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TLD Short for top-level domain, and refers to the suffix attached to Internet domain names. There are a limited number of predefined suffixes, and each one represent a top-level domain. Current top-level domains include:

• com - commercial businesses; this is the most common TLD
• gov - U.S. government agencies
• edu - Educational institutions such as universities
• org - Organizations (mostly nonprofit)
• mil - Military
• net - Network organizations
• ca - Canada
• th - Thailand

With the explosion of the Internet over the last few years, competition for domain names has become fierce. Of all the companies named Acme Inc., for example, only one can have the domain name Acme.com. The Internet Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC) is addressing this problem by creating six new TLDs, which were supposed to start being used sometime in 1998, but did not:

• store - merchants
• web - parties emphasizing Web activities
• arts - arts and cultural-oriented entities
• rec - recreation/entertainment sources
• info - information services
• nom - individuals