What Is Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)?

Like most people, you probably have yet to hear of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Without them, the world wide web as we know it would not exist. ICANN is a non-profit public benefit corporation that develops policies on unique identifiers and coordinates the Internet's naming system. In other words, they are in charge of deciding what domain names will go where and how they are assigned. It is a big deal: if you want a website with a .com address, it must be approved by ICANN before using it. That means that if ICANN decides tomorrow that all websites must have an animal name in their title (like "camelot.com"), then every website owner would need to change their site name or risk having their website shut down by ICANN. The (ICANN) was established in 1998, following a recommendation from a U.S. Government panel to privatize the management of the Internet's domain name system. The organization's stated mission is to ensure the Internet's safe and secure operation, promote innovation and investment in Internet technologies, and lead the global dialogue on Internet policy issues. The organization was formed in a non-profit private model by stakeholders from the private sector, technical community, civil society, governments, and others. What if we told you a group of people made sure that your website, and every other site on the Internet, could be found anywhere in the world? What if we told you that they're good at it? That's right. The (ICANN) is responsible for assigning domain names and IP addresses to websites, ensuring that each website has its unique address so that people can easily find them online. You'll need a domain name when you want to set up a new website. That's where ICANN comes in. ICANN——is responsible for the registrar market, which includes hundreds of companies that sell domain names. When you purchase a domain name, you do so through a domain registrar, but ICANN is the body that supervises these registrars. The ICANN also approves new top-level domains on the Internet, such as ".asia" or ".travel."