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Loura Kruger-Zwart

We've been witnessing a fascinating trend in the digital landscape: the rise of casual mini-games across a wide array of online platforms. This trend isn't just a passing moment: it has truly reshaped how we interact with websites and apps, and it's changing the way companies engage with their users and keep them engaged.

The New York Times: from paper crosswords to mobile Wordle 

One of the most visible and well-known examples of the mini-game ascent comes from the New York Times. NYT has long been known for its iconic crossword puzzles, first published in 1942, which set the stage for daily brain-teasers. Its enduring popularity demonstrates the long-standing appeal of quick, daily mental challenges, and their foray into modern mini-games has catapulted them into the online spotlight. The trend started before the pandemic already—the daily Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee are global favorites—but it was the acquisition of Wordle in 2022 that truly put NYT games on a new scale. This game was unique and the results easy to share, spoiler-free. NYT’s casual game offerings have only continued to grow in popularity since then.

The trend isn't limited to news outlets. Professional networking site LinkedIn has introduced a few casual games that refresh daily, and even e-commerce platforms like bol.com have incorporated games into their apps. The OEC, an economic data platform, has brought in regular visitors with their games like Tradle and Connectrade (homages to NYT’s Wordle and Connections). The spinoffs don’t stop there: Worldle for the geographers-at-heart, Heardle for the more musically inclined, Loldle for the gamers, Waffle for our smartest friends, and Quorlde for the eccentrics among us—just to name a few.

They're quick, tricky enough to feel challenging but not so difficult as to cause frustration, and effortlessly shareable. With usually only one new puzzle per day, the process of completing them provides a sense of downtime without feeling unproductive. Everyone attempts the same puzzle and there are no ‘levels’; the results—your score—can be transformed and emoji-fied to make for spoiler-free comparison among family, friends, or colleagues. This limited availability and global consistency creates a shared experience among players, fostering both a sense of community and a dose of friendly competition.

Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with playing and enjoying mini-games, but the context of their presence raises some questions. The NYT claims these games drive traffic to their platform and provide levity from a heavy news cycle, but they've also created a separate app for their games, which effectively results in less traffic to their site and main platform. This widespread adoption begs the question: where did this trend come from, and where is it going?

From the early days of flash games to the massive gaming industry we see today, playing games on the internet has always been a core part of the online experience.

However, what we're seeing now is different. These new mini-games provide quick dopamine hits, often taking just 30 seconds or two minutes to play. They're designed for short attention spans and busy lifestyles, often integrated into apps we use daily. The rise of mini-games and its corporate encouragement isn't accidental: it's a response to changing user behaviors and platform needs. With overall engagement declining and users spending less time on individual sites (besides the big social media platforms), these games serve as a way to increase user return, retention, and time spent.

But is this trend a solution or part of a broader problem?

A little deep dive into games online: the case of Indonesia

We took to Dataprovider.com’s Search Engine to see what we could find about how games are mentioned online. We can see a general rise in “games” being referred to across the internet, but there’s one trend line in particular that we couldn’t ignore: Indonesian websites and websites based in Indonesia have seen a meteoric rise in the mentions of games online since 2021. In Figure 1, we can see that Indonesia’s line starts rising at the end of 2021 and continues steadily upwards until the end of 2023. Then, from the beginning of 2024 until now, there’s been an exponential growth in “games” mentions that overtakes the numbers of the UK and Canada—even combined. We tested our data for an increase in English-language Indonesian websites, and discovered that no change was present that would account for the rise. No changes in our internal methodologies could explain the changes either, which sent us to the news to investigate. 

Two unique explanations came to our attention; two answers that seemed on opposite sides of the same coin. On one side of the coin, we have to take a look at gambling—an activity that is illegal for both locals and tourists in Indonesia for religious reasons. However, online gambling has become a problem in the country: in lieu of (legal) traditional casinos, the gambling that happens tends to be in the form of mobile apps and sites, where users can play gambling ‘games’ with ‘real stakes.’ These platforms create considerable political and social concern about gambling gamification, and a governmental task force was set up earlier in 2024 to address the issue. For better or worse, this helps explain the prevalence of “games” on the Indonesian internet. 

The other side of the coin paints a much happier picture, giving context to the data we see in Figure 1. It starts with the “Perpres 19/2024”, a presidential regulation and government initiative for supporting Indonesian mobile/video game developers. The Perpres was announced in 2021—aligning with when the orange trend line starts to rise—and more actively enacted in 2024, essentially when the exponential growth begins. With a large and active online (gaming) community in Indonesia, the initiative is intended to keep more gaming revenue in the country by supporting talent development, funding indie game development studios, and more. Some of the most popular games from Indonesian studios are known around the world (Coffee Talk and Coral Island, especially!). From this angle, the increased mention of “games” on local websites can be clearly attributed to this giant boost to Indonesia’s gaming industry. 

Neither of these explanations are the same kind of mini-game as what the NYT offers, but this case tells us plenty about the way people use the internet today: to find games, to play games, and to discuss games in blogs, articles, and comment sections across the world. At the same time, they all add together as a way to keep people and their activities firmly online. 

It appears that (mini-)games are the newest addition to the attention economy. Just as the printers and publishers before them, online platforms are competing for users' limited time, focus, and screen space. The seemingly harmless venture into casual games—especially from news providers—can spur a sense of service dilution, where platforms expand too far beyond their core offerings, just to keep users engaged. 

It risks becoming a symptom of content collapse, a modern phenomenon where all information flattened and given more or less the same importance. For example, it occurs when heavy news is placed alongside clickbait and quizzes, which can lead to a kind of numbing effect: there’s less emotional room to deal with dark themes, and the joy of puzzling is damped by negative events.

As we look to the future, several questions emerge:

Will mini-games become a standard feature across all types of digital platforms?

How will these games evolve to maintain user interest and generate income for their hosts? 

What impact will this trend have on user behavior and expectations?

How will platforms balance their core services with these additional engagement tools?

The rise of mini-games online represents a significant shift in how we interact with digital platforms. In our article on GenAI Transparency, we explored the impact of the ‘time spent’ metric (and how it interests shareholders): it's not hard to imagine that the interest in keeping users on the platform will take precedence over the reason the users are on the platform—as long as money is being made, and the metrics show growth, quantity will remain above quality. 

