1) HTTP / HTTPS protocol for passing information to this website; “S” is for secure and means there is an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate for this domain
2) Subdomain, similar to a folder on your computer; www is a subdomain too
3) Second-level domain; this is what your register when you buy a domain
4) Top-level domain, in this case generic or gTLD for short
When you enter a domain name in your web browser, it first sends a request to a global network of servers that form the Domain Name System (DNS).
These servers then look up for the name servers associated with the domain and forward the request to those name servers.
For example, if your website is hosted on Godaddy (or) Bluehost, etc,. then its name server information will be like this:
ns1.godaddy.com
ns2.godaddy.com
(or)
ns1.bluehost.com
ns2.bluehost.com
These name servers are computers managed by your hosting company. Your hosting company will forward your request to the computer where your website is stored.
This computer is called a web server. It has special software installed (Apache, Nginx are two popular web server software). The web server now fetches the web page and pieces of information associated with it. Finally, it then sends this data back to the browser.
Domain name registrations are overseen by an organization called ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). ICANN specifies which domain name extensions are available and keeps a centralized database of where the domain names point to.
.org, .info, .net, .live, .online, .club, .technology, .company, .email,
and more. However we always recommend using .com domain extension..com, .org, and .net.
Other TLDs are lesser known and we don’t recommend using them. For example, .biz, .club, .info, .agency,
and many more.