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The NAME Top Level Domain (TLD)

When the host computer naming system was developed for the Internet seven top level domain names were selected: com, org, net, mil, gov, edu, int. There is actually an eighth, arpa, but it is extremely rare for a normal Internet user to see it. It is used by name servers to look up a host name given its IP address, a process called a reverse lookup.

The NAME TLD was added to the Global Name Registry in 2001. It one just one of many TLDs that have been added to the Domain Name System since the original group. Wikipedia has several pages that describe various facets of the Domain Name System. Here is a List of Internet top-level domains which includes the geographic TLDs or country codes, e.g., us, ca, and mx. Authoritative technical details on DNS may be found at RFC Editor web site. The Official Internet Protocol Standard RFCs may be found here. Fascinating reading if you want to get all the facts.

By the way, com, net, org, name or any of the other TLDs are not called extensions. They are only properly called top level domains. To do otherwise is to let your ignorance hang out. Yes, I know some people do, but they are uninformed or misinformed. Domain name parts are are organized hierarchically with the beginning of a DNS name, written on the right side and progress to the left as you move downward thru the domain name hierarchy. The successive parts are called second level domain, third level domain, etc. This is not backwards, just reversed from what some people are used to. The term extension is a part of some file system naming conventions and is on the right end of those names, hence the confusion. (The Unix file system name has no concept of an extension as far as the operating system is concerned. However, many applications treat the dot and following 3 (or more) characters at the right end as an extension.) Unix does not care how many dots are in a file name.