A long time ago (1996) in a galaxy far far away, it wasn't difficult to be out on the web and know exactly what part of the world you were visiting. If you were on a .com site, you were in the States. And there weren't too many country code extensions to worry about.

Now, a .com site could be anywhere in the world.

The varied country codes, known as TLD's (Top Level Domains), also give web masters and designers a greater choice of name combinations to use for their sites, but it depends on which extension you want. Some country code administrators only allow local sites to utilize them. An example of a country code that has been released for general registration is .tv. It's the country code originally designed to be the official addressing for the tiny island nation of Tuvalu - population of around eleven thousand. The country code is probably one of it's biggest exports!

The crumbling of international barriers is wonderful, we are now truly a global community, but our community is getting pretty confusing. Who is who and where are they?

There's not much room for nationalistic pride any more..... perhaps that isn't such a bad thing? Seems that nationalism has caused our species more angst than any other subject. But, I digress.

When you do come across those "weird" extensions, have you ever wondered what they actually signify? The following is a list of all current country extensions....memorize them as I'll be sending out a quiz 15 minutes after you finish reading them... ;0)