Ask HN: Are there URLs without domain extensions (like .com or .in) - evochimp
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gregmac
From a network/protocol point of view, there's nothing really special about
the top-level domains (TLDs), other than what we call the "internet" is
largely based on names allocated by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers (ICANN) [1]. They're just domains, and though we call them
subdomain.domain.tld, the relation of "subdomain" to "domain" is the same as
that of "domain" to "tld".

The only TLD I could find that has an A record is `.ai`, and it doesn't seem
to work anyway. Apparently, doing that can cause compatibility problems, which
is partly why it's uncommon, and ICANN rules have prohibited doing so for any
of the newer generic TLD's they've assigned [2].

If you run your own DNS, you can have any top-level domain you want, and can
put A records on it. If you can get other people using them (eg: changing
their DNS servers to point at yours), you can even offer "domain
registrations" as well as basically control their internet experience (want
google.com resolve to your own your site? no problem!). In fact, there are
several alternative DNS roots [3] that have done exactly this.

Microsoft actually did have a whole system for this at one point, which worked
in IE and was called RealNames [4], but was shut down in 2002.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN)

[2] [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40349412/why-do-not-
more...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40349412/why-do-not-more-top-
level-domains-have-a-or-mx-records)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_DNS_root](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_DNS_root)

[4]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealNames](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealNames)

~~~
actionowl
> want google.com resolve to your own your site? no problem!

Just want to add a small nit here in that HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport
Security) would likely cause problems for most users accessing a custom
google.com. All of which _could_ be overcome with some effort on the user's
part though (accepting a CA used to sign your custom google.com cert for
example)

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jtchang
Here is a URL without any domain extension:

[http://3520653040/](http://3520653040/)

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badrabbit
There are data: urls. But there are no domains without a top level domain or
top level domains with A records(resolve to IP)

