Single-letter second-level domains are domains in which the second-level domain of the domain name consists of only one letter, such as x.com
. In 1993, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) explicitly reserved all single-letter and single-digit second-level domains under the top-level domains com, net, and org, and grandfathered those that had already been assigned. In December 2005, ICANN considered auctioning these domain names.
On December 1, 1993, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) explicitly reserved the remaining single-letter and single-digit domain names. The few domains that were already assigned were grandfathered in and continued to exist. [1] [ better source needed ]
The six single-letter domains in existence at that time under .com, .net and .org were the following: [1]
Domain name | 1993 owner | Current owner |
---|---|---|
i.net | INet Solutions Ltd | Saw.com [2] |
q.com | JG | Lumen Technologies (dba Quantum Fiber) [3] |
q.net | Privately owned | Privately owned [4] |
x.com | Marcel DePaolis & Dave Weinstein | X Corp. |
x.org | – | X.Org Foundation |
z.com | HomePage.com | GMO Internet, Inc. |
The .org TLD was subsequently reopened for single-letter domain registrations. These and selected other gTLD and ccTLD single-letter domain names currently in use, typically as shortcuts, are listed below.
Domain name | Current user | Usage |
---|---|---|
a.co | Amazon.com | URL shortcut for Amazon, generally used by Amazon in SMS messages for informing purchasers of activity on an order |
a.org | ||
b.mw | BMW | URL shortcut for BMW |
c.ai | character.ai | |
c.cc | Brian Cartmell | Homepage |
c.im | C.IM is a general, mainly English-speaking Mastodon instance. | |
c.org | Change.org | URL shortcut for change.org |
d.gs | Dragonsayen | URL shortcut for dragonsayen.com (DraGonSayen) |
d.tube | DTube | Crypto-based and decentralized video-sharing platform |
e.gg | Meta Platforms | |
e.im | MailTime | URL shortcut for MailTime Email Messenger |
e.srl | E-Group | Official URL Of E-Group. |
e.sv | eMedia Holdings | IT services have been provided by eMedia since 2005, operating from Bangladesh, Germany, USA, Australia, France, Italy, Libya, Norway, UK, and Ireland. |
f.org | FinTech Labs | |
g.cn | Google's official URL shortcut to help Chinese users locate Google | |
g.co | Google's official URL shortcut | |
g.gg | Global Grid Gallery | |
g.gl | ||
g.network | G.Network | London based ISP |
g.vu | g.vu | A URL Shortener |
h.plus | Unstable Reality | Homepage for the H+ research project, owned by Alessandro Perilli |
k.at | k-digital Media GmbH & Co KG | Austrian News-portal |
k.im | Kim Dotcom | URL shortcut for x.com/kimdotcom (Kim's X profile) |
k.tt | Citynews SpA | URL shortcut for Citinews |
k.vu | afraid.org | |
l.ink | Top Level Design | |
m.co | Volvo Cars | Volvo Cars' car sharing service, M |
m.me | Meta Platforms | URL shortcut for Messenger |
m.page | mmm.page | URL shortcut for mmm.page website builder |
n.pr | NPR | URL shortcut for public radio network NPR |
n.school | The New School | Website of The New School in Moscow |
o.co | Overstock.com | URL shortcut for Overstock.com |
q.digital | Q.Digital, Inc. | |
r.nf | LibReddit instance | |
s.co | Snap Inc. | URL shortcut to Snapchat's download page |
s.de | Sparkasse | URL shortcut for sparkasse.de |
s.id | PT Aidi Digital Global | URL Shortener |
t.co | X Corp. | X's official URL shortcut |
t.ly | t.ly | URL Shortener |
t.me | Telegram | URL shortcut for Telegram |
u.ae | United Arab Emirates | The United Arab Emirates' Government portal |
u.to | u.to | URL Shortener |
v.me | Visa Inc. | URL shortcut for Visa |
v.org | V Foundation [5] | |
w.org | WordPress | Redirects to wordpress.org, has some assets for wordpress.org (under s.w.org) |
w.wiki | Wikimedia Foundation | The official Wikimedia Foundation URL Shortener |
x.ai | xAI | Homepage URL |
x.company | X Development | Homepage for X Development |
x.team | Shortcut to X Careers, a service at X Development | |
y.gy | y.gy | URL Shortener and QR Code Creator |
y.org | YMCA of the United States | Shortcut to YMCA |
Many other single-letter second-level domains have been registered under country code top-level domains. The list of country code top-level domains which have been identified to allow single-letter domains are:
Single-character non-ASCII second-level domains also exist (as seen below), also known as Internationalized domain names (IDN), these domains are actually registered as their Punycode translations (which are more than a single character) for DNS purposes. ICANN oversees a process for determining registration rules that involves wide-ranging stakeholder input and assorted Working Groups. In the case of .com domains, decisions are then implemented by Verisign, the contracted backend operator for the .com registry. The result is a list of 96,957 codepoints allowed for IDN registrations. [9] As mentioned above, some additional domains previously-registered are "grandfathered" and remain active. Many gTLDs also allow IDN registration. [10]
These 96,957 distinct IDN characters eligible for registration in .com are the essential building-blocks of languages worldwide. A single letter domain does not provide the context found in a longer string or group of words. They may appear similar to one another or to other English / Latin characters; due to this potential for confusion, browsers have restricted the characters that may be rendered and will display the restricted characters in their Punycode form. They are sometimes used as pictorial symbols and memorable links.
