Public Suffix List
Encyclopedia
The Public Suffix List is a catalog of certain Internet domain name
Domain name
A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....

 suffixes. A "public suffix" is also known by the older term effective top level domain (eTLD). The Mozilla Foundation
Mozilla Foundation
The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization that exists to support and provide leadership for the open source Mozilla project. The organization sets the policies that govern development, operates key infrastructure and controls trademarks and other intellectual property...

 maintains suffix list for the security and privacy policies of its Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...

 web browser, though it is available for other uses under the Mozilla Public License
Mozilla Public License
The Mozilla Public License is a free and open source software license. Version 1.0 was developed by Mitchell Baker when she worked as a lawyer at Netscape Communications Corporation and version 1.1 at the Mozilla Foundation...

.

According to Mozilla,
While ".com", ".uk" and ".us" are top-level domain
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...

s (TLDs), Internet users cannot always register the next level of domain, such as "co.uk" or "wy.us", since these may be controlled by domain registrar
Domain name registrar
A domain name registrar is an organization or commercial entity, accredited by both ICANN and generic top-level domain registry to sell gTLDs and/or by a country code top-level domain registry to sell ccTLDs; to manage the reservation of Internet domain names in accordance with the guidelines of...

s. By contrast, users can register second level domains for ".com", such as "example.com", since registrars control only the top level of ".com". The Public Suffix List is intended to enumerate all domain suffixes controlled by registrars.

Some uses for the list are:
  • Avoiding "supercookies", HTTP cookie
    HTTP cookie
    A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is used for an origin website to send state information to a user's browser and for the browser to return the state information to the origin site...

    s set for high-level domain name suffixes. In other words, a page at foo.example.co.uk might normally have access to cookies at bar.example.co.uk, but example.co.uk should be walled off from cookies at example2.co.uk, since the latter two domains could be registered by different owners.

  • Highlighting the most important part of a domain name in the user interface
    User interface
    The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...

    .

  • Improving the sorting of browser history entries by site.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK