vanity domain

2 definitions found

vanity domain - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  vanity domain
  
     <networking> A domain you register for the sole purpose of
     having your own domain so you can have an easily remembered
     URL and e-mail address.  The domain is usually served
     (often vhosted) off someone else's machines.
  
     This is as opposed to a domain you register because you have
     machines of your own which are already on the Internet and
     which you want to make addressable via something other than
     dot addresses.
  
     Whereas vanity domains were almost unheard-of in 1980s, since
     the invention and popularisation of the Web in the mid-1990s
     and the desire for URLs which consist only of memorable
     domain names (e.g., "http://pbs.org") for everything from
     movies to car wax, vanity domains have come to be the rule
     instead of the exception.
  
     (1997-09-11)
  

vanity domain - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  vanity domain
   n.
  
     [common; from `vanity plate' as in car license plate] An Internet
     domain, particularly in the .com or .org top-level domains,
  apparently
     created for no reason other than boosting the creator's ego.