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.us
IntroducedFebruary 15, 1985;39 years ago(1985-02-15)
TLDtypeCountry code top-level domain
StatusActive
RegistryRegistry Services, LLC
SponsorNational Telecommunications and Information Administration
Intended useEntities connected with theUnited States
Actual useUsed in the United States but not as widely asgTLDs
Registered domains1,799,026 (October 2021)[1]
Registration restrictionsConnection with the U.S. requirement can be enforced by challenge but rarely is
Structure2nd-level registrations allowed; originally only 3rd- or 4th-level registrations in a complex hierarchy
DocumentsRFC 1480;USDoC agreements with Neustar;Other policies
Dispute policiesusTLD Dispute Resolution Policy (usDRP)
DNSSECyes
Registry websiteabout.us

.usis theInternetcountry code top-level domain(ccTLD) for theUnited States.It was established in early 1985. Registrants of.us domains must be U.S. citizens, residents, or organizations – or foreign entities with a presence in the United States or any territory of the United States.[2]Most registrants in the U.S. have registered for,.net,.organd othergTLDs,instead of.us, which has primarily been used by state and local governments, even though private entities may also register.us domains.[3]The domain is managed by Registry Services, LLC, a domain name registry, on behalf of theUnited States Department of Commerce.[4]

The.us domain is less commonly used by American businesses and enterprises than the more international.[5]

History[edit]

On February 15, 1985,.us was created as the Internet's first ccTLD.[6][7]Its original administrator wasJon Postelof theInformation Sciences Institute(ISI) at theUniversity of Southern California(USC). He administered.us under a subcontract that the ISI and USC had fromSRI International(which held the.us and the gTLD contract with theUnited States Department of Defense) and laterNetwork Solutions(which held the.us and the gTLD contract with theNational Science Foundation).

Postel and his colleague Ann Westine Cooper[8]codified the.us ccTLD's policies in December 1992 as RFC 1386[9]and revised them the following June in RFC 1480. Registrants could only register third-level domains or higher in a geographic and organizational hierarchy. From June 1993 to June 1997, Postel delegated the vast majority of the geographic subdomains under.us to various public and private entities..us registrants could register with the delegated manager for the specific zone they wished to register in, but not directly with the.us administrator. In July 1997, Postel instituted a "50/500 rule" that limited each delegated manager to 500 localities maximum, 50 in a given state.[10]

In June 1998, Postel raised the possibility of coveringIANAoperating costs by charging locality name registrars, who would pass the costs along to individual registrants. In September 1998, theUnited States Postal Serviceproposed funding the operations in order to assume control of.us, as part of a plan to diversify away from postage revenue.[11]On October 1, 1998, the NSF transferred oversight of the.us domain to theNational Telecommunications and Information Administration(NTIA) of theUnited States Department of Commerce.[12]Postel died that month, leaving his domain administration responsibilities with ISI. In December 2000, these responsibilities were transferred to Network Solutions, which had recently been acquired byVerisign.[10][13][14]

On October 26, 2001,Neustarwas awarded the contract to administer.us. On April 24, 2002, second-level domains under.us became available for registration. One of the first.usdomain hacks,icio.us, was registered on May 3, 2002, for the creation of the subdomaindel.icio.us.[15][16]A moratorium was placed on additional delegations of locality-based namespaces, and Neustar became the default delegate for undelegated localities.[17]Neustar's contract was renewed by theNational Telecommunications and Information Administration(NTIA) in 2007 and most recently in 2014.[10][18]

On March 31, 2019, the.us registry made it clear that under its Acceptable Use Policy it would not allow the sale of opioids through the.us top level domain.[19]

In Q2 2020,GoDaddyacquired Neustar's registry business.[20]

Locality namespace[edit]

The.us ccTLD is historically organized under a complexlocality namespacehierarchy. Until second-level registrations were introduced in 2002,.us permitted only fourth-level domain registrations of the formorganization-name.locality.state.us, with some exceptions for government entities. Registrants of locality-based domains must meet the same criteria as in the rest of the.us ccTLD. Though the locality namespace is most commonly used for government entities, it is also open to registrations by private businesses and individuals. Since 2002, second-level domain registrations have eclipsed those in the locality namespace, and many local governments have transitioned to.organd other TLDs.[10]In the 2010s, the firsttop-level domains for U.S. citiesbecame available as paid alternatives to third-level locality domains, including.nycas an alternative to.new-york.ny.us.