But that’s the cynical take, and it could just as well be that mini-games will stay casual, just a fun addition and well-deserved source of levity online. They offer benefits in terms of engagement and user retention on the corporate level, and in terms of a brain-break for users, but of course, casual mini-games also raise important questions about the future of online content and user experience. For those of us on the player side of mini-games, it comes down to being intentional and paying attention to the context in which the games are. It’ll be fascinating to watch how they shape the digital landscape in the years to come.

This article is part of the Modern Internet series, where we dive into today's digital culture and the online landscape. Check out Internet Nostalgia for a head start on finding great spaces to hang out online, or read our piece on GenAI Transparency to learn about maintaining the Living Internet. If you’re curious about the importance of entropy to security, take a look at Low-Tech Internet (and enjoy the lava lamps). 

Tech

Crosswords, brain-teasers, puzzles, and more: it’s hardly a surprise to find a mini-game or two, tucked away in news and social media platforms. But what does this mean for how we engage with the modern internet? And why are games so popular on the Indonesian internet, in particular? Take a look at our latest blog for insights about mini-games, modern engagement, and the attention economy.

Mini-games and modern engagement

Veronika Vilgis

The .ai domain has experienced an unprecedented surge in popularity, with the past few years seeing registrations skyrocket. Initially affiliated with the small Caribbean island of Anguilla, the .ai extension has become a highly sought-after digital asset, largely due to its association with artificial intelligence. Tech companies, startups, and even large corporations have rushed to secure their slice of this internet real estate, making it a go-to choice for AI-related branding. We look into the data to see what’s really behind .ai domains and if the rise is just a hype.

The growing interest in artificial intelligence has elevated the .ai domain from a relatively obscure country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) to a trendy choice for tech companies worldwide. Companies like OpenAI and Stability.ai have embraced the extension, making it synonymous with cutting-edge AI innovation. Just as investors flocked to AI stocks, domain investors have rushed to secure .ai domains, viewing them as the domain market’s next big thing. Eager to capitalize on potential resale opportunities and future value appreciation, they have snapped up as many premium keywords as possible, leading even generic or non-tech terms to be registered with “.ai.”

While the surge in .ai domain registrations is impressive, the quality and usage of these domains tell a different story. As of October 2024, there are 204,700 active .ai websites, including online stores, blogs, and parked domains. A closer analysis reveals that placeholders and parked domains dominate the landscape, making up 61% of all active sites. Business and e-commerce websites account for 23%, while content-focused sites make up 11%. The remaining share consists of low-content sites, frame sites, forums, and blogs.

To understand the meteoric rise shown in Figure 1, we examined whether the total increase is primarily driven by increased placeholders. Our analysis found that between October 2023 and September 2024, the number of placeholder .ai domains surged by an astonishing 2,271% (Figure 2). The majority (88%) of these placeholders are managed by registrars affiliated with Team Internet Group PLC (formerly CentralNic Group PLC), including 1api.net, Centralnic Canada Inc., and Hexonet Services Inc. Furthermore, 92.3% of the placeholders are hosted by Amazon.

The influx of parked and placeholder domains comes with drawbacks. For one, it can create a misleading perception of activity within the .ai domain space. Although registration numbers are high, many of these domains do not provide value in terms of content or active use, which can make it harder for genuine startups to find available and relevant domain names. As our previous analysis of .com placeholders showed, many of them have a short lifespan.

Additionally, the practice of domain parking drives up the cost of acquiring .ai domains, as owners of premium domains often set high resale prices. For cash-strapped startups, this presents a significant barrier to obtaining a domain that truly fits their brand.

Growth in Business and E-Commerce Websites

While the growth rate for business and e-commerce websites is lower compared to placeholders, it remains notable, with increases of 477% and 734% over the past 12 months, respectively (Figure 2). These websites are predominantly located in the United States, followed by Germany, India, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the Netherlands (Figure 3).

Next, let’s take a look at the topics associated with the different business, e-commerce, and content websites of the .ai top-level domain (Figure 4). The “Software & Data” category unsurprisingly dominates nearly half (44.9%) of all topics, confirming that software development and data analysis are central to the AI conversation. “Marketing & Advertisement” follows as a distant second at 14%, indicating AI's growing role in transforming digital marketing strategies. Other notable sectors include “Telecom” (7.4%) and “Entertainment” (4.6%). Topics like “Financial” services (4.4%), “Art & Design” (4.1%), and “Science” (3%) highlight AI's diverse applications across various fields, though they trail behind the more dominant themes. Meanwhile, “Health & Medical” (2.5%) and “Business & Careers” (2.2%) represent emerging areas where AI is making significant strides, albeit with a smaller share of the content focus.

With the entry of large language models (LLMs) and generative tools into the mass market, AI has been widely hailed as groundbreaking and revolutionary over the past year—and the surge in .ai domain registrations reflects this excitement. However, most of these websites are placeholders or parked domains, often created solely for resale, essentially just occupying space until replaced by something more substantial. As we have shown in a previous analysis of .com placeholders, many tend to disappear quickly. For the remaining business and content-driven websites, it remains to be seen how stable the trend will be. As the initial hype cools and doubts emerge about the true capabilities of AI, it’ll be worth watching how demand for the .ai top-level domain evolves in the coming months and years.

Ultimately, the .ai domain's future success will depend not just on the number of registered domains, but on how many of these domains are actively contributing to the advancement of AI and technology in meaningful ways. For startups and businesses in the AI space, building an active online presence with a .ai domain could offer a significant competitive advantage—if they choose to go beyond just reserving a name.

Domains

We’re seeing AI in every nook and cranny online, and the realm of top-level domains is no different. The amount of active .ai websites has skyrocketed in the last year, and now they’re everywhere—right? We dive into the data to see what’s really going on in the .ai domain space.

The .AI domain boom: what the websites behind the trend reveal

The modern history of emoji domain names began in 2001, when the first emoji domains—☮️.com, ♨️.com, and ♨️.net—were registered. These domains were made possible by the use of Punycode, which converts Unicode characters like emojis into ASCII, allowing them to function within the Domain Name System (DNS).

While these were just a novelty at first, emoji domain names gained real traction around 2015 as mobile internet usage soared and emojis became a more central part of everyday digital communication. Emoji domain names are managed by only a few registries, and the most frequently used are .ws (Western Samoa’s country code top-level domain), .to (the ccTLD is assigned to the Kingdom of Tonga) and .fm (the ccTLD of the Federated States of Micronesia).

