The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a California-based nonprofit founded in 1998 that coordinates the internet’s unique identifiers, most visibly the domain name system.
ICANN’s key roles include:
- Accrediting registrars and contracting with gTLD registries.
- Developing policy for gTLDs through a multistakeholder process, including transfer rules, expiration policies and the UDRP.
- Running programs to introduce new gTLDs.
- Overseeing the IANA functions through its affiliate, Public Technical Identifiers (PTI).
ICANN does not set policy for most ccTLDs, which are governed locally, and it does not sell domain names to the public.
Find your domain
Related terms
- WHOIS
- WHOIS is a protocol and lookup service that shows registration details for a domain, such as registrar, dates, nameservers and (sometimes) owner info.
- RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol)
- RDAP is the modern replacement for WHOIS, returning domain registration data as structured JSON over HTTPS with support for access controls.
- DNS (Domain Name System)
- DNS is the internet's distributed directory that translates domain names into IP addresses and other records so browsers and mail servers can connect.
- Nameserver
- A nameserver is a DNS server that holds and answers queries for a domain's records; you set which nameservers are authoritative at your registrar.