Among IDNs currency symbols are considered extremely rare given their day to day use on mobile keyboards. These domains are grandfathered and if the registration is allowed to lapse, domain will be reserved by the registry.
Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) | Punycode Domain + TLD | Usage | Registration Date / Registrar (WHOIS entry) |
---|---|---|---|
¢.com | xn--8a.com | Crypto website | 25 April 2004 / Namecheap |
£.com | xn--9a.com | Currency Symbol .COMs | 25 April 2004 / Namecheap |
€.com | xn--lzg.com | Currency Symbol .COMs | 5 September 2003 / Domain.com |
¥.com | xn--cba.com | Currency Symbol .COMs | 5 September 2003 / OnlineNIC, Inc. |
₩.com | xn--izg.com | Currency Symbol .COMs | 29 August 2004 / Dynadot.com |
₦.com | xn--fzg.com | Currency Symbol .COMs | 19 June 2004 / Name.com |
₣.com | xn--czg.com | Currency Symbol .COMs | 19 April 2001 / CSC Corporate Domains, Inc. |
฿.com | XN--T4C.COM | Currency Symbol .COMs | 03 September 2009 / Name.com |
₮.com | xn--nzg.com | Currency Symbol .COMs | 11 September 2005 / Name.com |
₯.com | xn--ozg.com | Currency Symbol .COMs | 11 September 2005 / Name.com |
₱.com | xn--qzg.com | Currency Symbol .COMs | 18 June 2004 / DomainSite, Inc. |
₪.com | xn--jzg.com | Currency Symbol .COMs | 19 April 2001 / CSC Corporate Domains, Inc. |
₰.com | xn--pzg.com | Currency Symbol .COMs | 04 October 2005 / Name.com |
Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) | Punycode Domain + TLD | Usage | Registration Date / Registrar (WHOIS entry) |
---|---|---|---|
ॐ.com | xn--q3b.com | Religious symbol / digital asset | 19 April 2001 / Name.com, Inc. |
ੴ.com | xn--2cc.com | Religious symbol / digital asset | 26 March 2006 / Dynadot Inc. |
ੴ.net | xn--2cc.net | Religious symbol | 01 September 2023 / Porkbun LLC |
ੴ.cc | xn--2cc.cc | Religious symbol | 27 October 2023 / Dynadot Inc. |
ꓸ.com | xn--8m8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 15 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
— | — | — | — |
ꓮ.com | xn--ym8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
𐊠.com | xn--967c.com | 01 January 2020 / Name.com, Inc. | |
ᗅ.com | xn--upe.com | Former StrongestBrands URL shortcut | 26 December 2015 / Name.com, Inc. |
Ꭺ.com | xn--g9d.com | 18 February 2015 / Name.com, Inc. | |
Ậ.com | xn--zkg.com | 2-5.org | 18 April 2021 / Google LLC |
— | — | — | — |
𐊡.com | xn--b77c.com | 26 Shirts' official URL shortcut | 06 July 2019 / Name.com, Inc. |
𐊂.com | xn--f67c.com | ||
— | — | — | — |
ꓚ.com | xn--em8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
𐊢.com | xn--c77c.com | ||
— | — | — | — |
ꓓ.com | xn--6l8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
— | — | — | — |
ꓰ.com | xn--0m8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
𐊤.com | xn--e77c.com | erikw.com | 30. April 2018 / NameCheap, Inc. |
— | — | — | — |
𐊥.com | xn--f77c.com | Nick Davenport IQinternet.net & DBSTrust.com, UK | 29 April 2020 / GoDaddy.com, LLC |
— | — | — | — |
ꓖ.com | xn--9l8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
ꮐ.com | xn--29d.com | ||
— | — | — | — |
ꓧ.com | xn--rm8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 08 July 2018 / Dynadot LLC |
— | — | — | — |
ꓲ.com | xn--2m8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
𐊦.com | xn--g77c.com | 29 April 2018 / GoDaddy.com, LLC | |
Ī.com | xn--5ea.com | 2-5.org | 09 April 2021 / Google LLC |
ḷ.com | xn--mhg.com | 26 July 2017 / Internet Domain Service BS Corp | |
ㆲ.com | xn--3jk.com | 3 December 2022 / GoDaddy, LLC | |
— | — | — | — |
ꓙ.com | xn--dm8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
