Internet Directory
May 20, 2014 5:11 PM   Subscribe

Internet Directory
According to ICANN, .COM domains were intended for business, .ORG for nonprofit, and .NET for internet providers and "Web Portals." Internet Directory is a listing of every domain using these TLDs -- beginning with the 115 million .COMs -- as they stand in early 2014. On a fast browser, it takes 599 days to watch every domain scroll by.

Clicking on a domain brings up a preview of the site in a sandboxed iframe. Surprises emerge from the list, such as the preponderance of domains using 0s or -s as if to show up ahead of others in alphabetized lists (e.g. take a look at the domains beginning with "the--"). Or the single squatter who owns nearly all of .ORG and .NET. Or the density of domains beginning with words like "serious" and "little," which become nearly meaningless when read en masse.

This website is a companion to a (many-) multi-volumed print edition (working on the design for that now).
Role: programmer, designer
posted by rottytooth (7 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite

Amazing. Is there a technical writeup anywhere on how you did it?
posted by bertrandom at 5:24 PM on May 20, 2014


That is weirdly mesmerizing to watch. I had to check my domain though. It's there.
posted by COD at 7:47 PM on May 20, 2014


Thanks! Yeah, everything up to about March 2014 should be there. It's a static directory (an online counterpart to a printed edition I'm doing as an enormous one-volume book), haven't decided how often I'll bring the website up to date, but probably yearly (2014 edition, etc).

I should do a teachnical writeup; my script to do nslookup a hundred million times required a LOT of optimization.
posted by rottytooth at 3:12 PM on May 23, 2014


Can you add a way to pause the stream?
posted by wheelieman at 7:47 AM on June 5, 2014


Wow. 198.105.251.210 owns a lot of web sites.
posted by QueerAngel28 at 9:05 PM on June 8, 2014


To pause, hover over the stream. it stops.
posted by QueerAngel28 at 9:05 PM on June 8, 2014 [1 favorite]


Yeah, 198.105.251.210 is pretty bad. 72.3.199.7 is the worst of the squatters, owning probably a majority of .NET and .ORG sites.

I'm hoping to post .NET and .ORG streams (since they're very different from .COM), but was priced out of keeping a database that huge online. Maybe next year.
posted by rottytooth at 10:41 AM on June 10, 2014


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