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Adomain hack is adomain name that suggests a word, phrase, or name whenconcatenating two or more adjacent levels of that domain.[1][2][3] For example,ro.bot andexamp.le, using the domains.bot and.le, suggest the wordsrobot andexample respectively. In this context, the wordhack denotes a clever trick (as inprogramming), not an exploit or break-in (as insecurity).
Domain hacks offer the ability to produce short domain names. This makes them potentially valuable as redirectors,pastebins, base domains from which to delegatesubdomains andURL shortening services.
On November 23, 1992,inter.net was registered.[4] In the 1990s, severalhostnames ending inpla.net were active. The concept of spelling out a phrase with the parts of ahostname to form a domain hack became well established.[5] On Friday, May 3, 2002,icio.us was registered to createdel.icio.us. Delicious would later gain control of thedelicio.us domain, which had beenparked since April 24, 2002, the day the .us ccTLD (country code top-level domain) was opened to second-level registrations.
Who.is[6] is awhois lookup service, indicating the registered ownership information of a domain. It was established June 12, 2002, and registered to an address inReykjavík,Iceland.
On January 14, 2004, theChristmas Island Internet Administration revoked.cx domain registration forshock sitegoatse.cx, a domain which used "se.cx" to form the word "sex".[7] The domain was originally registered in 1999. Similar names had been used for parody sites such as oralse.cx or analse.cx; in some cases,.cz (Czech Republic) or.kz (Kazakhstan) are substituted for.cx.
The termdomain hack was coined byMatthew Doucette on November 3, 2004, to mean "an unconventional domain name that uses parts other than the SLD (second level domain) or third level domain to create the title of the domain name."[8]
Yahoo! acquiredblo.gs[9] on June 14, 2005, anddel.icio.us[10] on December 9, 2005.
On September 11, 2007,name servers for.me were delegated byIANA to the Government ofMontenegro, with a two-year transition period for existing.yu names to be transferred to.me. One of the first steps taken in deploying.me online was to create.its.me as a domain space for personal sites.[11] Many potential domain hacks, such aslove.me andbuy.me,[12] were held back by the registry as premium names for later auction.
On December 15, 2009,Google launched its ownURL shortener under the domaingoo.gl using the ccTLD ofGreenland.YouTube subsequently launchedyoutu.be[13] using the ccTLD ofBelgium. In 2015 Google used the domain hack abc.xyz for their newly launchedAlphabet Inc.
Working withBit.ly,The New York Times launched an URL shortener in late 2009 under the domainnyti.ms using the ccTLD ofMontserrat. The need to serve shorter URLs forTwitter was cited as a reason for the shortener.[14]
In March 2010,National Public Radio launched its own URL shortener under the domainn.pr using the ccTLD ofPuerto Rico.[15] The n.pr domain is currently used to link to an NPR story page by its ID and is one of the shortest possible domain hacks.
In late 2010,Apple launched a URL shortener at the domainitun.es, using the ccTLD ofSpain, in a similar move to Google's goo.gl. Unlike goo.gl, which was public and could be used for any web address, itun.es is used only foriTunes Ping URL shortening.
Spotify also uses theURL Shortenerspoti.fi, using the ccTLD ofFinland, to link to artist, partners, playlists, albums and songs. Flickr usesflic.kr for their URL shortening, using the ccTLD ofSouth Korea.[16]ta.co redirects toTaco Bell's official website.[17] In 2006,Red Bull GmbH registered the domainwin.gs to use for shortened URLs.[18][19]
In most cases, registration of these short domain names relies on the use ofcountry code top-level domains (ccTLDs), each of which has a unique two-letter identifier.
For example,blo.gs makes use of the ccTLD.gs (South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands) to spell "blogs",fa.st makes use of the ccTLD.st (São Tomé and Príncipe) to spell "fast",everyo.ne uses the ccTLD.ne (Niger) to spell "everyone",instagr.am makes use of the ccTLD.am (Armenia) to spell the name of photo-sharing service "Instagram",darkvir.us uses ccTLD.us (United States) and sharing it for subdomains with free hosting,Cityne.ws makes use of the ccTLD.ws (West Samoa) to spell the name of Italian newspaper "Citynews",tel.ly uses ccTLD.ly (Libya) to spell "telly" (a popular British colloquial term for television), and some ofDanbooru-style imageboards that end their name with '-booru'suffix may use the ccTLD.ru (Russia) to spell their own name.
Many people use domain hacks for their name to serve their personal website. Some prominent examples include:rome.ro (John Romero),melan.ie (Melanie C),sive.rs (Derek Sivers) andnav.al (Naval Ravikant).
Domain hacking is not limited to single words. For example,helpmelearn.it uses the ccTLD forItaly to write out "help me learn it". While there is technically no restriction, these domain hacks tend to limit themselves to using only ccTLDs that are words in-and-of-itself, such as the aforementioned Italy as well asIceland (.is) andMontenegro (.me).
Thethird-level domainsdel.icio.us,cr.yp.to ande.xplo.it make use of theSLDsicio.us,yp.to andxplo.it from the ccTLDs.us (United States),.to (Tonga) and.it (Italy) to spell "delicious", "crypto" and "exploit" respectively.
In some cases, an entire ccTLD has been re-purposed in its international marketing, such as.ai (Anguilla),.am (Armenia),.fm (Federated States of Micronesia),.cd (Democratic Republic of the Congo),.dj (Djibouti), and.tv (Tuvalu) for sites delivering various forms of audiovisual content.