— | — | — | — |
ꓗ.com | xn--bm8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
— | — | — | — |
ꓡ.com | xn--lm8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
— | — | — | — |
ꓟ.com | xn--jm8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
𐊰.com | xn--q77c.com | Mahdi Taghizadeh's official URL shortcut | 16 April 2018 / NameCheap, Inc. |
— | — | — | — |
ƞ.com | xn--gia.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 28 December 2020 / Dynadot LLC |
ꓠ.com | xn--km8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
𐊪.com | xn--k77c.com | 10 May 2018 / GoDaddy.com, LLC | |
ꚡ.com | xn--ez8a.com | NES Natural Endocrinology Specialists | 10 February 2021 / Google LLC |
— | — | — | — |
ӧ.com | xn--h6a.com | ӧ's homepage. | 09 November 2014 / Name.com, Inc. |
ꓳ.com | xn--3m8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
〇.com | xn--w6j.com | Started by Cancer, Memorial | 28 February 2006 / DomainSite, Inc. |
𐊫.com | xn--l77c.com | Simon Young Institution.co.uk official shortcut | 28 April 2020 / CSL Computer Service Langenbach GmbH d/b/a joker.com |
ᩅ.com | xn--rnf.com | 11 August 2018 / Dynadot LLC | |
ዐ.net | xn--72d.net | NOC of the Internet | 14 January 2021 / Google LLC |
— | — | — | — |
ᴩ.com | xn--w8f.com | 25 December 2011 / Name.com, Inc. | |
— | — | — | — |
ꓣ.com | xn--nm8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
𐊯.com | xn--p77c.com | 27 April 2021 / Google LLC | |
— | — | — | — |
ꓢ.com | xn--mm8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
ꜱ.com | xn--i38a.com | 15 November 2013 / Name.com, Inc. | |
ꕷ.com | xn--vq8a.com | Landlord Insurance Startup Steadily URL shortcut | 04 June 2021 / Google LLC |
— | — | — | — |
ꓔ.com | xn--7l8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
ፐ.com | xn--v6d.com | Crypto Chain University's official URL shortcut | 10 December 2014 / Tucows Domains Inc. |
ţ.com | xn--rga.com | don Pablo donPabloNow.com official shortcut | 18 February 2021 / NameCheap, Inc. |
— | — | — | — |
ꓴ.com | xn--4m8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
𐋊.com | xn--h87c.com | 10 May 2018 / GoDaddy.com, LLC | |
— | — | — | — |
ꓦ.com | xn--qm8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
ꛟ.com | xn--508a.com | Veritas Home Buyers official URL shortcut | 10 February 2021 / Google LLC |
— | — | — | — |
ꓪ.com | xn--um8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
— | — | — | — |
ꓫ.com | xn--vm8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
☓.com | xn--33h.com | Herbert R. Sim's official URL shortcut | 03 February 2005 / Tucows Domains Inc. |
— | — | — | — |
ꓬ.com | xn--wm8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
𐊲.com | xn--s77c.com | AnaptysBio's official URL shortcut | 02 March 2018 / Name.com, Inc. |
— | — | — | — |
ꓜ.com | xn--gm8a.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC |
ꛉ.com | xn--j08a.com | The Trusted Home Buyer official URL shortcut | 05 May 2021 / Google LLC |
— | — | — | — |
𐋇.com | xn--e87c.com | 21 January 2018 / Google LLC | |
𓂺.com | xn--hu7d.com | virtual collectible / digital asset | 11 January 2019 / Dynadot LLC |
ㆺ.com | xn--ckk.com | iSellSquares.com Homepage | 27 February 2020 / GoDaddy.com, LLC |
☺.com | xn--74h.com | Daniel Früh's official URL shortcut | 03 June 2004 / DomainSite, Inc. |
ツ.com | xn--bdk.com | 29 June 2019 / NameSilo, LLC | |
ッ.top | xn--9ck.top | virtual collectible / digital asset | 27 January 2016 / Dynadot LLC |
シ.top | xn--xck.top | virtual collectible / digital asset | 28 February 2022 / Dynadot LLC |
