Example.com alternative [closed]

Question

Let's say you want to provide an example url in documentation somewhere, or to show as an example on the screen in your program or web site. The correct thing to do is use an RFC 2606 url like example.com, since that is the defined location for such things and anything else you come up with is likely to be actually registered somewhere and serving up who knows what to your users.

My questions is, what do you do if you need to provide two contrasting examples? The best I've seen is site1.example.com and site2.example.com, but that doesn't always cut it; it's just not as clear as using two distinct domains. Neither is example.com vs example.org or example.net. The whole point is wanting two domains that are obviously distinct and unrelated, but these still look like they could be related in some way. The final option is site1.example vs site2.example, but these don't even really look like a URL or web address to a lay person.

How can I do this?

Answer 1

Use example.net and example.org.

Per RFC 2606, they are all reserved (Wikipedia summary).

Answer 2

RFC 2606 also reserves the TLD (Top-Level Domain) ".example" so you can use "foobar.example", "something.example", "stackoverflow.example", etc.

Unfortunately, all these names include the string "example" and therefore are not distinguishable enough in documentation. I hope there will be an update of RFC 2606 one day, with more names.

Answer 3

As previously mentioned, example.com, example.net and example.org were officially reserved by the IETF for documentation purposes. Additionally, ICANN has also reserved example.edu.

Some ccTLDs and newer gTLDs have equivalent example domains reserved. Most probably, all gTLDs managed by ICANN have the same restrictions regarding reserved names. Further below, I've listed a few that I've been able to confirm as reserved.

On some occasions, I need an example domain name longer than 8 characters (excluding the TLD itself) and it doesn't matter that it isn't valid — I just want it to not resolve. Therefore using an underscore in the domain name is an acceptable solution in those cases (e.g. example_domain.com or your_domain.com).

Another alternative TLD, although not officially reserved, would be .tld (!). I've looked at ICANN's new gTLD current application status list and .tld doesn't show up. So any domain could be used under this TLD (e.g. example.tld or yourdomain.tld). I would however recommend using it with caution, as the fact that it's not currently assigned doesn't mean no one will ever apply for it. As a side note, be aware that both Amazon EU and Charleston Road Registry have applied for .dev.

Reserved generic example TLDs (not including the latest expansion):

• example.aero
• example.asia
• example.biz
• example.cat
• example.coop
• example.info
• example.jobs
• example.mobi
• example.museum
• example.name
• example.post
• example.pro
• example.tel
• example.travel
• example.xxx

Reserved country code example TLDs (not a complete list):

• example.ae (Domain reserved by .aeDA)
• example.at (Registered by NIC.AT GmbH. admin: NIC.AT Role)
• example.bg (Registration status: forbidden)
• example.ca (Restricted: not available for registration)
• example.co (Domain is on list of restricted and reserved names)
• example.hk (Domain is currently not available for registration)
• example.jp (Reserved)
  including co.jp ne.jp or.jp subdomains
• example.la (Banned)
• example.nl (Registered by Stichting Internet Domeinregistratie Nederland)
• example.pt (Registration forbidden. Article 9, point 1)
  including com.pt net.pt org.pt edu.pt int.pt nome.pt publ.pt subdomains
• example.se (Registration blocked. Example and test domains.)
• example.su (Stop-list: Domain can not be registered.)
• example.sx (Unavailable)

References:

• Wikipedia - example.com
• RFC 2606
• RFC 608
• ICANN Registry Agreements: for each TLD, look for a document titled "List of Reserved TLD Strings" or "Schedule of Reserved Names".
• New gTLD Current Application Status