The Motive Web Design Glossary

domain name

A domain name is the textual identifier for a website, for example: motive.co.nz. It is also commonly referred to as an address.

In New Zealand, policies relating to the management of the domain name space are created by the Internet Society of New Zealand (InternetNZ)—formerly known by the moniker ISOCNZ.

An operational office of InternetNZ, the Domain Name Commissioner (DNC), is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of .nz domain name registration and management systems.

New Zealand domain name structure

In New Zealand, a domain name consists of a minimum of three parts: name, community-of-interest and country code; e.g. for the domain name:

yoursite.co.nz

Content	Level of domain	Purpose
yoursite	Top/Name	names listed on behalf of users; must be consistent with InternetNZ policy
.co	Second/Community	specifies the community of interest as defined in InternetNZ policy
.nz	Country	fixed as .nz for all domains delegated to, and managed by, InternetNZ

New Zealand second-level domain names

New Zealand has a number of second-level domain names (2LDs) assigned for use by specific communities.

2LD	Expanded abbreviation	Community
.ac	academic	Tertiary educational institutions and related organisations
.co	company	Organisations pursuing commercial aims and purposes
.cri	Crown Research Institute	New Zealand state-owned, corporatised entities charged with conducting scientific research (moderated)
.geek	geek	‘Technology enthusiasts’
.gen	general	Individuals and other organisations not covered elsewhere
.govt	government	New Zealand national, regional and local government organisations operating with statutory powers (moderated)
.iwi	iwi	Maori tribe, typified by a trust board (moderated)
.maori	maori	Open—introduced September 2002
.mil	military	Military organisations of the New Zealand Government (moderated)
.net	network/internet	Organisations and service providers directly related to the New Zealand internet
.org	organisation	Nonprofit organisations
.school	school	Preschools, primary and secondary schools and related organisations (not universities or tertiary-education providers)

Moderated domain names

New Zealand second-level domain names that are reserved for use by a specific community are described as moderated domain names. Application for a moderated domain name must be made to the approved community representative. For example, only New Zealand government organisations (ministries and agencies) can register a .govt.nz domain name and a .govt.nz registration request must meet New Zealand E-government requirements.

Registering a .govt.nz domain name

As of 3 October 2005, all registrations for .govt.nz domain names must be made through the New Zealand Government Registrar web interface (previously DomaiNZ was the only accredited registrar).

New generic top level domain names

In 2000 (ostensibly due to global demand), the International Committee for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced an additional seven generic top-level domain names (gTLDs) to be added to the international register. These include: dot-biz (for businesses), dot-museum and dot-info. See the Wired article: And the winners are… for more.

Tips on choosing a domain name/website address

Organisation, product or service?

Ideally you should choose a domain name that matches either the name of your organisation, or the product and/or service your organisation provides.

• If possible register a single-word domain name.
• Use keywords in your domain name that people are likely to enter into a search engine when looking for your product or service.
  For example (if your company sells wedding stationery): www.weddingstationery.co.nz
• If registered a product-related domain name consider registering both the singular and plural forms.
  For example: www.matchboxcar.co.nz and www.matchboxcars.co.nz.
• Avoid words that people are likely to misspell.
• Avoid names that combine letters, numbers and/or abbreviations. For example: www.2goodtobtrue.co.nz — before long, you’ll be needing to spell-out your website or email address, either over the phone or at a social engagement. The more variation you have in your domain name, the less likely it is that someone will remember it accurately.*
  (This is unless you have the budget for a media campaign to have your domain name enter the public consciousness — or at least the consciousness of your target audience.)

*The exception seems to be technology/new media companies, where number-noun brand names are de rigueur.

Intended audience

• Pick a second-level domain that your audience will associate with your type of organisation/community of interest.
  For example, companies should register a .co.nz; non-profit organisations should register a .org.nz; and so on.
• If targeting an international market, register a .com.
• If targeting a local market, register a domain name with your local country code.
  For example, New Zealand businesses should register a .co.nz domain name.
  Note that search engines, such as Google, allow a person to restrict their search to a specific country. If your website address does not include the relevant country code it will be excluded from the results.
  For example a New Zealand company that has only registered a .com, will not be included in a Google search restricted to ‘pages from New Zealand’.

