How to read a domain suffix

The term "dot.com" at the end of a internet address (URL) refers to the domain of a Web site. Sites on the Web are grouped by their URLs according to the type of organization providing the information on the site. .com the most popular stands for commercial, but do you know what the other ones stand for. Here follows a list of the most common domain suffixes and the types of organizations that would use them.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Computer

1. The most common is .com which stand for a commercial site. The information provided by commercial interests is generally going to shed a positive light on the product it promotes. While this information might not necessarily be false, you might be getting only part of the picture. Remember, there's a monetary incentive behind every commercial site in providing you with information, whether it is for good public relations or to sell you a product outright.
2. .edu is for educational institutions. Sites using this domain name are schools ranging from kindergarten to higher education. If you take a look at your school's URL you'll notice that it ends with the domain .edu. Information from sites within this domain must be examined very carefully. If it is from a department or research center at a educational institution, it can generally be taken as credible. However, students' personal Web sites are not usually monitored by the school even though they are on the school's server and use the .edu domain.
3. .gov stands for Government. If you come across a site with this domain, then you're viewing a federal government site. All branches of the United States federal government use this domain. Information such as Census statistics, Congressional hearings, and Supreme Court rulings would be included in sites with this domain. The information is considered to be from a credible source.
4. .org stands for a non-profit organization. Organizations such as the American Red Cross or PBS (Public Broadcasting System) use this domain suffix. Generally, the information in these types of sites is credible and unbiased, but there are examples of organizations that strongly advocate specific points of view over others, such as the National Right to Life Committee and Planned Parenthood. You probably want to give this domain a closer scrutiny these days. Some commercial interests might be the ultimate sponsors of a site with this suffix.
   
   .mil
5. .mil stands for military. This domain suffix is used by the various branches of the Armed Forces of the United States.
6. .net stands for network. You might find any kind of site under this domain suffix. It acts as a catch-all for sites that don't fit into any of the preceding domain suffixes. Also, when the most popular names were taken by .com then some people tried to get the same name using .net. There was hope that .net would become very popular, but it has never had the same clout as .com has.
7. Here are Country domain suffixs:
   Country domain suffixes
   .au Australia
   .in India
   .br Brazil
   .it Italy
   .ca Canada
   .mx Mexico
   .fr France
   .tw Taiwan
   .il Israel
   .uk United Kingdom

Tips & Warnings

• The site address can give you clues as to ultimate sponsorship of a site. If you can't determine who wrote the site or who or what is sponsoring the site, try truncating the URL to its root address. This will tell you where the site is being hosted. For example, this site provides information on nutritional RDAs: http://www.mikeschoice.com/reports/rda.htm. If you truncate the URL to its root address http://www.mikeschoice.com, you will discover that this is a site selling a mineral supplement. Given the obvious bias, this is probably not the best source of nutritional information. Another clue to what type of site you're looking at is whether there is a ~ (tilde) symbol in the URL. This symbol usually indicates that the site is a personal Web page and the information should be given careful scrutiny.