.io Domain Name

io domain name

.io Domain Name
The Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .io is assigned to the British Indian Ocean Territory.

The .io domain is administered by the Internet Computer Bureau, a domain name registry company based in the United Kingdom.

Google’s ad targeting treats .io as a generic top-level domain (gTLD) because “users and webmasters frequently see more generic than country-targeted.”

History of .io Domain Name
The .io domain extension has existed since 1997. The first .io domain was registered in 1998, when Levi Strauss & Co. registered the domain levi.io.

Specifications of .io Domain Name
Labels for .io domains may only contain alphanumeric characters and hyphens, and must be between 3 and 63 characters long. Domain names cannot begin or end with a hyphen symbol, and may not contain two consecutive hyphens. The entire domain name may not contain more than 253 characters.

Administration of .io Domain Name
The right to administer domain names is given to approved organisations by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). The Internet Computer Bureau (ICB) administers .io domains. This domain name registry is a British company, and operates for this purpose under the name NIC.IO. The company also holds the rights to sell the .sh and .ac domains, the top-level domains for the Island of Saint Helena and Ascension, respectively.

Registration and restrictions of .io Domain Name
Individuals and organisations are allowed to register .io domains.

Applicants for the registration of .io domains do not need to be registered or established in the British Indian Ocean Territory. Third-level domains, such as “xyz.com.io”, can only be registered by an inhabitant of the area. Any second-level domains used by NIC.IO and top-level domains cannot be used as a third-level domain. For example, the domains “com.com.io”, “org.com.io”, and “biz.com.io” are all restricted.

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Domain names in .io may not be used, “for any purpose that is sexual or pornographic or that is against the statutory laws of any nation.” Breaching this requirement, “NIC.IO reserves the right to immediately deactivate the offending registration.”

.io domains may be registered for a minimum of one year, and a maximum of 5 years.

Domain names in .io are priced higher than those in other TLDs. Registering an available .io-domain currently (at 1 March 2018) costs US$90 per annum.

Usage of .io Domain Name
The .io domain has considerable usage unrelated to the British Indian Ocean Territory.

In computer science, “IO” or “I/O” (pronounced I O) is commonly used as an abbreviation for input/output, which makes the .io domain desirable for services that want to be associated with technology. .io domains are often used for open source projects, application programming interfaces (“APIs”), startup companies, video games, and other online services.

The TLD is also used for domain hacks, as the letters “io” are an ending of many English terms. For example, Rub.io is a shortened URL that was used for the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign of Marco Rubio.

One reason given for the TLD’s popularity is that it stands out by being shorter than other TLDs. Also, the .io TLD is less occupied than other TLDs, so it’s more likely that a given term is available there.

In Italian, io is the first-person singular pronoun (English “I”), which makes the domain appealing for personal websites.

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Controversy of .io Domain Name
According to a Gigaom interview with Paul Kane, chairman of the Internet Computer Bureau, the domain name registry is required to give some of its profits to the British government, for administration of the British Indian Ocean Territory.

After being questioned as a result of the interview, the British Government denied receiving any funds from the sale of .io domain names, and argued that consequently, the profits could not be shared with the Chagossians, the former inhabitants forcibly removed by the British government.

Rules for .io domains
When a .io domain is not renewed before the expiration date, it will now be deactivated for a period of 45 days (this used to be 90 days). During this time, it is still possible to perform a late renewal at the normal price of $35.00 per year.

At the end of this period of 45 days, you will be able to restore you .io domain during an additional 30 day period at the restoration rate of $117.00 at A rates.

If you do not restore your domain within this 30 day period, it will be openly available again on a first come, first serve basis.

What is It and Why Do Mobile Games Use It?
As you can probably tell, the .io domain extension does not have any sort of geographically limiting requirements, and it has been generally adopted by technology based-companies. “IO” (or “I/O”) is a common acronym for “input/output,” an obviously common term regularly used in computing and technology. For example, you’ve likely heard of your keyboard being referred to as an “I/O device.”

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Because of this, the .io domain is appealing to web developers, technology-based companies, and any other wireheads. Including developers of browser-based games.

Many developers (and certainly users) consider usage of anything other than one of the generic top-level domains (gTLDs) undesirable, more scrutiny is given to domains outside of the conventional, considered spammy. Due to .io’s general use in technology, there hasn’t been nearly as much caution regarding .io.

Agar.io, and the birth of a genre
There are certainly many .io domains in use by the aforementioned technology companies, startups, and anyone who happens to want a domain hack using “.io” to form a word (such as http://scenar.io/). However, the most prominent use of “.io” appears as URLs representing a specific genre of browser-based games.

ow the .io TLD is not only for Agar.io clones. One such game is Zombs.io, a tower defense game featuring base-building, with traps and weaponry to protect from zombie invasions. Others expanded on Agar.io’s premise, such as deeeep.io.

Part of the .io popularity are people wanting a piece of that delicious, gelatinous Agar.io pie. But there are other, tasty pies out there. Here’s a few of our favorites: Agar.io, slither.io, Zombs.io, deeeep.io, SkyRoyale.io.

NIC.io – https://www.nic.io
IANA .io whois information – http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/io.html
Buy .io domain name – Godaddy.com / NameCheap.com

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3 Thoughts to “.io Domain Name”

  1. joseph w.

    Why .io is so expensive?
    Often the higher demand is given as the reason for these prices, but there are reasons that suggest that the fees charged by the “Internet Computer Bureau” are the main driver of the cost. First, because the “Internet Computer Bureau” not only holds the right to sell the dot io TLD.

  2. band of bro

    The Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) . io is nominally assigned to the British Indian Ocean Territory.

  3. kezman

    it seems expensive domain for the other domain names.

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