シ.dev | xn--xck.dev | virtual collectible / digital asset | 7 July 2023 / GoDaddy.com, LLC |
ꙮ.com | xn--xx8a.com | 17 October 2018 / GoDaddy.com, LLC | |
ʘ.com | xn--lpa.com | 17 July 2015 / Name.com, Inc. | |
ʢ.com | xn--vpa.com | don Pablo donPabloNow.com official shortcut | 27 February 2022 / NameCheap, Inc. |
ư.com | xn--yia.com | 19 August 2018 / GoDaddy.com, LLC | |
৬.com | xn--67b.com | Shortcut to AIEDGE | 17 September 2021 / Sav.com, LLC |
ৎ.com | xn--c7b.com | 10 Corp Ltd. & eMedia.Team | 14 March 2023 / NameCheap, Inc. |
ௐ.com | xn--0mc.com | 15 August 2020 / NameCheap, Inc. | |
தீ.com | xn--rlc0d.com | 17 January 2019 / Google LLC | |
தீ.இந்தியா | xn--rlc0d.xn--xkc2dl3a5ee0h | 06 April 2021 / Dynadot LLC |
In 2012, the Public Interest Registry (PIR) initiated Project94, in which 94 one- and two-letter domains in the top-level domain org, that had been traditionally reserved, are awarded to qualifying organizations. [11]
Only three of the 26 possible single-letter domains have ever been registered under the .com domain, all before 1992. The other 23 single-letter .com domain names were registered January 1, 1992 by Jon Postel, [12] with the intention to avoid a single company commercially controlling a letter of the alphabet. Many but not all .com two-letter domain names are among the most valuable domain names.
While it is widely believed that the domain names business.com and sex.com have been the most valuable domain name transactions, prominent two-letter domain names have only been sold after nondisclosed transactions handled by specialized broker and law firms.
The value of the LG Corp (the South Korean electronics conglomerate formerly known as Lucky-Goldstar) purchase of LG.com was never published. LG Group missed the first sale of the domain name in 2008 from the original owner the chemical company Lockwood Greene to the dot-com entrepreneur Andy Booth; Booth had used it to launch a footballing website known as LifeGames. LG Corp bought "lg.com" one year later, in 2009. Following the purchase, LG Group changed worldwide marketing to LG.com, which is now their central internet address for all countries. All national LG country domain names like "LG.de" or "LG.com.mx" redirect to "LG.com".
The value of the initially secret November 2010 Facebook purchase of FB.com was revealed two months later to be $8.5 million in cash and the rest in stocks. [13]
IG Group paid $4.7 million in September 2013 to buy IG.com. [14]
GMO Internet, Inc. purchased Z.com for nearly $6.8 million from Nissan, who previously used it for the Nissan Z series cars. [15]
With the 2005 announcement that registration of the remaining single-letter names might become available, some companies have attempted to establish a right to the names by claiming trademark rights over single letters used in such a context. U magazine, a college-oriented publication, went so far as to rebrand its website as "U.com" and apply for a trademark registration of the same phrase, before sending a letter to ICANN attempting to gain priority for the domain if it should ever become available in the future. [16]
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 lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last non-empty label of a fully qualified domain name. For example, in the domain name www.example.com, the top-level domain is .com. Responsibility for management of most top-level domains is delegated to specific organizations by the ICANN, an Internet multi-stakeholder community, which operates the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and is in charge of maintaining the DNS root zone.
