5 Top Level Domains (TLD) and their purpose.
1) .com
Shorthand for commercial, .com was the first top-level domain in common use. While .com was initially created for use by commercial organizations, restrictions on this were not stringent. By the mid-1990’s, .com had become the most popular and commonly used type of top-level domain for businesses, websites, and email.
2) .net
Shorthand for network, .net was created expressly for institutes that partook in network technologies such as an internet service provider or an infrastructure company. Like with .com, the restrictions meant to limit .net to networking purposes, was never upheld and it became one of the more popular top-level domains, with many seeing it as a close second to using the .com top level domain.
3) .edu
Shorthand for education, .edu was made for education institutions. Although it was intended for universities everywhere, the TLD .edu became associated with only educational centers.
4) .org
Shorthand for organization, .org was created for nonprofits. As we’ve seen with these other top-level domains, such intentions were often not upheld or enforced over time. These days, .org is used as top-level domain by nonprofits, for-profit businesses, schools, and communities.
5) .gov
Shorthand for government, .gov. These days, .gov is used by governmental agencies, programs, cities, states, towns, counties, and native American tribes.