If all else fails, you can register more than one address. Each additional address can point (or redirect) to the main address.

Domain name scams

A person registering a domain name is likely to unfamiliar with the process. Registrars and web service-provider may take advantage of this situation: misrepresenting the service they offer; or cold-calling new domain name owners to sell associated services such as search engine optimisation.

Two-part domain name registration fee

This business practice may not technically be a scam, but still mis-represents the true cost of registering a domain name.

1. A registrar will advertise domain names at a price that is ‘too good to refuse’, with an offer such as ‘Your new domain name for just $1!!!’.
2. A consumer quickly buys-up all the domain names they might need – or have always (secretly) wanted to own.
3. A few months later, when they are setting-up their website or email account, they discover that to be able to use their domain name, they will need to purchase an additional hosting/management/redirection service.
4. The additional ‘domain account management’ service fee makes the true cost of registration significantly more than the advertised ‘$1’.

The moral of the story? ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’.

Before registering a domain name, take a look at what other registrars are charging. If you’re still uncertain, ask the registrar whether there are any additional charges that you will need to pay to redirect your new domain name to an existing website.

‘Domain name expiry’ scam

Once you have registered a domain name, be wary of communications that you receive regarding renewing your domain name.

Opportunistic registrars may send renewal notices (by email or post), encouraging you to ‘renew’ your domain name, well in advance of the expiry date. Such notices are typically headed as: ‘Domain Name Expiry Notice’ (or similar).

The intention is that you will:

• transfer your domain name away from your chosen, original registrar;
• pay a higher annual premium/renewal fee;
• register additional related domain names (such as a .com, .org, or .net variation);

Motive has received such notices from a number of registrars including:

• Domain Renewal Group
• Domain Registry of America

How to spot the scam

• the registrar that has sent you the renewal notice, is not the registrar you used when registering your domain name;
• you receive the renewal notice 4-5 months in advance of the domain name expiry date.

Web directory hustle / ‘Your website was not found’

Website directory services (websites that provide lists of websites sorted by category or service-type), often keep an eye on the list of recently-registered domain names.

A directory representative will contact the domain name owner promoting a web directory or search optimisation service. They will claim that their service is the only way to ensure that the customer’s website ‘will be found by search engines’. As major search engines (such as Google), may take up to six months to index new websites, the directory service representative can easily ‘prove’ the veracity of their claim, by showing the mark’s the result of a search on their name, product or service. (In many cases, there may not even be a website at the domain name for search engines to ‘find’ – as domain names are typically registered in advance of creating a website.)

Don’t panic

Although web directories may contribute to raising the profile of your website, be wary of unsolicited communication relating to registering your website with search engines. There is a lot that you can do to help people find your website without requiring you to sign-up to a web directory, and the best was to start is to find out how search engines work.

Related terms: cybersquatter, DNS server, Domainz, ICANN, IP address, typosquatter, URL.

Further reading and references

• Domain Name Commissioner
  • .nz [domain] Policies and Procedures
  • The Geeks of New Zealand (Dean Pemberton)
    The proposal submitted to InternetNZ that lead to the creation of the .geek second-level domain.
• List of internet top-level domains (Wikipedia)
• New Zealand Government (govt.nz) registrar web interface
• Internet Society of New Zealand
• ICANN decides to expand internet (Michael Lowry, Web Hosting News)
  2 July 2008: Proposals to open up TLDs to allow any 64-character suffix (at a price). Proposal for non-English language character domain names.
• Top-level codes/country-code top-level domains (IANA)
• Generic top-level domains (ICAAN)
  Non-country specific codes: .aero, .cat, .coop, etc.
• Triple-X: a brief history of a dirty domain (Molly Wood, CNET)
  18 Aug 2005: Political and moral responses to the proposal for a .xxx top-level domain (for websites containing adult content).

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