dot com et al.The secret life of Internet domains

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The story of domain names might seem narrow—as narrow as your browser's address bar. But there's a whole world hidden in those little URLs. The life of internet domains is one of geopolitical drama, thorny ethics and governance, technical marvel, artistic expression, and economic power.

Like how the small island nation of Anguilla earns nearly half its national revenue selling .ai domains (1). Or how in the 90s when Yugoslavia split, a group of Slovenian scientists broke into an IT building to steal .yu domain records and literally cut the building's internet access with scissors (2). Or that an early domain investor registered sex.com for free and later sold it for $13 million.

There are now over a thousand top-level domains—the part to the right of the dot, like .net and .nyc, .porn and .pizza, or .gay and .google. Who creates these? How do they decide how much you pay? And who makes the rules?

Last year, dot com turned 40. Four decades and a billion registered domains later, dot com et al. will explore the history, economics, geopolitics, artistry, and governance of domains. Subscribe to the book's email newsletter ahead of its publication: