably IANA. The tasks of ICANN include managing the assignment of domain names and IP addresses.
IDN (Internationalized Domain Name):
An Internet domain name that uses recently adopted standards by the ICANN that modify the existing DNS protocols and standards to support multiple languages and scripts (the so called non-ASCII characters).
InterNIC:
The name given to a project that originated under a cooperative agreement with
the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Link Exchange:
Placing a link to another website on your own site in exchange for a return link
back. Also known as reciprocal linking.
Name Server:
Also called a host (name server). A computer that has both the software and the
data (zone file) needed to resolve domain names to Internet Protocol (IP)
numbers.
PPC (Pay Per Click; also known as CPC):
An advertising technique used on websites, especially search engines. PPC advertisements are usually text ads placed near search results; when a site visitor clicks on the advertisement, the advertiser is charged a small amount. Variants include pay for placement and pay for ranking. The highest ranking goes to the highest bidder.
Primary Market (Registrars):
Refers to the market for unregistered domains. The primary market includes ICANN-accredited registrars.
Registrant:
The individual or organization that registers a specific domain name with
InterNIC.
Registrar:
A business that is given permission to register domain names on behalf of anyone
wishing to obtain one.
Registration:
The process through which individuals and organizations obtain a domain name.
Registration Fee:
The charge for registering, a domain name.
Registry:
A registry is responsible for delegating Internet addresses such as Internet
Protocol (IP) numbers and domain names, and keeping a record of those addresses
and the information associated with their delegation.
Renewal date:
The date on which the periodic maintenance fee paid for a given domain name runs
out.
Reseller:
A company/person that sells domain names through registry services provided by
an ICANN approved registrar.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
The process of optimizing a web page for high search engine rankings for a
particular search term or set of search terms.
Secondary Market/Aftermarket:
Refers to the market for already registered domains, which are available for sale by the current registrant. The registrant may use a third party site such as SnapNames (division of Oversee.net) or Afternic (acquired by NameMedia) to list and broker the sale by means of an auction or list price.
SLDs (Second Level Domains):
The portion of the Uniform Resource Locator that identifies the specific and unique administrative owner associated with an Internet Protocol number. For example, in www.tradedomains.org, “tradedomains” is the second level domain.
Sponsored Links:
Paid advertising which displays next to the natural search results. This is
normally a sponsor paying for a fixed and visible advertisement on certain
spaces on a website.
TLD (Top Level Domain):
The last part of an Internet domain name (such as .com, .net, .us, etc.) that appears furthest to the right. There are three types of TLDs: country code top-level domains (ccTLD), generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) and infrastructure Top Level Domains (iTLD) giving a range of suffixes. A full list of currently existing TLDs can be found here.
Technical Contact:
When you register a domain name you must specify a technical contact for that
domain.
Trademark:
A word, phrase, graphic image, or other symbol used to represent a business,
commercial, or other organization.
Traffic:
The visitors and page views on a website.
Transfer:
The process of changing the party whom is listed as the domain name registrant.
The party taking over the domain name is responsible for paying a new
registration fee.
Typosquatting:
A practice that relies on mistakes such as typographical errors made by Internet users when inputting a website address into a web browser.
Whois:
A searchable database maintained by VeriSign, which contains information about
networks, networking organizations, domain names, and the contacts associated
with them for the com, org, net, edu, and ISO 3166 country code top level
domains.
WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization):
Headquartered in Geneva, WIPO currently has 184 member states and administers 23 international treaties. It was created in 1967 with the stated purpose “to encourage creative activity, [and] to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world”. Since 1999, WIPO oversees major part of domain name disputes.
UDRP:
The Uniform Dispute Resolution policy is a document which governs how domain
name disputes will be resolved within the gTLD namespace.
