What does the TLD stand for?

What is the difference between the first and second name?

The top-level domain (TLD) of a website is the final part of the website's URL. It tells you what level of the website the address takes you to, such as .com, .net, .org, .gov, and . The first part of the URL is the website's domain name (sometimes called its "domain name"), such as foo. If the domain name has more than one word, you need to use a top-level domain extension to separate those words; the most common top-level domain extensions are .info, .us, .cc, .biz, .tv, .ws, and .mobi.e. For example, the domain name of this website is foo.com, but the top-level domain extension is .

To make the domain name into a top-level domain, you use a country code (such as .org, or .name). For example, if you want to visit foo.org, your browser will look for the address bar on foo. If the website doesn't exist, you'll see a page saying it doesn't exist.

In addition top-level domains, there are also second-level domains (SLDs), which take you to a subpage of the website.net, and .com each have their own SLD, each of which would allow you to visit a subpage on foo.org, foo.net, and foo.com, respectively. These SLDs are typically used when a company wants to brand a subpage of its website, such as the main page or a specific page, or when a website has more than one domain name.

This answer was edited in response to comments.

How many TLD servers are there in the world?

(and how many does a browser need?)

, and how many of them do you think you'll need to connect to as a user? It doesn't need to be anywhere near all of them, but it might be useful to try them all! Why should we care about different TLD servers? Let's face it: all TLD servers work slightly differently and behave differently. So why do we need so many TLD servers when our browsers can understand most of them already? One server is for testing purposes. One or two servers give random and sometimes bizarre errors - a real waste of time. One server is used by search engines which make mistakes in searching the internet. These are real problems that need fixing. And at the back of our minds, we know that there are some new cool new TLD servers being developed, that will be really cool and amazing and take down the world with its awesome web address technology.

Do we really need over 300 TLD servers at this point, or even 300 new ones being developed? If I was a browser and I wanted to visit the web pages of a friend of mine, a family member, and my favourite person in the world in one place, wouldn't I just open their web site on their website in my browser? It makes much more sense than using over 300 servers just for that, and if my favorite author is on Facebook I will go to their Facebook page or to their WordPress blog, depending on what platform they use best. And if I wanted to view an Instagram picture and liked it, I'd either click on the Like button on Instagram itself (when I have an account) or go to Instagram.com (when I'm logged into Facebook). The more there are, the more chance of going back to the wrong address and seeing some of the weirdly behaving websites that are currently on my machine!

Is it any different when we click through on the links inside an email and open new tabs to our own emails or sites? Would we be any different if we had to use our own personal TLD servers in that case too? Shouldn't these TLD servers be for real, like real websites, not just a few web pages that happen to be based on domains registered with them? Do they ever get used?