Google owns the βgoogleβ portion of the domain, called the root zone domain. They pay VeriSign Global Registry Services (the owner of the βcomβ top level domain) to keep the fully qualified domain name βgoogle.comβ registered to google inc. Google can then add anything they want to the beginning of the domain such as keep.google.com. These are called sub-domains. They could be part of and used by the company itself or even rented out by google the same way google pays VeriSign for their βcomβ registration.
For example: No-ip is a service that will freely rent subdomains of their no-ip.com domain, mainly so you can easily reach your self-hosted services without needing to remember your home IP. You could host lemmy.no-ip.com if you wanted to.
The owners of sought after tlds like βcomβ and βnetβ set the prices higher than some others as there is more demand. Because of this many self-hosters amd smaller companies just use cheaper tlds like βmlβ. The extra cost isnβt really worth it.
Top level as in itβs the top/beginning of the domain. (reading right to left separated by periods)
Domains have different parts: subdomain.rootzonedomain.topleveldomain
So using the example: google.com
Google owns the βgoogleβ portion of the domain, called the root zone domain. They pay VeriSign Global Registry Services (the owner of the βcomβ top level domain) to keep the fully qualified domain name βgoogle.comβ registered to google inc. Google can then add anything they want to the beginning of the domain such as keep.google.com. These are called sub-domains. They could be part of and used by the company itself or even rented out by google the same way google pays VeriSign for their βcomβ registration.
For example: No-ip is a service that will freely rent subdomains of their no-ip.com domain, mainly so you can easily reach your self-hosted services without needing to remember your home IP. You could host lemmy.no-ip.com if you wanted to.
The owners of sought after tlds like βcomβ and βnetβ set the prices higher than some others as there is more demand. Because of this many self-hosters amd smaller companies just use cheaper tlds like βmlβ. The extra cost isnβt really worth it.