The Domain Name System of the Internet consists of a set of

top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in ...

s that constitute the root domain of the hierarchical name space and database. In the growth of the Internet, it became desirable to expand the initial set of six generic top-level domains in 1984. As a result, new top-level domain names have been proposed for implementation 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 namespaces ...

. Such proposals included a variety of models ranging from adoption of policies for ''unrestricted gTLDs'' that could be registered by anyone for any purpose, to ''chartered gTLDs'' for specialized uses by specialized organizations. In October 2000, ICANN published a list of proposals for top-level domain strings it had received.

Geographic proposals

* – Generic geographical locations. * and – Currently being sold by Dennis Hope's " Lunar Embassy Commission" alongside , , , , , , , , . People who purchase novelty deeds for outer space property from him are also given free domains. None of these TLDs are supported at present by root servers. * – was proposed by City of Toronto officials.

Internationalized country code top-level domains

The following ccTLDs ( country code top-level domains) have been requested using a procedure known as Internationalized Domain Name (or IDN) ccTLD Fast Track Process. The following countries have national languages that use other scripts than Latin, but have no internationalized country code top-level domain, and none proposed in the above list: * Afghanistan * Bhutan * Cambodia * Cyprus *

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

* Ethiopia * North Korea * Kuwait * Kyrgyzstan * Lebanon * Maldives *

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

* Nepal * Tajikistan

Language and community

These proposals are centered on creating an independent Internet identity for linguistic and cultural communities. They are mostly inspired by the success of the domain created for websites in the Catalan language or about the Catalan culture. * Note: The dotCYMRU, dotEUS, dotSCOT and dotBZH have formed th
ECLID
the European Cultural and Linguistic Internet Domains umbrella group to lobby for the successful and speedy application for the bids.

Technical domain name themes

* – A domain for e-mail networks, proposed to facilitate fighting e-mail spam. * – A domain for general use on the World Wide Web.

Specialized and professional topics

* –

environmental causes A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scal ...

– Limited existence in 2016 and full launch in 2017. * – medical practitioners and organizations – exists from 2016. * –

electronic commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

sites – exists from 2016. * – sport sites

References