Emoji domain names provide an opportunity for creative and memorable branding. Budweiser, for example, registered the domain 🍺.ws, cleverly aligning its product with the universally recognized beer mug emoji. Similarly, Coca-Cola previously launched an innovative marketing campaign by registering all variations of the happy face emoji: a creative example of how to use emoji domains as a fun tool for modern marketing.

But just how many emoji domains are out there? In our database, we detect 8,262 domains with an emoji in the main name—however, the vast majority have no active website associated. As of September 2024, only 423 emoji domains have a working website, and of these, 27% are websites that provide informational content and 5% are associated with a business or company (see Figure 1). The remaining websites are placeholders, parked domains of low content websites, which typically only have one page and little overall information. Close to 1,600 emoji domains are redirects, while the rest—a large majority—return no response when queried. These low numbers suggest that emoji domains are definitely not a trend (yet), but it also means that plenty of prime domains are still up for grabs and likely to be reasonably affordable. You can check the availability and prices of emoji domains with this handy tool at i❤️.ws.

Next, let's take a look at the top-level domains (TLDs) associated with emoji domains. Only three registries actively allow registering domains with any emoji: .fm, .to and .ws. Having said that, there are certain types of symbols that can be classified as emojis, such as © or ®, that are allowed as part of other TLD registration policies. Figure 2 shows the top 10 TLDs (by number of emoji domains) that feature at least one emoji in the domain name.

Indeed, ©, ® and ™ are the top 3 most frequently occurring when we look at emojis used in .com domains. Many of you might say these are not ‘real’ emojis, but don’t fret! We’ll give you the top 20 most frequently occurring real emojis across all TLDs in Figure 3.

Our favorite red emoji tops the ranks, which is both reassuring and perhaps a little surprising. If you’ve lost faith in humanity, it’s nice to know that the internet still has heart(s). Perhaps this would be more reassuring if the laptop emoji wasn’t ranked second—the machines are catching up. 

Some emojis listed in the top 20 make sense and are in agreement with observations reported elsewhere, such as the fire or rocket emoji, and the notorious eggplant emoji being popular is not unexpected. Less obvious are the bikini emoji or the bride with a veil, but perhaps these (and a few others) hint at a certain adult-themed trend among emoji domains.

Curiously, we didn’t find a single emoji face in the top 20: no 🙂, 😆, 😂, or even a 😡, which is contrary to what we’d expect given their frequent usage in short messages or social media posts.  

Digital creatives are already making use of emoji domains to push the boundaries of the ‘usual’ internet. Take full-stack developer Ben Stokes, for example: he decided that if emoji domains were possible, then emoji email domains should be possible too… After some tests and trials, Mailoji was born. Ben writes:

Since emoji domains transcend language barriers, providing a universally understood mode of communication, there’s a cultural impact to consider. This languageless-ness makes them particularly attractive for brands and initiatives aimed at diverse global audiences. The simplicity and directness of emojis can convey emotions and ideas more effectively than words in some cases, enhancing the appeal of emoji domains in a multicultural digital world. However, there maybe challenges across cultural and generational lines if groups interpret the same emojis differently: what looks like a friendly domain for eggplants to one person, could represent something else entirely to another. Similarly, not all emojis are displayed equally across devices and operating systems. And, the fact that emojis still need to be translated to text means they are often displayed as just a random selection of letters. For example, the domain name 🍺.ws mentioned above is converted to https://xn--xj8h.ws/—which looks a lot less appealing and trustworthy, defeating the purpose of recognizability.

Emoji domain names face certain limitations and challenges, despite their charm. For one, not all top-level domains (TLDs) support emojis, restricting their widespread adoption. Nevertheless, as technology continues to advance and internet usage becomes even more integrated into daily life, the demand for distinctive and memorable digital identities is likely to grow. It'll be interesting to see if more registries open emoji domain registrations in the future, and there's also the possibility of introducing emoji TLDs. We've written extensively about new generic TLDs: over the past years, more than 2000 new TLDs have been created, from .ninja to .dog and .yoga—there is now likely a TLD for your favorite hobby or industry. Is it just a matter of time until ICANN introduces the first emoji TLD? 

Ultimately, emoji domain names represent an intriguing intersection of technology, communication, and creativity. From their humble beginnings in the early 2000s to their current status as a novel branding tool, these domains are carving out a unique niche in the digital landscape. Emoji domains offer a playful and powerful way to stand out online, and while challenges remain, the future holds potential for further expansion and increased adoption. As emojis continue to permeate our digital interactions, the allure of emoji domain names is likely to grow and makes them an exciting area to watch in the world of internet domains.

In this ever-evolving landscape we call the internet, emoji domain names represent a quirky and captivating innovation. Combining the ubiquitous and expressive power of emoji characters with the functional utility of domain names, these digital novelties offer a unique blend of communication and technology. From their origins to their current status and future potential, let’s take a look at the fascinating world of emojis.

Emoji domains explained: a data-driven analysis

It’s both clear and inevitable that the internet is changing. The previous installment in our Modern Internet series delved into Internet Nostalgia and what’s changed in the last decade about the way we use the internet. It included some reasons behind these changes and how to recapture a bit of the magic of the ‘old internet,’ but the evolution of the online world is far from over. In just the last few years, mainstream access to and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has increased exponentially. AI—a term often used as a catch-all term for all things black-box and automated, here referring to Large Language Models, text-to-image generators, and machine learning algorithms—has positively influenced workflows as a tool and expanded what many have thought was possible. 

The release of ChatGPT and DALL-E preempted the takeoff of many more generative AI (genAI) tools, including Midjourney and Stable Diffusion for images, and Claude, Gemini, Copilot, or Aria for text. Many software tools have developed their own AIs for different purposes, such as Notion’s generator for longer, shorter, or simplified texts, or even the paraphrasers and summarizers of top-line spellcheckers like Grammarly or LanguageTool. 

But beyond the marvels of AI, including generative technologies, there’s something else sort of sinister happening on the internet. Bots have been an issue on social media for many years, when considering fake followers and accounts spreading propaganda or fake news, but it’s taken what feels like a new form: AI-generated content—both images and texts—shared by what seems like AI-run accounts, being interacted with by other AI-operated ‘users’. This cycle ends up looking like faceless bots creating content for faceless bots, on platforms like Facebook meant specifically for, well, people with faces. Whether the point is engagement-farming or just using sheer volume to drown out other kinds of online content, we’re left asking: what’s actually going on here?

