I like to reminisce about the good old days when our phones were smaller and stronger. If we go back 15 years, you'll realize that most of us didn't fix broken screens, neither did we buy a new phone simply because our screen got broken. Another thing about the early days of tech was being able to notice the subtle differences in websites that we accessed then. I remember that when trying to access Facebook on my tiny phone, I had to go through m.facebook.com, when on PC I could go through the standard facebook.com. These subtle differences in websites made me wonder how two different websites could take me to the same place yet show me the same thing in different ways.
THE INTERNET IS NOTABLY SIMILAR TO THE REAL WORLD
What was done back then wasn't the work of media query alone, it would take me many years to realize that there are things we call domain and subdomains. Yes, today we're going to be looking at domain names and subdomain names tomorrow. The internet is quite similar to the real world; an unconscious bias by the people who created the internet, innovation even at its finest stems from a base level of knowledge. The reason why the average person isn't innovating around particle physics is because we don't know enough about particle physics to begin to imagine possibilities and innovate around those possibilities.
DOMAIN NAMES ARE BASICALLY DIGITAL ADDRESSES
Let's circle back to the topic today now, shall we? The internet is similar to the real world because the internet (while immaterial) understands that everything that must exist must have a location or an origin, otherwise, finding that thing would be near impossible. The way we have addresses and GPS in the real world is the way we have domain names and IP addresses on the internet (I'll write about IP addresses overmorrow, fun fact; I just decided on it 😂). On the internet, we have what we call "Domain registrars", basically if you want to create a website, you have to go to these guys, search for the name of your proposed website, if the name isn't taken, you can purchase the name, if the name is taken, you can change your suffix from ".com" to ".app" or another suffix and you get to own the domain name with the new suffix (I'll write about suffixes after IP addresses 😉). Owning a domain name gives you access to the platform in a way that is likened to owning a piece of land, you can put whatever you want on it and anyone who stumbles upon the address will see what you put on it.
FINALLY...
As far as the internet is concerned, whenever a URL (eg. hashnode.com) is searched online, regardless of where you are in the world, you will end up here on our lovely Hashnode platform. Domain names help establish this order in the chaotic internet. Domain names are basically web addresses albeit from the perspective of the owner of the said web address. hashnode.com is a website to most people, to the owners, hashnode.com is a domain name first, they own the digital space. When digital addresses are to be bought, the discussion involves the word "domain" more than "web address". This is the lingo used in the act of owing addresses.