Single-letter second-level domain

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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.

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Active single-letter domains

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 name1993 ownerCurrent owner
i.netINet Solutions LtdSaw.com [2]
q.comJG Lumen Technologies (dba Quantum Fiber) [3]
q.netPrivately ownedPrivately owned [4]
x.comMarcel DePaolis & Dave Weinstein X Corp.
x.org X.Org Foundation
z.comHomePage.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 nameCurrent userUsage
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
c.ai character.ai
c.ccBrian CartmellHomepage
c.imC.IM is a general, mainly English-speaking Mastodon instance.
c.org Change.org URL shortcut for change.org
d.gsDragonsayenURL shortcut for dragonsayen.com (DraGonSayen)
d.tubeDTubeCrypto-based and decentralized video-sharing platform
e.gg Meta Platforms
e.im MailTime URL shortcut for MailTime Email Messenger
e.srl E-GroupOfficial URL Of E-Group.
e.sv eMedia HoldingsIT services have been provided by eMedia since 2005, operating from Bangladesh, Germany, USA, Australia, France, Italy, Libya, Norway, UK, and Ireland.
f.orgFinTech Labs
g.cn Google Google's official URL shortcut to help Chinese users locate Google
g.co Google's official URL shortcut
g.ggGlobal Grid Gallery
g.gl
g.networkG.NetworkLondon based ISP
g.vug.vuAn URL Shortener
h.plusUnstable RealityHomepage for the H+ research project, owned by Alessandro Perilli
k.tt Citynews SpA URL shortcut for Citinews
k.vuafraid.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.pagemmm.pageURL shortcut for mmm.page website builder
n.pr NPR URL shortcut for public radio network NPR
n.schoolThe New SchoolWebsite of The New School in Moscow
o.co Overstock.com URL shortcut for Overstock.com
q.digitalQ.Digital, Inc.
r.nfLibReddit instance
s.co Snap Inc. URL shortcut to Snapchat's download page
s.de Sparkasse URL shortcut for sparkasse.de
s.idPT Aidi Digital Global URL Shortener
t.co X Corp. X's official URL shortcut
t.lyt.ly URL Shortener
t.me Telegram URL shortcut for Telegram
u.ae United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates' Government portal
u.tou.to URL Shortener
v.me Visa Inc. URL shortcut for Visa
v.orgV 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.teamShortcut 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:

Non-ASCII single-character domains

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.

