What is the meaning of "vnd" in MIME types?

mime-types

Reading up on content providers, I keep wondering why both the category and type of Android MIME types are prefixed with vnd. For example:

vnd.android.cursor.dir/vnd.<something>
vnd.android.cursor.item/vnd.<something>

Anyone know what this stands for and what the point is?

Matthias

vnd indicates vendor-specific MIME types, which means they are MIME types that were introduced by corporate bodies rather than e.g. an Internet consortium.

By corporate bodies in this case, do you mean Google?

Yes, for instance. Microsoft, too, introduced non-standard MIME types e.g. for their Office products, so did many other companies.

Thanks, and what does the x- mean?

@IgorGanapolsky If you meant Google = like the vendor of android, then no. You could make your own custom file and give it let's say application/vnd.igor.test mime type, and your app can listen to it. It doesn't matter what you have after "vnd.", just make it somehow to prevent "collisions" with other "igors" if you know what I mean. If you have a domain, you could use application/vnd.com.example.igor

Note that x- is now "no longer considered to be members of this tree." Instead, x. is defined as the "unregistered" tree, and strongly discouraged (apparently except for experimental uses). There is also the prs. tree, which is meant for personal use (but apparently not experimental personal use). So I suppose I would use x.steve for experimental code, and prs.steve (or ideally something more distinctive) if I declare it worth release into the wild.

Pang

vnd = vendor.

See Wikipedia - Media type:

Types or subtypes that begin with x- are nonstandard[2] (they are not registered with IANA). Subtypes that begin with vnd. are vendor-specific; subtypes in the personal or vanity tree begin with prs..[3]

Don't vnd subtypes have to be registered (as opposed to x- subtypes)? If so, why aren't the Android subtypes registered?

Is there a directory of registered vnd media types somewhere?

To answer my own question, this seems to be the authoritative list on media types: iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml

Per my comment on the other answer, x- is not supposed to be used any more; x. is the approved (but discouraged except for experimental use) replacement.

What is the meaning of "vnd" in MIME types?

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