Proposed domains
Further information: Proposed top-level domain
Around late 2000 when ICANN discussed and finally introduced^[10] aero, biz, coop, info, museum, name, and proTLDs, site owners argued that a similar TLD should be made available for adult and pornographic websites to settle the dispute of obscene content on the Internet and the responsibility of US service providers under the USCommunications Decency Act of 1996. Several options were proposed including xxx, sex and adult^[11]. As of June 2010, the .xxx TLD has received initial approval from the ICANN, based upon a proposal by the sponsoring agency for this TLD, a Florida-based company called ICM Registry^[12][13].
An older proposal^[14] consisted of seven new gTLDs: arts, firm, info, nom, rec, shop, and web. Later biz, info,museum, and name covered most of these old proposals.
During the 32nd International Public ICANN Meeting in Paris in 2008,^[15] ICANN started a new process of TLD naming policy to take a "significant step forward on the introduction of new generic top-level domains." This program envisions the availability of many new or already proposed domains, as well a new application and implementation process.^[16] Observers believed that the new rules could result in hundreds of new gTLDs to be registered.^[17]Proposed TLDs include music, shop, berlin and nyc.
Alternative DNS roots
Further information: Alternative DNS root
ICANN's slow progress in creating new generic top-level domains, and the high application costs associated with TLDs, contributed to the creation of alternate DNS roots with different sets of top-level domains. Such domains may be accessed by configuration of a computer with alternate or additional (forwarder) DNS servers or plugin modules for web browsers. Browser plugins detect alternate root domain requests and access an alternate domain name server for such requests.
Pseudo-domains
Several networks, such as BITNET, CSNET, UUCP or other networks, existed that were in widespread use among computer professionals and academic users, that were incompatible with the Internet and exchanged e-mail with the Internet via special e-mail gateways. For relaying purposes on the gateways, messages associated with these networks were labeled with suffixes such as bitnet, oz, csnet, or uucp, but these domains did not exist as top-level domains in the public Domain Name System of the Internet.
Most of these networks have long since ceased to exist, and although UUCP still gets significant use in parts of the world where Internet infrastructure has not yet become well-established, it subsequently transitioned to using Internet domain names, so pseudo-domains now largely survive as historical relics. One notable exception is the 2007 emergence of SWIFTNet Mail, which uses the swift pseudo-domain.^{[18]
The top-level pseudo domain local is required by the Zeroconf protocol. It is also used by many organizations internally, which may become a problem for those users as Zeroconf becomes more popular. Both site andinternal have been suggested for private usage, but no consensus has emerged[citation needed].
The anonymity network Tor has a top-level pseudo-domain onion, which can only be reached with a Tor client because it uses the Tor-protocol (onion routing) to reach the hidden service to protect the anonymity of users.
See also
Document classification
List of Internet top-level domains
Domain hack}
Public Suffix List