The organization formed in 1998 to coordinate DNS names and IP addresses was ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
ICANN was incorporated in California on September 30, 1998, as a nonprofit, multistakeholder organization. Its creation followed a 1998 U.S. government policy to transfer key Internet naming and addressing functions from government-linked arrangements to a private-sector body with global participation. Those functions included coordinating the DNS root, domain-name policies, and the allocation framework for IP addresses.
ICANN does not run the entire Internet, control online content, or provide ordinary Internet access. It coordinates unique identifiers so that a domain such as example.org can correspond reliably to numerical IP addresses. The technical IANA functions are now performed by Public Technical Identifiers, an ICANN affiliate, while regional Internet registries distribute IP resources within their regions.
A common mix-up is confusing ICANN with IETF. The IETF develops Internet standards and protocols; ICANN focuses chiefly on globally unique names, numbers, and related policies.