In the domain industry people use certain terms and expressions that will be clarified in this section.

* Account Holder: A person or company that is responsible for a domain name. If you register your domain as an individual, you will be designated as the account holder. If you register under a company, the company will be designated as the account holder.

* Account Number: When a domain name has been purchased, the registrant will be issued an account number. This number will provide you with access to change and modify your password and account.

* Administrative Contact/Agent (AdminC): The administrative contact/agent is an individual or role account authorized to interact withNetwork Solutions on behalf of the domain name registrant. The administrative contact/agent should be able to answer non-technical questionsabout the domain name's registration and the domain name registrant.It is strongly recommended that this contact/agent be the registrant or someone from the registrant's organization.

* Adsense: Contextual advertising by Google. Website publishers earn a portion of the advertising revenue for placing Google sponsored links on their site.

* Appraisal: An evaluation carried out to establish the potential market value of a domain name. Since the market for domain names is still in its infancy, different companies may arrive at very different appraisal values for the same domain name. Therefore, appraisals should be used as a rough guide to the value of a domain name, but should not be taken too seriously.

* Authentication: The process of verifying the identity of an individual or organization. Authentication enables someone to verify that individuals and organizations are who they say they are. Authentication allows the recipient in an electronic transaction to be confident of both the identity of the sender and the integrity of the message.

* Authorization: A process to verify that an individual or organization that has requested an action actually has the right to make the request. Requiring a password to modify a domain name's registration information is an example of authorization.

* Billing Contact/Agent (BillingC): As used by InterNIC, the billing contact/agent contact is the person or role account designated to receive the invoice for domain name registration fees and renewal (re-registration) fees. The billing contact should be in a position to ensure prompt payment of fees.

* Broker: A company in the business of buying and selling domain names. Domain name brokers usually act as facilitators between buyers and sellers, but very rarely buy for their own account. Note that many companies call themselves "brokers" because it basically sounds good, though all they really do is list domain names for sale on their site, with contact information. Only a small minority of companies calling themselves brokers provides full brokerage service, such as escrow.

* com (.com): The top level domain originally intended for "commercial" entities. One of the worldwide top level domains, in which any person or organization may register a domain name.

* Cybersquatter: The illegal act of buying up domain names and "sitting" on them with the intent of making a large profit off the sell. Cybersquatters will often buy out large quantities of names, trademarks, or highly marketable names to try to make a buck or prevent others from lawful use of the name.