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://www.pbs.org") for everything from

movies to car wax, vanity domains have come to be the rule

instead of the exception.

(1997-09-11)