Second Level Domain
The Second Level Domain, or SLD, is the portion of the URL that identifies the specific and unique owner. The SLD is the actual website's domain name.[1]
Overview[edit | edit source]
The second domain level is the data directly before the top-level domain TLD. In the same way, the SLD represents the portion which is located exactly in the right part of the domain name extension. The SLD includes the TLD and helps during the identification process of a the owning organization of a specific URL.[2] For example, in www.domainname.com, “domainname” represents the second level domain. Whereas the suffix "(dot)-com" represents the TLD.
Usually, the SLD is determined and defined upon registration of a domain name. More than one SLD can function on the same IP Address.[3]
Furthermore, a TLD can be separated into more SLDs; that is, second-level domains can be divided into sub-domains which could represent different computers within an organization or different aliases.
There are also third-level domain names referred to as "provincial" domains, such as www.domainname.ab.com.
Valid Domain Names and SLDs[edit | edit source]
In order to register a domain name, the following features must be met:
- It may not contain more than 67 characters, including the domain name extension (such as .com).
- It must use valid characters, which are those between 0-9, letters a-z and dashes, but the dash "-" cannot be used at the beginning or at the end of a domain name.[4]
ICANN and IDNA[edit | edit source]
By means of the IDNA system (Internationalized Domain Names in Applications) the valid set of characters has been expanded to include names and words written in native scripts; in this way, the domain names can contain letters from non-ASCII scripts. The IDN fast track system was approved by ICANN in 2009, and was adopted by many registries that provide domain space.[5]