Machine-to-machine (M2M) interactions and technologies are not new: they’ve been used in business contexts for years. Cybersecurity firms like Darktrace use AI to detect AI or other automatically generated emails, blocking them from client servers—while other AI learns this and works around it… before Darktrace figures out the workaround and blocks it… and the cycle continues. Payment terminals are essentially one machine contacting another machine (the bank’s tech) to approve and execute a transaction, and the Internet of Things (IoT) network is almost exclusively machine-to-machine communication. The web traffic from crawlers, the technology with which Google and Dataprovider.com index the internet, is classified as bot traffic, and this is also M2M tech. This is to say that there are many useful things that come out of M2M tech, but what's missing is the point of a bot-run and bot-interacted surface web.

Internet analysts have been grappling with the “Dead Internet Theory,” the idea that the internet is already or soon will be devoid of human interaction in the way we’ve been used to in the last years. Explained here by two Australian tech academics, this theory contends that “many of the accounts that engage with [AI-generated] content also appear to be managed by artificial intelligence agents. This creates a vicious cycle of artificial engagement, one that has no clear agenda and no longer involves humans at all.” The motive here is unclear, and may or may not be malicious. 

But the intention can be transparent too, with financial incentives being a major factor. Previously lively sites, like BuzzFeed, have come under fire for publishing low-effort AI content. From quizzes and listicles to travel guides, the company says “generative AI will replace the majority of static content… [and] lead to new formats that are more gamified, more personalized, and more interactive.” While generative AI can produce many times more results (from brainstorm notes to full-fledged articles) than a human worker can, and for a fraction of the cost, does this matter if people don’t actually want it? If the metric is ‘time-spent,’ as advertisers and stakeholders prefer, then AI-generated content, creating highly personalized and ‘endless’ experiences, is the right choice. 

How AI transparency can help the internet 

There are plenty of great uses for AI and genAI in the world today, from the artistic and entertainment value of creating something with these tools or enjoying the creations of others, to utilizing them to simplify your workflows. AI has become part of our online ecosystem, but the issue arises when we encounter AI, knowingly or unknowingly, where we don’t expect or appreciate it. At its core, the issue is not the existence of AI tools, but the transparency around its use. And just because it can be used doesn't mean it should… So what to do?

Detection and tagging tools are still in their infancy, but are becoming increasingly useful for spotting AI-generated content online. Social media platforms like Vimeo and Instagram have added labels to mark posts made with AI (or at least provide AI info), which creates an avenue for voluntary transparency online. LinkedIn and TikTok are expected to follow suit in the near future. These are directed at visual content, like images and videos, which leaves some questions about text-based content: how can generated written work be detected? This is much trickier, as texts are far less likely to be labeled or obviously genAI influenced. Detection applications are not accurate enough to be reliable yet, so this is still difficult to spot and even more difficult to prove. 

This means knowing your sources. Things are changing faster than we can keep up, but it’s important to recognize and critically view what we see online. Companies like Google and Adobe are already in the process of adding provenance trackers to image-based online content, the feature showing if something was taken with a camera, edited in Photoshop, or made with artificial intelligence. In the meantime, however, there’s a lot to learn about how to spot AI content, and understanding its markers can help us notice, flag, or avoid it. Trace the source of something questionable to determine its reliability, for example by finding the original poster, the artist or author, or other online mentions. And ultimately, we can avoid the online spaces that care less about AI transparency than we do. 

Written content markers: check for signs like repetition, predictability, and oddly consistent sentence length and paragraph structure. For comparison, look up other examples of writing by that author or on that topic, and see how the style and content aligns. There’s no harm in checking claims against other sources, or reaching out to the author for clarity. 

Visual content markers: there are a couple of well-known signs to look out for. Especially with images of people, you might spot hands with too many fingers or feet with too many toes, but the key is to zoom in. Are shapes in the background vague or distorted? Are cars facing the wrong direction on the road? Do lines or outlines start and stop in illogical places? Is the writing actually words, or just a jumble of lines and letters? Besides the brushed glow that genAI images tend to have, look out for things that would never appear in a photograph or video, or that (digital) artists would not purposefully include. 

Quizzes: it’s actually quite entertaining to challenge yourself on your genAI recognition skills. Start with this image quiz and get more insights about spotting AI, then follow with this video test and check your assumptions. There are plenty of quizzes around to help keep you sharp.  

If the ‘Dead Internet’ is where humans are no longer creators and interactors, the Living Internet might be where we actually want to be. At risk of repeating the conclusions of our previous article about Internet Nostalgia, there’s much to be said about the return to an ‘old’ way of using the internet—a return to online communities. User-generated and official spaces are the online environments where writers, artists, and other creators have both the incentive and accountability for sharing living content: this can even include AI-assisted works if the use is transparent or otherwise expected. There is plenty of room for responsible innovation and the avoidance of ‘bionic duckweed’. Let’s create, support, and enjoy the Living Internet together. 

This article is part of the Modern Internet series, where we dive into today's digital culture and the online landscape. Check out part 1, Internet Nostalgia, for a head start on finding great spaces to hang out online, and keep an eye out for our upcoming pieces on low-tech internet solutions and the rise of mini-games where they're least expected.

AI and its generative tools are here to stay, but that doesn’t mean it won’t take some getting used to. Its impacts are already being felt in workflow-enhancing applications and content creation capabilities, but the opacity behind its use remains troubling. What are companies and social media platforms doing to ensure integrity and credibility, and how can we as users stay sharp online? Read on as we discuss the problem of genAI transparency, explore the dead and living internet, and share ways to recognize genAI in the digital wild.

GenAI transparency and the living internet

There’s a conversation going on in cyberspace, on social media and forums, in news columns and opinion pieces, about something called internet nostalgia—a longing for the ‘old internet’ and the way online life used to be. But what are we really missing? Is it the charm of slow connections and bad graphics, or having small digital communities, or just the lack of social media platforms? Is the old internet really gone, or have we just forgotten where to find it? Read on to dive into what internet nostalgia is really about, what the alternatives might be, and how to navigate today’s internet for a nostalgic (and daresay, good) time. 

Things used to be so different, but what’s so good about the old internet?

