I've been using .localhost as a TLD for locally hosted sites that I am working on. Usually when I start a new site I create an entry in the apache virutal host configuration file and then add an entry in Windows' hosts
file to map the address to 127.0.0.1. The address would be something like sitename.localhost
Today I was working on a new site so I added the entry in the virtual hosts file but I forgot to add an entry to the hosts file. To my surprise the site loaded fine in Chrome without mapping the address to 127.0.0.1. However when I tried to load the site in IE and Firefox, it didn't work and my ISP's website showed up instead.
Is there a reason why Chrome does this and other browsers do not? Is this something that is supposed to happen?