While renewing my domain, I was browsing Dotster’s menu, and saw they offer a whole slew of top level domains suffixes you can register.

Everyone knows .com, .net and .org. Originally, .net was reserved for internet providers while .org was for non-profits. And to get a name, you had to have a nameserver host it. As time went on and .com filled up, the .net and .org loosened up. Eventually, some period after Al Gore officially invented the Internet, names were being hoarded at an amazing rate. Network Solutions then had the bright idea of charging for registration. The domain prospecting continued unabated and for a while, there were were no good .com/.net/.org names left. With the dot.com crash, a lot of the speculators have decided it’s kind of silly to hold onto k9m.com or cjtg.com for $15/year (+/-).
While this was going on, there were efforts to create additional top-level domains. You’ve probably been spammed by someone at a .biz, .us (which, technically, has been around since 1986) or .info.

What the heck is a “.sr” domain and why is it 15 times the price, you ask?

The official doster marketing explanation is that it’s “for seniors,” and of course it gives helpful example domains like Aluminum.sr. Um, yeah r-i-i-i-g-h-t, the Aluminum family wishes to share its legacy on the internet. Come visit them at …

It’s really the country Suriname, and most of the $249.99 is a probably to set up the equivalent of a post office box and/or pay local officials so you can claim to be a business there. It could also be (but not really) the alkaline chemical Strontium gives it super traffic drawing capabilities, much like a TV set.

.BZ is Belize, a small country in Central America.

.WS is Samoa, but being marketed as “WebSite.” Oooh, aaaah.

The .CC domain is (Cocos Island). Considering the population of the two inhabited islands is 600, it must not be that hard to rent out the TLD suffix. I remember getting a lot of spam about signing up for these.

I could understand the allure of the .tv domain (originally owned by the country of Tuvalu). This reminds me of the guy who turned down a $50,000 offer for television.com.

.NU is the country of Niue, population 2,100. Clearly they’re playing off the pun, “like.nu?”

.FR is France. Obviously. They have not sold out and do require that you have a business registered there before you can register a domain. Thus, I was not able to secure the domain welove.fr. C’est la Vie!

It’s pretty entertaining to see the list of deleted .com, .net and .org domains because the owner didn’t want to renew. I mean, what was the person who registered “943theox.com” thinking?