Apps Documentation & Support
- Domain Name
- Subdomain
- Naked Domain
- Secondary Domain
- Domain Alias
- IP Address
- Domain Registrar
- Domain Host
- WHOIS directory
Domain Name
Domain names (often simply called domains) are easy-to-remember names associated with particular IP addresses. For instance, the domain name example.com might translate to 198.102.434.8. This makes it much easier to remember a website's Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
Examples of domain names are google.com and wikipedia.org. Owners of these domain names can create different subdomains such as www.google.com, docs.google.com, www.wikipedia.org, and en.wikipedia.org.
You can register a new domain name with Google Apps or use an existing domain name you already own by verifying domain ownership.
Subdomain
A subdomain is a part of a larger domain. For example, mail.google.com is a subdomain of the google.com domain.
Naked Domain
A naked domain is simply a domain name without the 'www' prefix, such as google.com (naked) instead of www.google.com (non-naked).
Secondary Domain
When you want two names that refer to two distinct ranges of computers and users, you want two domains. The user for josh@example1.com is different from the user josh@example2.com.
See Separate domain or domain alias? for a more detailed explanation of secondary domains.
Domain Alias
When you want two names that refer to the same range of computers and users, you want two aliases for the same domain. The user for josh@example1.com is the same as josh@example2.com.
See Separate domain or domain alias? for a more detailed explanation of domain aliases.
IP Address
An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a series of numbers that tells us where a particular device is on the Internet network. An IP address looks something like this: 74.125.19.147
Since a domain name may have one or more associated IP addresses, Google Apps doesn't support email and web publishing configuration using IP addresses alone.
Domain Registrar
Domain registrars sell domain names that are not yet owned and therefore available for registration. Most of these companies offer a domain hosting service in addition to registration.
Google is not a domain registrar, but we offer domain registration through a select group of domain registration partners for Google Apps customers. This allows you to purchase a domain name and sign up for Google Apps at the same time. If you purchase a domain name while signing up for Google Apps, we will automatically activate your domain and email service. If you purchased your domain name before signing up for Google Apps, you will need to adjust DNS records with your domain host.
Domain Host
Domain hosts run DNS servers for your domain. These are used to configure A records, CNAME records, MX records and TXT records. Most domain hosts offer domain name registration, as well.
Since Google Apps is not a domain host, you'll need to modify your DNS records with your domain host to set up the Google Mail service for your domain. See Identify your domain host if you don't know which company is hosting your domain.
WHOIS directory
The WHOIS directory is a public listing of domain names, and people or organizations associated with each domain name.
As a privacy measure, some domain name owners prefer to have their personal information hidden from the WHOIS directory. This is similar to the way someone may want his/her personal telephone number unlisted in a local telephone book.
The WHOIS directory is used to determine the owner of domain names and IP addresses. There are many free web-based directories available on the Internet. The information provided in the WHOIS directory includes a mailing address and a telephone number.
