Website URLs and Domains

A website URL identifies where the servers for a website are associated.  The domain identifies how that information is classified on the Internet.

The URL library.trocaire.edu identifies our website as being a part of Trocaire College.  The domain of .edu states that it is part of a college or university.

There are many different domains on the Internet.  Here are several that you may find while searching the Internet.

.com

• Commercial or commerce, associated with a company or business resource.
• This type of site may often be trying to sell you something (amazon.com).
• This company may use social plugins to track you online to sell that information to other companies. (facebook.com).
• This company may use cookies to track your searches to sell that information to other companies (google.com).
• You may find information on current events from news organizations (nytimes.com).
  • Always check events against different news sites as information may be biased.

.edu

• Education, associated with a college or university.
• This site has information about the institution and its programs and services.
• This site may have resources for their students that you can use for your own research.
• This site may have a student’s or instructor’s personal work online that has not been fact checked.
  • Look at personal .edu sites carefully and critically.

.org

• Organization, usually associated with a not-for-profit group.
• You may find reliable information from respected organizations (mayoclinic.org).
• You may find information from groups releasing biased or invalid information.
  • Always verify the author of a website to confirm their authority on the topic.
• You may find political or social groups which may release biased information which leans toward their positions.
  • Always check sites against each other to get both sides of a story.

.gov

• Government, associated with the government.
• You may find reliable information from respected organizations (fda.gov, cdc.gov).
• Individual states have their state prefix before their sites (tax.ny.gov).
• You may find politically biased information which leans toward their positions.
  • Always check sites against each other to get both sides of a story.

.mil

• Military, associated with the United States armed forces.
• You may find reliable information from respected organizations (marines.mil).
• You may find politically biased information which leans toward their positions.
  • Always check sites against each other to get both sides of a story.

.net

• Network, associated with smaller companies or business resources.
• This type of site may often be trying to sell you something (slickdeals.net).
• This company may use social plugins to track you online to sell that information to other companies. (soundforge.net).
• This company may use cookies to track your searches to sell that information to other companies (comcast.net).