Internationalized Domain Name (IDN)Punycode Domain + TLDUsageRegistration Date / Registrar (WHOIS entry)
ꓸ.com xn--8m8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset15 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
ꓮ.com xn--ym8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
𐊠.comxn--967c.com01 January 2020 / Name.com, Inc.
ᗅ.com xn--upe.comFormer StrongestBrands URL shortcut26 December 2015 / Name.com, Inc.
Ꭺ.comxn--g9d.com18 February 2015 / Name.com, Inc.
Ậ.comxn--zkg.com2-5.org18 April 2021 / Google LLC
𐊡.comxn--b77c.com26 Shirts' official URL shortcut06 July 2019 / Name.com, Inc.
𐊂.comxn--f67c.com
ꓚ.com xn--em8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
𐊢.comxn--c77c.com
ꓓ.com xn--6l8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
ꓰ.com xn--0m8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
𐊤.comxn--e77c.comerikw.com30. April 2018 / NameCheap, Inc.
𐊥.com xn--f77c.comNick Davenport IQinternet.net & DBSTrust.com, UK29 April 2020 / GoDaddy.com, LLC
ꓖ.com xn--9l8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
ꮐ.com xn--29d.com
ꓧ.com xn--rm8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset08 July 2018 / Dynadot LLC
ꓲ.com xn--2m8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
𐊦.comxn--g77c.com29 April 2018 / GoDaddy.com, LLC
Ī.comxn--5ea.com2-5.org09 April 2021 / Google LLC
ḷ.comxn--mhg.com26 July 2017 / Internet Domain Service BS Corp
ㆲ.com xn--3jk.com3 December 2022 / GoDaddy, LLC
ꓙ.com xn--dm8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
ꓗ.com xn--bm8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
ꓡ.com xn--lm8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
ꓟ.com xn--jm8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
𐊰.comxn--q77c.comMahdi Taghizadeh's official URL shortcut16 April 2018 / NameCheap, Inc.
ƞ.com xn--gia.comvirtual collectible / digital asset28 December 2020 / Dynadot LLC
ꓠ.com xn--km8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
𐊪.comxn--k77c.com10 May 2018 / GoDaddy.com, LLC
ꚡ.comxn--ez8a.comNES Natural Endocrinology Specialists10 February 2021 / Google LLC
ӧ.com xn--h6a.comӧ's homepage.09 November 2014 / Name.com, Inc.
ꓳ.com xn--3m8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
〇.comxn--w6j.comStarted by Cancer, Memorial28 February 2006 / DomainSite, Inc.
𐊫.comxn--l77c.comSimon Young Institution.co.uk official shortcut28 April 2020 / CSL Computer Service Langenbach GmbH d/b/a joker.com
ᩅ.comxn--rnf.com11 August 2018 / Dynadot LLC
ዐ.net xn--72d.netNOC of the Internet14 January 2021 / Google LLC
ᴩ.comxn--w8f.com25 December 2011 / Name.com, Inc.
ꓣ.com xn--nm8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
𐊯.comxn--p77c.com27 April 2021 / Google LLC
ꓢ.com xn--mm8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
ꜱ.comxn--i38a.com15 November 2013 / Name.com, Inc.
ꕷ.comxn--vq8a.comLandlord Insurance Startup Steadily URL shortcut04 June 2021 / Google LLC
ꓔ.com xn--7l8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
ፐ.comxn--v6d.comCrypto Chain University's official URL shortcut10 December 2014 / Tucows Domains Inc.
ţ.comxn--rga.comdon Pablo donPabloNow.com official shortcut18 February 2021 / NameCheap, Inc.
ꓴ.com xn--4m8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
𐋊.comxn--h87c.com10 May 2018 / GoDaddy.com, LLC
ꓦ.com xn--qm8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
ꛟ.comxn--508a.comVeritas Home Buyers official URL shortcut10 February 2021 / Google LLC
ꓪ.com xn--um8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
ꓫ.com xn--vm8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
☓.comxn--33h.comHerbert R. Sim's official URL shortcut03 February 2005 / Tucows Domains Inc.
ꓬ.com xn--wm8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
𐊲.com xn--s77c.comAnaptysBio's official URL shortcut02 March 2018 / Name.com, Inc.
ꓜ.com xn--gm8a.comvirtual collectible / digital asset18 July 2017 / Dynadot LLC
ꛉ.comxn--j08a.comThe Trusted Home Buyer official URL shortcut05 May 2021 / Google LLC
𐋇.comxn--e87c.com21 January 2018 / Google LLC
𓂺.com xn--hu7d.comvirtual collectible / digital asset11 January 2019 / Dynadot LLC
ㆺ.comxn--ckk.comiSellSquares.com Homepage27 February 2020 / GoDaddy.com, LLC
☺.comxn--74h.comDaniel Früh's official URL shortcut03 June 2004 / DomainSite, Inc.
ツ.comxn--bdk.com29 June 2019 / NameSilo, LLC
ッ.top xn--9ck.topvirtual collectible / digital asset27 January 2016 / Dynadot LLC
シ.top xn--xck.topvirtual collectible / digital asset28 February 2022 / Dynadot LLC
シ.dev xn--xck.devvirtual collectible / digital asset7 July 2023 / GoDaddy.com, LLC
ꙮ.comxn--xx8a.com17 October 2018 / GoDaddy.com, LLC
ʘ.comxn--lpa.com17 July 2015 / Name.com, Inc.
ʢ.comxn--vpa.comdon Pablo donPabloNow.com official shortcut27 February 2022 / NameCheap, Inc.
ư.comxn--yia.com19 August 2018 / GoDaddy.com, LLC
ॐ.com xn--q3b.com19 April 2001 / Name.com, Inc.
৬.com xn--67b.comShortcut to AIEDGE 17 September 2021 / Sav.com, LLC
ৎ.com xn--c7b.com 10 Corp Ltd. & eMedia.Team 14 March 2023 / NameCheap, Inc.
ௐ.comxn--0mc.com15 August 2020 / NameCheap, Inc.
தீ.comxn--rlc0d.com17 January 2019 / Google LLC
தீ.இந்தியாxn--rlc0d.xn--xkc2dl3a5ee0h06 April 2021 / Dynadot LLC