Somefeline-related websites, such asnyan.cat have used the.cat domain, which is meant for theCatalan linguistical community.[20]
Libya's ccTLD (.ly) has been used for English words that end with suffix "ly", such as sil.ly or formermusical.ly. Popular URL shortening servicesbit.ly, brief.ly, name.ly and ow.ly use this hack. In 2010, the Libyan registry suspendedvb.ly, an adult oriented.ly link shortener.[21]
After a legal fight to allow so, theMoldovan ccTLD (.md) has been used by doctors and medical companies due to its resemblance to the abbreviation MD, used by those holding aDoctor of Medicine degree.[22] It has also been used by websites relating to theMarkdown markup language (such asObsidian,obsidian.md) which uses .md as its file extension.
InGermany,Austria, andSwitzerland, the domain.ag forAntigua and Barbuda is used bycorporations in the legal form ofAktiengesellschaft (commonly abbreviated as AG).
TheAmerican Samoa domain.as is popular in countries where AS or A/S (Aktieselskab/Aksjeselskap) is the legal suffix for stock-basedcorporations, such as inDenmark andNorway, where such companies frequently employ it.
Some organisations situated inSwitzerland use TLDs to specifically refer to theircanton, such as theBelgian TLD.be for theCanton of Bern.
In a similar way, some organizations in the German state ofSchleswig-Holstein use the.sh TLD fromSaint Helena.
InTurkish, "biz" means "we", and can be used for emphasis at the end of "we are" sentences.
Family names in manySlavic languages written in internationalized variant end with-ch (i.e.,-ich, -vich, -vych, -ovich). Therefore, theSwiss.chccTLD is an option. Another use case of .ch is forEnglish words that end inch (e.g.,codesear.ch ("search");freshte.ch ("tech");swit.ch).
Since the introduction of.eu domains (eu meaning "I" inRomanian,Galician andPortuguese), these domains have become popular in Romania, with people registering their names with the .eu extension.[citation needed] Before the.eus domain was introduced,.eu was also widely used by websites from theBasque Country, as it resembled the wordEuskadi (meaningBasque Country).
InFrench,Italian andPortuguese,là orlá mean "there". As the.la domain (Laos) is available for second-level registration worldwide, this can be an easy way to get a short, catchy name such as "go there".
In Italy some TLDs are identical to Italian Provinces' identifier, such as.to (Turin) or.tv (Treviso) and are thus extensively used for web domains in the area. TheCanadian domain.ca is also trivial to use ascá orcà ("here") respectively in Portuguese andNeapolitan, orça ("that") inFrench; however, unlike some countries, Canada's .ca registrar requires local Canadian presence to use this domain.
Hungarian domains sometimes use theMoroccan top level domain.ma (ma meaning "today" in Hungarian).
A fad amongst French speakers was to register their domains in theNiue TLD.nu, which inFrench andPortuguese means "nude" or "naked"; however, as of 2007[update], Niue authorities have revoked many of these domain names. The handful that remain are joke domains without actual nudity. French speakers often use theJersey TLD.je, since "je" means "I" in French. In addition,.je is used in the Netherlands, where it can mean both "you" or "your". The addition of-je to most nouns also produces a diminutive form (e.g.,huis.je, or the defunct iPhone appfeest.je (feestje meaning "party").[23]
Likewise, Dutch, Swedish, and Danish speakers sometimes use.nu, because it means "now" in these languages. The TLD is still used by many Swedish sites, as prior to 2003 it was impossible for individuals (and difficult for organizations) to register arbitrary domains under the.se TLD.
English words that end with-rs (e.g., cars, fixers, powers) provide means for another popular domain hack which utilizes theSerbian.rs ccTLD.
InRussian,net (asнет, ornyet when transliterated character for character) means "no" or "there isn't," so there are many domains in the formatsomething.net (e.g.,redaktora.net meaning "[there is] no editor/redaktora").
Additionally inRussian, there are many words ending with-ga (Cyrillic:-га), including some that are highly popular (i.e.,книга/kniga, meaning "book";дорога/doroga, meaning "road").Gabon's.ga domain is free for registration, which has led to wide adoption of such domain hacks.
InCzech,Polish andSlovak,to means "it", so there are many domains usingTonga's.to in the formatdo-something.to (e.g.,zrobie.to, meaning "I will do it" inPolish;prestahujeme.to, meaning "We will move it" inSlovak). Notably, Czech file sharing serviceuloz.to was founded in 2007, and its nameulož to means "save it".
InCzech as well,se andsi are particles markingreflexive verbs, and thereforeSweden's.se andSlovenia's.si have been used for domain hacks (e.g.,svez.se, meaning "have a ride";hraj.si, meaning "to play"), though the.si registryARNES now restricts registration of domains by non-Slovenian entities.
InSlovenian,si is adative form of the reciprocal personal pronoun and a second person form of the verbto be. As.si is a SlovenianccTLD, domain hacks are abundant. Additionally, the domain is attractive to speakers ofRomance languages, because it is a conjunction, pronoun or an affirmative interjection in many.ARNES limits the use of the domain to residents and entities of Slovenia.
InSpanish andPortuguese,-ar is the ending of the infinitive of many verbs, so hacks withArgentina's TLD.ar are common (e.g.,educ.ar, meaning "to educate"). Similarly, another such verb suffix is-ir, TLD ofIran (see.ir).
One of the earliest commercialISPs inFinland used the ccTLD.fi assci.fi, a reference toscience fiction.
InKurdish,im means "I am", so it's possible to make meaningful domains for personal purposes with theIsle of Man TLD.im (e.g.,rebaz.im, meaning "I am Rêbaz").
Some registries allowEmoji in domains, permitting the creation ofemoji domains. Many browsers display these domains aspunycode for security reasons.
With the rise ofnew TLDs, some companies have registered entireTLDs in order to create a hack for their name. Most prominent is.gle, created forGoogle to be used asgoo.gle.