That’s certainly true, the changes are clear. The internet of the late 1990s and early 2000s had the character of an informal Wild West you could visit now and then, in contrast to the expectation of being online we face now. Not only has access to the internet been vastly expanded, an internet connection has become basically essential. It’s a necessity for many kinds of work, most kinds of entertainment, and, increasingly, for social relationships too. The rise of smartphones has been accompanied by cheap data on the go. This means we no longer have to wait to get home to go online, and we no longer necessarily sit behind a big, navigable screen to browse the internet. 

It makes sense, then, that our association with being online has changed: in the same way that a hobby without balance can become a chore, what used to be more of a down-time activity is now an integral—if not mandatory—part of our days. Regulation of advertising, business, access, and social media has replaced the ‘lawlessness’ of before. We’ve traded in anonymous and ‘purposeless’ web surfing for logged-in and targeted browsing, as we seek convenience, speed, and quick engagement. 

As with most things, there is good in the bad and bad in the good. One of the main differences between the internet then and now is how we get information.

You needed to visit a different website and different types of websites for every single thing you did online. You’d stop at a forum for advice, a business website for contact information, a maps site for directions, find a city guide, organize travel, get recipes, recommendations, games, news—these things rarely overlapped. Blogs were huge, creating communities around certain topics, and there was much less of the ‘corporate’ influence we see now, of companies running websites. Rather, the online sphere felt decentralized and much more like it was just run by individuals or interest groups. Cooking and recipes blogs might be one of the most popular blog-style internet spaces that are still often visited, and, even then, that ‘jump to recipe’ button is a quick click most of the time. While visiting all these sites and surfing around online might’ve been entertaining, getting information was a time-consuming endeavor before many of these functionalities became integrated on a few platforms. With Google Maps, for example, we can now get our maps, recommendations, reviews, and directions all in one place. 

How social media impacts digital lifestyles

It seems we’ve reached the other end of the spectrum, resulting in a new set of frustrations. One of the major complaints from internet-nostalgists is the contemporary centrality of social media. It seems like everything revolves around the big social media platforms that have changed the way we use the internet. Recommendations, discussions, opinions, purchases, entertainment, updates, social connections… does everything happen between Meta, TikTok, and Reddit now? In the earlier days of Facebook and Instagram, most users were also ‘creators,’ posting for their friends and network, whereas it's more likely now that a user simply consumes the endless-scroll of curated content from social media professionals. 

The dependency on legacy social media platforms is changing, however, as users get flooded with ads and grapple with algorithms that prioritize some content over others. Then there’s the issue of disallowed or discouraged content, and the influence of AI and bot-generated engagement. These frustrations send internet visitors looking elsewhere for the enjoyable time they used to have online.

What’s the alternative? How can we enjoy the internet again?

With the many optimizations, improvements, and modern online advents, it seems that people forget that the rest of the internet is still out there—or they don’t know how to find it. 

But, of course, the rest of the internet is still out there! Websites are easier to make than ever with specialized building and hosting platforms, whether the site is visual or text-based. Plenty of people know how or are learning to code, ready to make their own sites. Popular AI tools make this even easier, and more accessible to those who are interested. Essentially, we are not restricted to social media to find interesting and unique content, but rather there truly is space online for everyone and everything they love. 


In July 2024 alone, we counted 161 million active websites in our database. Close to 28.3 million of those are classified as content, blog, or forum websites, which means these sites exist only to inform, connect, and share. They have no obvious commercial focus, and could be the sites that come close to the internet we used to know. 


The point is to emphasize what made the ‘old internet’ entertaining and exciting: we start by bringing the focus back to community and community-generated content. This can take many forms these days, including interest-based newsletters via Substack, group chats in an app like Geneva, or active channels on platforms like Discord, Twitch, or Patreon. 


Besides this active community engagement online, there’s plenty of educational and entertainment value in seeking out the unusual websites of today. These could be passion project sites like this ecological exploration or this creative profile, unusual trackers like this interactive doorbell, or silly mini-sites like this dizzy option. Once you start visiting these delightful little corners of the internet, it’s hard to stop. But where do you find them?

How to navigate the internet for a nostalgic time

Start on the big platforms, then follow the external links of the people or topics you like. Actually go to their websites and poke around.

Search for blogs on a topic you're interested in.

Sign up for newsletters and platforms that support what you’re looking for.

Literally, anywhere: https://random.dataprovider.dev/ (developed in-house, this link that takes you to a new, random site every time you click—and don't worry, all the nasties have been filtered out)

Somewhere useless: https://theuselessweb.com 

Newsletters: https://substack.com/browse/staff-picks  | TIP: Dataprovider.com’s monthly newsletter contains a mini-round up of interesting links every month—subscribe here.

TinyAwards: https://tinyawards.net or their 2023 Roundup

The personal websites of developers & programmers

The internet still has its magic, but we’ve been a little swept away by the glamour and ease of catch-all destinations like search engine snippets and social media platforms. Treat the internet like a library: enter with an open mind (don’t head straight for the ‘new’ shelf), take your time to browse the shelves, open up a book now and then and get a taste of what’s inside, and then, if you like what you see, check out! Instead of letting yourself be served up whatever an algorithm recommends, go out into the World Wide Web and poke around until you find something fun. Don’t forget to then subscribe or check in regularly, and you’ll bring the old internet back to your life.

This article is part of the Modern Internet series, where we dive into today's digital culture and the online landscape. Keep an eye out for our upcoming pieces on GenAI transparency, low-tech internet solutions, and the rise of mini-games where they're least expected. 

Generative AI and the ever-growing reach of social media are among the elements fueling the ‘internet nostalgia’ conversation. Did we really have more fun on the internet 10, 20 years ago? Is that enjoyment a relic of the past, or do we just need to be reminded where to find it? Read our insight to learn more about this nostalgic sentiment and how to reclaim a bit of that online magic.

From slow connections to social media: exploring internet nostalgia

Consider how websites needed to be built 20 years ago, with long lines of code and now you can use out of the box templates of AI and your website is built without you having to write a single line of code. In this blog post we’ll take a look at how things have changed over the past four years. Has there been a change in the popularity of certain top-level domains, the use of different content management tools, hosting providers and more?

For this post, we analyzed all websites that were added in the first week of March in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. We’ll look at which top-level domains were registered the most, what types of websites went online, who was hosting them, and what content management systems were chosen. We’ll also take a look at how social media profile mentions have changed over the years.