In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. Domain names are used in various networking contexts and for application-specific naming and addressing purposes. In general, a domain name identifies a network domain or an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, such as a personal computer used to access the Internet, or a server computer.
The domain com is a top-level domain (TLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Created in the first group of Internet domains at the beginning of 1985, its name is derived from the word commercial, indicating its original intended purpose for subdomains registered by commercial organizations. Later, the domain opened for general purposes.
Punycode is a representation of Unicode with the limited ASCII character subset used for Internet hostnames. Using Punycode, host names containing Unicode characters are transcoded to a subset of ASCII consisting of letters, digits, and hyphens, which is called the letter–digit–hyphen (LDH) subset. For example, München is encoded as Mnchen-3ya.
An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that contains at least one label displayed in software applications, in whole or in part, in non-Latin script or alphabet or in the Latin alphabet-based characters with diacritics or ligatures. These writing systems are encoded by computers in multibyte Unicode. Internationalized domain names are stored in the Domain Name System (DNS) as ASCII strings using Punycode transcription.
.name is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is intended for use by individuals for representation of their personal name, nicknames, screen names, pseudonyms, or other types of identification labels.
.nu is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to the island state of Niue. It was one of the first ccTLDs to be marketed to the Internet at large as an alternative to the gTLDs .com, .net, and .org.
A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all two-letter top-level domains are ccTLDs.
.ae is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet for the United Arab Emirates. It is administered by .aeDA which is part of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority of UAE (TDRA).
.jp is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Japan. It was established in 1986 and is administered by the Japan Registry Services.
Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of every fully qualified domain name. They are called generic for historical reasons; initially, they were contrasted with country-specific TLDs in RFC 920.
.tw is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Taiwan. The domain name is based on the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code TW. The registry is maintained by the Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC), a Taiwanese non-profit organization appointed by the National Communications Commission (NCC) and the Ministry of Transportation and Communication. Since 1 March 2001, TWNIC has stopped allowing itself to sign up new domain names directly, instead allowing new registration through its contracted reseller registrars. As of May 2023, there are 17 registrars.
.gr is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Greece. Registrations are processed via accredited registrars and domain names in Greek characters may also be registered.
The internationalized domain name (IDN) homoglyph attack is a method used by malicious parties to deceive computer users about what remote system they are communicating with, by exploiting the fact that many different characters look alike. For example, the Cyrillic, Greek and Latin alphabets each have a letter ⟨o⟩ that has the same shape but different meaning from its counterparts.
.web is a proposed top-level domain (TLD) that was created and assigned by an auction process to several bidding companies. It was awarded to Nu Dot Co LLC, which is primarily funded by Verisign.
WHOIS is a query and response protocol that is used for querying databases that store an Internet resource's registered users or assignees. These resources include domain names, IP address blocks and autonomous systems, but it is also used for a wider range of other information. The protocol stores and delivers database content in a human-readable format. The current iteration of the WHOIS protocol was drafted by the Internet Society, and is documented in RFC 3912.
The domain name .рф is the Cyrillic country code top-level domain for the Russian Federation, in the Domain Name System of the Internet. In the Domain Name System it has the ASCII DNS name xn--p1ai. The domain accepts only Cyrillic subdomain applications, and is the first Cyrillic implementation of the Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) system. The domain became operational on 13 May 2010. As of 2014 it is the most used internationalized country code top-level domain, with around 900,000 domain names.
An internationalized country code top-level domain is a top-level domain in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. IDN ccTLDs are specially encoded domain names that are displayed in an end user application, such as a web browser, in their language-native script or alphabet, such as the Arabic alphabet, or a non-alphabetic writing system, such as Chinese characters. IDN ccTLDs are an application of the internationalized domain name system to top-level Internet domains assigned to countries, or independent geographic regions.
.հայ is an internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Armenia, designated for two-letter country code AM, intended for domain names in the Armenian language.
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