How are the extensions different?

[DanDigital]

Sorry for the weird wording in the title, but I wasn't able to put my question in a short form. Essentially what I'm asking is is there any difference in using .com and .org or .us? I understand that some of these are meant for commercial use or organizational use, but am I an an individual allowed to use any of them? Are there some differences I would need to be aware of?

 

[Rob Whisonant]

You can use any of them. Personally I always go for the .com if at all possible. Easier to brand.

 

[ulterios]

Essentially what I'm asking is is there any difference in using .com and .org or .us?

That depends on what you are meaning by "difference". The .com and .org are gTLD's (Generic TLD) meaning that they can be registered by pretty much anyone. The .us is a cc (Country Code) domain extensions and is supposed to be used only by citizens or companies/businesses in the USA.

I understand that some of these are meant for commercial use or organizational use, but am I an an individual allowed to use any of them?

You can register a .com or .org no matter where you live. To register a .us you are supposed to have a USA address or interests in the USA, usually.

Are there some differences I would need to be aware of?

If you register a .com or .org you can use privacy protection to hide your Whois information if you want. A .us domain does not allow that option. If you use a .us domain you may get a slight increase in local (USA) search results.

A .com is typically worth more if you were to sell it if all things other than the extension are equal.

There are some other differences but these are some or the ones usually asked about.

 

[Aree]

Once upon a time, the different extensions do mean different things.

Like a dot com is the general extension. The dot net is supposed to be a network. The dot org is supposed to be for organizations. Today, it has become a free-for-all. The dot com is the goto extension. So when you cannot find a dot com for the name you want, you go to the next available extension, like a dot net or a dot org.

I think there are only a few extensions with very strict vetting. Like dot edu. You have to be an accredited education body to use the dot edu. Of course, to use dot gov, you must be a government department. Other than that, you are free to register your domain with any extension you wish.

Even with country specific extensions. Like, if you are not a US resident, but you want to acccess the US market, you can still find a company which will make it possible for you to register a dot us domain name.