For top 5 TLDs not much has changed with .online, .org, .net and .xyz always appearing between rank 2 and 6. Unsurprisingly, .com ranks first in all four years. Its total market share in each year ranges from 47% (2024) to 62% (2022). The biggest winner according to this data is .shop, which climbed from position 45 to 2 in just four years. Interestingly, .store started on rank 9 in 2021 and has remained relatively stable, ranking 8 in 2024. .xyz and .info have slipped down a few ranks but remain among the top TLDs.

WordPress has been the top ranking CMS for years and our data shows a consistent share between 46% (2024) and 49% (2022). The second most popular CMS has been WIX which has lost a little every year, while GoDaddy Website Builder shows a steady growth. Squarespace has increased its market share from 4% to 11% from 2023 to 2024.

Websites need to be hosted somewhere and in a previous blog post, we showed how much the hosting industry has changed over the past years. Therefore, it’s no surprise that we see quite some movement with Amazon entering strong in 2022 and taking over a quarter of the hosting market. Cloudflare is also gradually gaining as is Hostinger International, while Namecheap has been losing to the competition. Google grew its share between 2021 and 2022 but has since remained relatively stable.

Lastly, we’ll have a look at how many of the websites we discovered in the first week of March of each year, which mention a social media profile associated with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Each year the proportion of websites that mention these social media platforms decreases. 

Between 2021 and 2024 the share of websites that mention Facebook nearly halved, in comparison LinkedIn has maintained a relatively stable share across those four years, even though its overall share is relatively low ranging from 1.7% (2023) to 2.3% (2021).

Here, we took a snapshot of websites that were created in the first week of March in four consecutive years. The dominance of .com as the TLD of choice remains unchallenged, while the rise of .shop is noteworthy. WordPress maintains its position as the leading CMS, but there is movement among the smaller CMS providers. In the hosting sector, Amazon has emerged as a major player, while the mention of traditional social media platforms on websites has seen a steady decline, with LinkedIn being the most stable. These trends underscore the dynamic nature of the web, where some aspects remain constant, others evolve gradually, and some undergo rapid transformation.

The web is in constant change marked by new domains being registered or existing ones being discontinued as well as new websites being launched and others going offline. This persistent flux of websites means the web is actually not growing that much, rather the overall size is relatively stable. However, the way websites are created, who is hosting them, and the tools website owners use to create their sites are changing.

Web trends: a data snapshot spanning 4 years

Dataprovider.com

However, in an industry that thrives on cutting-edge innovation and fierce competition, the significance of online identity cannot be overstated. For tech firms and start-ups, a domain name is not merely a digital address but a strategic asset that is crucial for brand recognition, cybersecurity and market positioning.

Drawing on key findings from the Global Domain Report 2024, for which Dataprovider.com served as one of the primary sources, we’ll unravel how the tech industry navigates the usage of TLDs. We shed light on the strategic schemes that underpin successful online identities in the tech industry, highlighted in the Global Domain Report 2024 released by InterNetX and Sedo.

How do you analyze the tech sector's use of TLDs?

As we zoomed in on the domain strategies employed by tech firms, we focused on a curated selection that exemplifies industry leadership and influence. The Forbes Top 10 Tech Companies of 2023 provided a focused lens through which we could examine the biggest tech companies worldwide.

We followed a rigorous, data-centric methodology to assess how these tech giants use TLDs. Data experts at Dataprovider.com began by identifying each company's primary domain. We then employed an advanced tool from Dataprovider.com, the Ownership feature, which reliably verifies domain ownership. It takes into account various indicators, such as WHOIS data, DNS records, contact information and company registration details on websites. After compiling this information, a probability score is calculated that reflects the likelihood of a domain being owned by the same company.

The effectiveness of this score depends in part on the consistent accuracy of the data provided by tech companies. Therefore, companies should maintain consistent records across all digital properties, ensuring that domain registration and business operations data are kept up to date.

Despite the expansive selection of TLDs, the biggest tech companies still prefer using the well-known generic top-level domains (gTLDs). With a chunky 65.6% share, these gTLDs dominate the domain market in the tech industry, with the .com domain extension being the most popular. According to the Global Domain Report 2024, .com asserts its dominance with an impressive 159.6 million registered domains, albeit with a modest 0.6% year-over-year (YoY) contraction. This prompts intriguing speculation regarding the potential decline of .com's stronghold after two decades of domination.

In the tech industry, ccTLDs currently hold a 23.8% market share. This indicates a smaller representation than the overall domain market, where ccTLDs typically hold a 30-40% share. Leading tech firms mostly operate in different countries and regions, so they secure domains under ccTLDs to target specific regions and offer a localized presence and multilingual websites. Using a mix of traditional TLDs, ccTLDs for a localized presence, and targeted new gTLDs, the tech industry is creating its online presence and reaching customers in different areas.

In the vibrant landscape of the tech industry, it’s no surprise that the .com TLD continues to reign supreme, dominating the market with its universal appeal and recognition factor. The legacy TLDs .org and .net follow. The list expands to include ccTLDs from the world's largest economies across Europe and Asia, reflecting the global nature of the tech industry.

Notably, the American ccTLD .us makes a surprising appearance despite its low profile in the broader domain market. With 2 million registered domains in 2024 and a 3.9% YoY growth, .us showcases a quietly growing interest within tech circles, hinting at a nuanced shift in domain registration trends. And the popular ccTLD .io also takes a place among the top 20 TLDs due to its connotation with input/output.

The strategic adoption of new gTLDs by leading tech firms

The acceptance of new gTLDs has increased in the past few years. In particular, tech-related new gTLDs have gained traction among the globe's most prominent tech firms. These include TLDs like .dev, .app, .xyz, and .support. The leader of the pack over recent years has been .xyz, known for its tech-centric appeal and versatility. This new gTLD recently made headway by engaging with burgeoning communities such as blockchain, Web3 and crypto. As per the Global Domain Report 2024, around 3.8 million .xyz domain names have been registered.

This diverse spectrum of new gTLDs presents several strategic advantages for tech companies. It enables them to bolster their brand protection strategies, forge a broader online identity and mitigate the threat of cybersquatting. Additionally, new gTLDs facilitate the alignment of different brands or products within the same organization and amplify the efficacy of targeting specific regional markets.

Navigating the domain industry one TLD at a time

In the ever-evolving world of technology, in which innovation leads and the market follows, understanding the intricacies between tech companies and their domain strategies delivers a number of insights. As we've delved into the strategic utilization of TLDs by leading tech firms, it becomes apparent that the choices made in this area carry weight in branding, cybersecurity and market dominance.

