Canada's Website Addresses
Ever wonder how website addresses are made? You know what a website address looks like:
- Usually, it starts with www
- then it's followed by a .
- then usually a person, company or product name
- then usually .COM, .NET, or .CA
This website isn't concerned with anything except the last part of that website address.
.COM and .NET are two very commonly used names (referred to as "Generic Top Level Domains" or "gTLDs").
.CA names are specifically those designated for Canada (Canada's "Country Code Top Level Domain" or "ccTLD"). Every country gets one, and Canada's is .CA. You can tell a ccTLD from a gTLD because there are only two letters. Other gTLDs include .BIZ, .ORG, .INFO and .PRO to name just a few. Other ccTLDs include .US for the United States, .UK for the United Kingdom, .FR for France, .TV for Tuvalu, and .FM for the Federation of Micronesia. Obviously some ccTLDs are more marketable internationally than others (you might recognize .TV and .FM being used for radio stations and television).
A country is assigned their ccTLD by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, and has to establish their own registry operator. Some countries contract this service to firms that specialize in this area (.TV and .FM are prime examples of this). Others, such as Canada, set up their own organizations to perform this important function. In Canada, the registry operator is the Canadian Internet Registration Authority.
Most registries also authorize registrars. A registrar is a company authorized to register domain names. Typically a registrar will market their registration services, so consumers and businesses that want to register their own domain name must seek out an authorized registrar for this purpose.
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