The term ‘domain’ is probably the most known word in the world of internet. It is probably the most important word as well. Your domain is what differentiates your website from others.

Even though domains are widely accepted as one of the most important aspects of your internet presence, a lot of users still don’t know what exactly a domain is, or the different kinds of domains that are available and the significance of each type.

Let us first look at what a domain is. Firstly when you host your website with a web hosting service provider, your website is uploaded to the servers of your web hosting company and each server on the internet has its own address called as an IP address. A typical IP address looks something like this: 192.168.1.12. Now obviously remembering such numbers are quite hard and quite impractical as well. Also such numbers cannot be branded as well by website owners. Hence the need for a domain name arises. Your domain name is a easy to remember name referring to your company name or product or services you are selling or any other name you choose which you feel sounds right and can be developed as a brand.

The domain that you register points to the IP address of your server so instead of typing the confusing and complicated server IP address, one can simply type your domain name in their browsers to access your website.

Domain names are of course much more than mere names that make it easy to access your website. Choosing the correct domain name could mean make or break for your online venture. A domain name that is easy to remember, offers excellent branding opportunities, refers directly to your products and services or contains keywords that people generally use to search for similar products and services could make a whole world of difference on how successful you are on the internet.

Apart from your actual domain name, there are plenty of different extensions available. The most common and sought after extension is the .com extension. This is typical what anyone wanting to register a domain searches for first. But even if you don’t get your desired .com extension, you need not worry anymore since there are plenty of other choices available. Some of the other extensions besides .com are .net, .org, .edu, .info, .mobi, .biz, .tv, country specific extensions like .com.au if you are living in Australia etc.

Although each of the extensions have their own purposes, but nowadays doesn’t matter what your purpose is, if you want to register your domain and you don’t get your desired .com extension, you can easily register your domain with any of the other extensions without making any difference to potential users of your website.

Nevertheless lets take a look at some of the other extensions mentioned and the purpose for which they were originally meant for:

.net – This extension was meant for companies doing business on the net or internet service providers.

.net.au - The Australian version of the above.

.org – This extension is meant websites of non-profit organizations.

.org.au – The Australian version of the above.

.edu – As the name suggests, this extension is meant for educational institutes

.info – This extension is meant for websites that provide information about any particular topics.

.mobi – This is relatively a new extension and is meant for websites that want to be accessed via mobile devices such as your cell phone or PDA.

.biz – This extension is meant to denote that your website is a business website.

.tv – This is the country extension for Tuvalu but it is used mainly for those websites that are related to the media or specifically to television.

As mentioned before although each domain extension had its own purpose, you can go ahead and register them doesn’t matter what your goal is for your website. In fact most companies or even individuals prefer registering their domains on all the available extensions to help in branding and exclusivity for the main domain name. No matter what the extension you choose, you should always choose your main domain name carefully since it could make the biggest difference in success or failure of your online venture.