Despite the plethora of options available, the tech industry's choice of legacy gTLDs speaks to a nuanced strategy of balancing innovation with the recognized trust-building power of established TLDs. Meanwhile, the growing adoption of new gTLDs highlights a forward-thinking approach, leveraging these domains for brand protection, identity expansion, and market-specific targeting.

The Global Domain Report 2024, enriched with data from InterNetX and Sedo, provides additional information for those seeking to further understand the strategies and their implications in the broader tech industry landscape. You can download the full report here: Global Domain Report 2024

This blog post was written by Simone Catania, who currently serves InterNetX as Global Content and Communications Manager. He is responsible for the content across InterNetX's blog and other channels and helps users understand the underpinning mechanisms behind the internet. Simone is an ICANN fellow and a member of EURALO and UASG.

The tech industry continues to drive global innovation and economic growth in 2024. This sector, comprising companies that innovate, produce, and distribute various technology-based goods and services, shape the current digital landscape. It extends across a wide range, encompassing software development, hardware manufacturing, electronics, internet utilities, artificial intelligence, and more. The impact of this sector on the gross domestic product (GDP) and broader economy of several nations is substantial.

The strategic use of TLDs by leading tech firms

Olle Vastbinder

WordPress is a great baseline for any website, be it personal or professional. With plugins, it's possible to customize functionalities to suit your needs. And with ready to-go themes, you can have a great design instantly. A theme is an essential part of any WordPress installation, as it's key in displaying your input from WordPress' backend on your live website. Without a theme, content has no way of being displayed. As with plugins, themes come in all shapes, sizes, and price classes. To better understand our numbers, it's important to first take a look at how WordPress themes work.

Why WordPress themes make the difference 

Although it's possible to create your own unique theme, WordPress has a great marketplace for themes, offering just under 11.896 free themes ready to download.* That's why most creators use an existing theme as the base for their own design. You can keep the default design for a theme, and even adapt it to your needs. The most popular themes often offer separate options for settings, making tweaking and editing the design easy for all users. And more demanding users can even edit the theme code themselves.

When someone wants to modify the theme code, it's recommended to create a so-called child-theme. Without a child theme, theme updates can overwrite any customizations of the original theme code. With a child-theme, you create a sub-theme. That sub-theme has all the functionality of the main theme, but updates to the main theme will not overwrite your design.

Where a WordPress theme dictates the visual design of any given page, a website builder offers more functionalities. There is a very fine line between themes and page builders, but the most popular WordPress themes all offer numerous page builder functionalities and are typically considered page builders too. These extra functionalities can be design improvements on the one hand, making it a theme, while offering extra technical functionalities on the other, making it a page builder. That's why companies typically offer both themes and plugins that work together to give you full control of your entire WordPress website. The three most popular WordPress themes according to our web data are all considered to be both a theme and a page builder.

Now we have a better understanding of what themes are, we are taking a look into the popularity of WordPress themes. Currently, we detect 30.4 million websites that are using WordPress as their CMS. Of those, 44% (13.4 M) have a known WordPress theme installed. And when you look at our data, it's immediately clear who is leading the pack here: Hello Elementor. With 7.3 million installs, they have 44.9% of the market. In second place, Divi still has a very respectable 1.99 million installs (12.2% of the total), with Astra a very close third with 1.97 million (12.1% of the total) installations. The gap between Astra and the rest of the top ten is significant, with GeneratePress netting around 500k installments (3.1% of the total). You can see the entire top ten in figure 1.

The dominance of the top three can be explained using three simple words: free, adaptable and fast. First, almost all themes offer a free version. These are usually more basic, lacking certain premium options. Notable is that the top three all also offer paid services, giving users more control, more default formats to choose from and more support.

A highly adaptable theme offers numerous extras for designing on functionalities. These can be simple improvements, like forms or pop-up creation. But they also add more expert options, like user management. Paid versions often offer more adaptation and styling options than the free versions. You regularly have a flotilla of styles and adaptations to pick from, making it easy for anyone to create a unique style.

Speed is an essential part of any website. Because anyone can create and share themes, there can be a huge difference between them. Not slowing WordPress down is a requirement for any successful theme. 

Popular WordPress themes sorted by language 

When we take a deeper dive into our data. We see minor shifts in popularity of each theme when we look at a websites' language. For Japanese language websites, for instance, the most popular theme is Lightning, outscoring Hello Elementor by almost 50%. Lightning is a Japanese built theme, so that preference seems logical, as users can use it in their own language with full language support.

For English, Spanish, and Portuguese, Divi has to cede its 2nd place to Astra. And where it's a small margin for English websites, Spanish and Portuguese websites are favoring Astra by quite a margin. 

One last interesting statistic to look at is the number of installments of the WordPress default theme. When you perform a fresh WordPress installation, you automatically get the newest version of the WordPress default theme. These are always named 'Twenty X', where X stands for the year of release. So for fresh installations in 2023, the default 'Twenty Twenty-Three' theme would be used.

If we tally all the default themes up, you get to an impressive 1.4 million. This puts WordPress itself firmly in fourth place globally. The Twenty Seventeen (the first theme aimed at businesses and not blogs) and Twenty Twenty-One versions are the most used default themes, even making it into the global top 10 from figure 1. The different WordPress themes have a captivating history, following online design trends through the last two decades. And while using the default theme might seem an odd choice, both WordPress' adaptability using plugins and the option to edit any theme to your needs, using the default as a base, is not a bad idea.

Adaptability is key for a WordPress theme to become popular. All popular WordPress themes are easy to modify and use. The global top three are known for their versatility. But at the base of that popularity for every theme is a basic, free version. While offering less options than the paid versions, after a free version is installed, they can constantly show the extra possibilities the paid version offers.

As WordPress continues to grow, the theme and plug-in marketplace will also keep expanding, making that into an interesting market to keep track of. 

*For this blog, it's important to note that we cannot detect unique themes that were created from scratch.

Asset Management

WordPress has been the go-to CMS for many businesses, organizations, and individuals ever since its conception in 2003. Anyone can set up a WordPress website in a few hours. Part of the appeal of WordPress is the option to customize it as much as you want in a user-friendly interface. Both plugins and themes play a central role in that. We already took a look at the fifteen most popular plugins, and now we're focussing on the ten most used WordPress themes.

