Referring to dummy website

[Sharion]

When writing about website URLS in a how-to article, how do you refer to the "dummy" website URL? I was going to use "yourWebsite.com" but I remembered reading where there was a specific recommendation of what to use. I looked high and low for the recommendation but could not find it. I believe it is "example.com", can anyone verify?

[dmgray]

You can use website URLs as long as you do not include the 'http://' beforehand (thereby making it a full link, which is not allowed). You were correct with your 'example.com' solution.

[Sharion]

Thanks! That's exactly what I needed!

Out of curiosity I went to example.com and here's what the site itself says:

"You have reached this web page by typing "example.com", "example.net","example.org" or "example.edu" into your web browser. These domain names are reserved for use in documentation and are not available for registration. See RFC 2606, Section 3."

[ProlificScribe]

Thanks! That's exactly what I needed!

Out of curiosity I went to example.com and here's what the site itself says:

"You have reached this web page by typing "example.com", "example.net","example.org" or "example.edu" into your web browser. These domain names are reserved for use in documentation and are not available for registration. See RFC 2606, Section 3."

That's interesting. I wonder what exactly that means.

[Celeste Stewart]

Funny you should ask. . . I had to write about Internet protocols and MIME types not too long ago. There are a bunch of established Internet standards governing stuff like this. RFCs (Request for Comments) are the documentation outlining agreed upon standards and best practices created by several authorities such as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. Looks like all the powers that be decided to agree that Example.com should be made available for example purposes only. Kind of cool. While I've been known to use terms like "yourwebsite.com" I never knew that there was an established domain name, Example.com, just for this purpose.