Project94

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]

Market value of single- or two-letter domains

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]

Controversy

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]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ICANN</span> American nonprofit organization that coordinates several Internet address databases

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet, ensuring the Internet's stable and secure operation. ICANN performs the actual technical maintenance work of the Central Internet Address pools and DNS root zone registries pursuant to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) function contract. The contract regarding the IANA stewardship functions between ICANN and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the United States Department of Commerce ended on October 1, 2016, formally transitioning the functions to the global multistakeholder community.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domain name</span> Identification string in the Internet

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.org</span> Generic top-level domain

The domain name .org is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) of the Domain Name System (DNS) used on the Internet. The name is truncated from 'organization'. It was one of the original domains established in 1985, and has been operated by the Public Interest Registry since 2003. The domain was originally "intended as the miscellaneous TLD for organizations that didn't fit anywhere else." It is commonly used by non-profit organizations, open-source projects, and communities, but is an open domain that can be used by anyone. The number of registered domains in .org has increased from fewer than one million in the 1990s, to ten million in 2012, and held steady between ten and eleven million since then.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internationalized domain name</span> Type of Internet domain name

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.

The domain 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.nu</span> Internet country code top-level domain for the island state of Niue

.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. Playing on the phonetic similarity between nu and new in English, and the fact that nu means "now" in several northern European languages, it was promoted as a new TLD with an abundance of good domain names available. The .nu domain is now controlled by the Internet Foundation in Sweden amid opposition from the government of Niue.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.ae</span> Country code top-level domain for the United Arab Emirates

.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).

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is the organization that manages the .ca country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Canada. Its offices are located at 979 Bank Street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. CIRA sets the policies and agendas that support Canada's internet community and Canada's involvement in international internet governance. It is a member-driven organization with membership open to all that hold a .ca domain. As of March 2023, there were more than 3.3 million active .ca domains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.tw</span> Internet country-code top-level domain for Taiwan

.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.

example.com Domain name reserved for documentation purposes and as an example of the use of domain names

The domain names example.com, example.net, example.org, and example.edu are second-level domain names in the Domain Name System of the Internet. They are reserved by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) at the direction of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as special-use domain names for documentation purposes. The domain names are used widely in books, tutorials, sample network configurations, and generally as examples for the use of domain names. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) operates web sites for these domains with content that reflects their purpose.

.test is a reserved top-level domain intended for usage in software testing. It is guaranteed to never be registered into the Internet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.web</span> Proposed top-level internet domain

.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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.рф</span> Cyrillic Internet country code top-level domain for the Russian Federation

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.

References

  1. 1 2 Bill Manning; Eric Brunner; Donald Eastlake (March 2000). "I-D draft-ietf-dnsind-iana-dns-01". IETF . p. 15.
  2. "i.net domain name is for sale. Inquire now". sell.sawbrokers.com. Retrieved 2022-06-03.
  3. Lumen Technologies (September 14, 2020). "CenturyLink Transforms, Rebrands as Lumen" (Press release). Retrieved October 7, 2022. Lumen is pleased to announce Quantum Fiber, a fully digital platform for delivering fiber-based products and services to residents and small businesses.
  4. "Q.NET - remembering Desmond Llewelyn". Q.
  5. "The V Foundation for Cancer Research founded by Jim Valvano". V Foundation. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  6. One and Two Letter .IE Domains Now Available "The release of short .ie domain names " Dublin, 12 October 2015
  7. ISNIC Icelandic Domain Rules , Retrieved on 22 September 2021.
  8. Verisign The World's Shortest Domain Names: How To Get a One Character Domain , Copenhagen, 01 December 2014. Retrieved on 04 December 2014.
  9. Verisign Registration Rules: Allowed Code Points , Reston VA, 01 July 2011. Retrieved on 06 April 2019.
  10. Roig, Jonathan. "TLD Search". WeirdOneCharacterDomainSuperstore. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  11. Project 94
  12. "ICANN Establishes Forum on Allocation Methods for Single-Letter and Single-Digit Domain Names". ICANN. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  13. Transaction of the FB.com domain
  14. "IG.com sells for $4.7 Million". morganlinton.com.
  15. Michael Berkens. "Z.com Sold For $6.8 Million Dollars". TheDomains.com.
  16. "U.com letter" (PDF). icann.org.