.biz is a

generic top-level domain Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of ev ...

(gTLD) in the

Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned ...

of the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

. It is intended for registration of domains to be used by

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit." Having a business name does not sep ...

es. The name is a phonetic spelling of the first syllable of ''business''.

History

The TLD was created to relieve some of the demand for domain names in the top-level domain, and to provide an alternative for businesses whose preferred domain name in had already been registered by another party. There are no specific legal or geographic qualifications to register a domain name, except that it must be for "bona fide business or commercial use." It was created in 2001 along with several other domains as the first batch of new gTLDs approved by

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespac ...

in the expansion of the Domain Name System following the increased interest in internet commerce in the late 1990s. The TLD, originally administered by Neustar until 2020, is currently administered by

GoDaddy GoDaddy Inc. is an American publicly traded Internet domain registrar and web hosting company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and incorporated in Delaware. , GoDaddy has more than 21 million customers and over 6,600 employees worldwide. Th ...

and registrations are processed via accredited registrars. In contrast to other newly installed top-level domains, the registry did not implement a sunrise period to grant trademark owners first chance at registration, but instead used a procedure it called the "IP Claims Service" whereby trademark owners could file intellectual property claims in advance and then challenge any eventual registrant through a policy named ''Startup Trademark Opposition Policy'' (STOP). This process was created by Jeffrey J. Neuman as proof-of-concept protection service and an alternative to the Sunrise policy. A number of domains were successfully obtained by trademark owners from other registrants through this policy; some of the more controversial cases included those of and , the latter being reversed by a court decision.

Use

On June 23, 2008 at the ICANN 32nd International Public Meeting in Paris, the registry announced that it had officially surpassed two million registrations worldwide. In Turkish, ''biz'' means 'we' and is used in some sites such as ''turkleriz.biz'' (We are the Turks) and ''fenerliyiz.biz'' (We are fans of Fenerbahçe).

Alternative DNS roots

Before ICANN approved of the top-level domain in the official DNS root, similar domains of the same name were already in use by alternative DNS roots. This created the possibility of a domain pointing to different

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ide ...

es depending on the specific DNS configuration of a client computer. For this reason, the domain's registry,

, requires that a DNS server be officially registered with them on their list of approved DNS servers before a domain registrar may register it in the

WHOIS WHOIS (pronounced as the phrase "who is") is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block or an autonomo ...

database.

References

External links

GoDaddy registry operator website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Biz Generic top-level domains Computer-related introductions in 2001 de:Top-Level-Domain#Nichtgesponserte Domains (uTLD) sv:Toppdomän#Generiska toppdomäner