by Joshua Nyamache

Created on: February 08, 2011   Last Updated: April 18, 2011

What is a domain name? What about an internet protocol? What makes people use the internet? Is it not because of websites? Facebook, twitter, yahoo and Google have become household names. Some people are just addicted to them! Are you one of them? How many times do you find yourself mentioning these names? This is how powerful a good domain name can be. I mean the one which is easy to recall, pronounce, short etc.

A domain name identifies one website from another just like your name which identifies you from the rest of the people. Did I say like your name? Not really because somewhere on this world there could be someone having the same name as yours. Bear it in mind that a domain name is supposed to be unique. The word domain name wasn't so popular many years ago as it’s nowadays and it's made up of two parts, namely:

1.) A name. Facebook is an example of a name.

2.) An extension also termed as suffix or top level domain name (TLDs). Examples of TLDs are .com, .net, .org, .mobi, .info, .co, .biz and several others.

Since domain names are in words people find them easy to remember and that is why they're referred to be human friendly.

IP addresses are very important when it comes to using computers connected via the internet. They're just meant for computers (machines) as they use binary digits (0 and 1).

So what is an internet protocol? An IP address is a string of numbers separated by periods e.g. 67.33.58.187. Are you able to remember these numbers? It won’t be all that easy.

You can look IP addresses the way telephone numbers function. You store names of people which correspond to their telephone numbers in your cell phone. In order for a computer server to be able to identify other servers, there need to be an IP address in place. One IP has to be different from others just like one of your friends telephone number is different from other friend’s telephone numbers.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is responsible in assigning (allocating) domain names worldwide. However, this function was originally carried out by Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). ICANN has delegated the registration of domain names to websites that are termed as domain name registrars. These registrar companies are registering new domain names or selling expired domain names. The act of registering a domain name for a specific period of time is termed as hosting a domain name.

You need a valid credit card, PayPal account and personal information such as your address in order to register a domain name. The pricing of registering a domain name differs depending on the extension (TLDs) selected. For example, .co costs a slightly higher amount compared to other extensions. You can register a domain for a maximum of ten years. Once domain names expire and if they're not renewed by the owners during the grace period, then anyone can register them.

According to me, the situation of the domain name industry is continuously growing. What do you think, will it be saturated soon? News outlets are reporting that domain name sales are rising continuously. As a matter of fact, this industry is more robust than when the industry first started out.

Go ahead and register yours today or any other day!

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