The top 10 most-used WordPress Themes

WordPress is the most popular content management system on the web. One reason for its popularity is its versatility, allowing website owners to customize their site to their needs. WordPress plugins play a crucial role in adding functionality and features. They can help optimize content, integrate social media, improve SEO, security and much more. However, with over 60,000 free and paid plugins to choose from, deciding which ones to install and which ones to avoid can be overwhelming.

WordPress offers both open-source and paid options. WordPress itself is open-source and free to use. Users only need to find their hosting provider and register their domain. The paid WordPress.com plan includes hosting and a domain, with options for more advanced features at a monthly cost. For most users, the open-source WordPress.org with self-hosting is often sufficient, providing full access to plugins and customization.

Most plugins can be found on WordPress.org and can be installed directly if you are logged in as a WordPress admin for a website. Plugins provide a range of features and functionality for a site. Generally, they help with things such as optimizing the performance and speed, customizing or enhancing the design of the site, improving security and privacy. They also enable website owners to add additional features such as social media marketing, SEO enhancements or e-commerce solutions. A WordPress website typically has numerous plugins running at the same time.

Plugins can be either free or paid. Paid plugins offer premium functionalities and are sold by third-party developers. The paid plugins typically offer more features and dedicated support. Some popular paid plugin companies include WooCommerce, Yoast, Sucuri, and Gravity Forms. Most of these paid plugins are also available in a free version. It is not uncommon for someone to start out with a free version and upgrade to the paid one.

Dataprovider.com currently tracks 253 of the most popular WordPress plugins. Our data shows there are currently 22.1 million websites using one or more WordPress plugins. Of those 253 plugins, 39 have the term 'Pro' or 'Premium' in their name, signalling they are paid versions. So, let’s take a look at the top 15 most commonly used plugins and their overall share. 

In Figure 1, you can see the top 15 plugins. The most popular plugin is called Contact Form 7 and allows the website owner to manage contact forms. This plugin tops our list, with 37% of WordPress websites using it. The 2nd spot is taken by Yoast SEO, with 32%. Yoast is an SEO tool which helps website makers improve their content when it comes to SEO. WooCommerce shares the 3rd place with Elementor, with 31% of all websites sporting one or both. While WooCommerce enables e-commerce features, Elementor is a website builder that helps website builders in designing and creating a website. Because you need to download a separate pro version of Elementor when you opt for the pro version, this plugin also takes the 4th spot.

As you can see from the percentages, a website can have more than one plugin. Out of the 253 most popular plugins Dataprovider.com currently tracks, the average website is using 3.3 of them. But don’t let these numbers deter you from adding a few more. The WordPress site with the most plugins in this data set was using 51. 

As with all software, it's important to keep WordPress core, themes, and plugins up to date to ensure security. Outdated software is vulnerable to exploits and security breaches are common. The U.S. National Vulnerability Database (NVD) keeps track and publishes security risks. And WordPress plugins often feature prominently in the 20 most recent reports. 

Not all plugins are created equal. When choosing a new plugin, site administrators should do research on how securely it was developed. Plugins from trusted developers and with an active support community are likely more secure than plugins that have not been updated in over a year. 

With thousands of plugins available, the options for WordPress site administrators are nearly limitless. However, it's essential to pick reputable plugins, keep them up to date, and be aware of any security risks. Used properly, plugins are a great way to customize a site. Whether it is to boost traffic, engage readers, sell products, or build community, the right plugins can help any WordPress site to become successful.

A few weeks ago, we wrote about WordPress, the content management system that powers nearly a quarter of all websites on the web. Today, we are taking a look at WordPress plugins. These third-party tools add functionality and optimizations to a WordPress site. We'll dive into the data to discover the most popular WordPress plugins and their share today.

The top 15 installed WordPress plugins

A ccTLD is a two-letter domain extension that signifies a specific country or territory on the internet. These extensions, such as ".es" for Spain or ".uk" for the United Kingdom, play a role in identifying websites and online resources associated with particular nations. 

The process to grant a ccTLD to a geographical region is overseen by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) together with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). When a country or territory wishes to establish its own ccTLD, it must submit a detailed request to ICANN. This application needs to showcase how the desired domain extension aligns with the country's identity and why it's needed.

ICANN and IANA review this request using specific eligibility criteria. Key factors considered include:

the region's unique national or territorial identity

the region's capacity to manage and maintain it efficiently

Once a request gets the green light, ICANN and IANA work closely with the requesting region's designated authority to finalize terms and responsibilities. After establishing an agreement, the ccTLD is integrated into the global domain system. The designated local authority then assumes the role of managing and ensuring the domain's smooth and secure operations.

National or territorial organizations known as ccTLD registries are responsible for managing and issuing the domain extension. Their tasks include maintaining domain names and offering registration services within their designated countries or territories. They also set the  criteria for registering.

Requirements can differ considerably from one registry to another. For example .ca - Canada has very strict rules, the registrant must meet Canadian presence requirements, which typically means being a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or a legally recognized Canadian organization or corporation. Registering a .no - Norway domain also comes with conditions, only Norwegian entities or individuals can register, and there's a limit to the number of domains one can register.

In contrast, some examples of ccTLDs that can be registered by anyone are .co (Colombia), .cc - Cocos (Keeling) Islands, .io - British Indian Ocean Territory, .me - Montenegro, .tv - Tuvalu or .ws - Western Samoa, all of these have minimal restrictions and are available to global registrants.

According to this very nice map over at Nominet (the ccTLD registry for .uk), the largest ccTLDs by registrations are .tk, .cn, .de, .uk and .nl. The ccTLD .tk tends to top the list because it’s free to register a domain name. But these are only registration numbers - which don't mean all these ccTLDs are active websites. Based on our data, the top five ccTLDs with the largest amount of active domains are .de, .uk, .ru, .nl and .br. You can explore the numbers by world region in Figure 1. Among the smallest ccTLDs are .ss (South Sudan), .nr (Nauru), .kp (North Korea), .er (Eritrea) and .mh (Marshall Islands).

The inception of gTLDs dates back to the early days of the internet. In the 1980s the DNS was established to replace the ARPANET's host.txt system. At that time, the initial gTLDs, such as .com, .org, .net, .edu, and .gov, were introduced. They categorized domains based on the nature and purpose of the entities they represented. For instance, .com was primarily intended for commercial entities, while .edu was designated for educational institutions.

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