Domain names are a low-level technical detail. Their purpose is to provide a level of indirection, so that you can retain a consistent reference to a server whi

Domain names are a low-level technical detail. Their purpose is to provide a level of indirection, so that you can retain a consistent reference to a server while changing the IP address (which is more tightly connected to how the network is organised). That domain names are alphanumeric rather than just numeric has the convenient property that they can serve as mnemonics for the technical workers who use them; this was indeed why they were originally introduce (back when everyone using the internet was a technical worker), but is no longer significant. It doesn't really matter whether France's official website is located at france.com or visitfrance.com or republique.fr or whatever, because it's a low-level technical detail irrelevant to most internet users.