As you have seen, ICANN is at the top of the administrative pyramid of Internet domains.
ICANN is a non-profit organization that manages the assignment and administration of domains and guarantees that they are not repeated in any case.
However, ICANN only directly manages a certain type of generic domains, the gTLDs.
The so-called ccTLD domains (the acronym for Top-Level Domain Domain) are managed by non-profit organizations in each country and supervised by ICANN, which act as a sponsoring or promoting agency.
Since the domain extension fulfills a structuring function, there are some limits and conditions for using one or another domain extension.
There are Generic general-purpose domains that are directly managed by ICANN and that, although they were initially restricted to a specific activity, can now be used freely regardless of the theme of your website. Some examples of this type of domains are .com, .net, .org, etc.
There are also restricted Generic domains. These types of domains are also managed by ICANN, but to use them, a series of rules must be met.
For example, the .biz extension (business in English) cannot be used by private users, only by companies or businesses.
Some domains managed by sponsoring or promoting agencies also impose certain restrictions to grant some of the domains they administer.
For example, the .cat extension can only be used when the web activity takes place in Catalonia or its theme is related to the Catalan culture or language.
Failure to comply with the restrictions for domains imposed by these sponsoring or promoting agencies or by ICANN can lead to the cancellation of the domain and users would no longer find you on the network.
ICANN has recently allowed the registration of new domain extensions per activity, so you can find more than 1,400 new extensions such as .futbol, .viajes, .web, .tienda, etc.
This opens a new range of possibilities to choose and register your domain.
Applying for a domain cannot be easier.
It will be enough to access the website of a domain registrar accredited as 1 & 1.
Then, use your domain search engine to choose a domain name that helps your visitors find you on the network and select an appropriate domain extension based on the theme, location or purpose of your website.
Then check if the domain name is available or has already been registered. If you are already registered you will not be able to use it, so you should try again with another domain name or change the extension.
The registry administration entity (ICANN or sponsoring territorial entities) is responsible for setting the base price that the domains will have.
From that base price, each accredited domain registrar adds the costs of carrying out the registration management and domain maintenance services that can be included.
For this reason you will find different prices depending on the type of domain extension chosen and the registrar.