Many locality-based zones of.us are delegated to various public and private entities known asdelegated managers.Domains in these zones are registered through the delegated manager, rather than through GoDaddy. As the delegated managers are expected to receive requests directly from registrants, few if anydomain name registrarsserve this space, possibly contributing to its lower visibility and utilization. RFC 1480 describes the rationale for the locality namespace's deep hierarchy and local delegation:[10]

One concern is that things will continue to grow dramatically, and this will require more subdivision of the domain name management. Maybe the plan for the US Domain is overkill on growth planning, but there has never been overplanning for growth yet.

This hierarchical system has proven unappealing to companies that operate nationally or globally.[21]

As of October 31, 2013, 12,979 domains were registered under the locality namespace, of which 3,653 were managed by about 1,300 delegated managers while 9,326 were managed by Neustar as thede factomanager.[22]According to a 2013 survey of 539 delegated managers, 282 were state or local government agencies, while 98 were private individuals and 85 were commercialInternet service providers.Nearly 90% of the respondents offer domain registrations for free.[10]

The.auand.caccTLDs have also established third- and fourth-level locality namespaces, though the.ca locality namespace is no longer open to registrations. The.cnccTLD maintains a third-level locality namespace in general use.

States and territories[edit]

A two-lettersecond-level domainis formally reserved for eachU.S. state,federal territory, and theDistrict of Columbia.Each domain corresponds to aUSPS abbreviation.For example,.ny.us is reserved for websites affiliated withNew York,while.va.us is for those affiliated withVirginia.Second-level domains are also reserved for five U.S. territories:.as.us forAmerican Samoa,.gu.us forGuam,.mp.us for theNorthern Mariana Islands,.pr.us forPuerto Rico,and.vi.us for theU.S. Virgin Islands.However, these domains go unused because each territory has its own ccTLD perISO 3166-1 Alpha -2:respectively,.as,.gu,.mp,.pr,and.vi.

A state's main government portal is usually found at the third-level domain state.state.us, which is reserved for this purpose. However, some state administrations prefer.govdomains: for example,California's government portal is located atwww.ca.gov,whilewww.state.ma.usredirects toMassachusetts's portal atwww.mass.gov.Fully spelled-out names of states are also reserved under.us,[10]so the State ofOhio's website was at one point available atwww.ohio.us[23]in addition to the usualwww.ohio.gov,with the formerwww.state.oh.usremaining as a redirect. Other than for state governments, no third-level domain registrations are permitted under state or territory second-level domains.

A few additional names are reserved at the second level for government agencies that are not subordinate to a state government:

Locality domains[edit]

A large number of third-level domains are reserved for localities within states. Each fourth-level domain registration under this namespace follows the formatorganization-name.locality.state.us, wherestateis a state's two-letter postal abbreviation andlocalityis a hyphenated name that corresponds to aZIP codeor appears in a well-known atlas.[10]

Two values oforganization-nameare formally reserved across the entire locality namespace for city and county governments:[10]

Delegated managers often reserve additional names for different kinds of local governments:[10]

In some cases, a local government that serves as the delegated manager for its own locality may locate its website directly under thelocality,omitting theorganization-name.For example, the website of the City ofBrunswick, Ohio,is located atwww.brunswick.oh.usrather than ci.brunswick.oh.us, and the website ofDelhi Township, Ohio,is located atdelhi.oh.usinstead of twp.delhi.oh.us. Many large cities use.govextensions, for exampleNew York City:www.nyc.gov;Chicago:www.chicago.gov,Rochester, New York:cityofrochester.gov;and Atlanta:www.atlantaga.gov.

Private organizations and individuals may register fourth-level domains parallel to these government domains, for example:

Affinity namespaces[edit]

Directly beneath thestate.us zone, severalaffinity namespacesare reserved for specific purposes:

Some of these affinity namespaces have been supplanted by more convenientsponsored top-level domains.The first sTLD,.museum,became available in October 2001 as an alternative to the.mus namespace. Since April 2003, the.edutop-level domain has been available as an alternative for community colleges, technical and vocational schools, and other tertiary educational institutions that might have previously used the.cc or.tec affinity namespaces.[24]

Although theKentucky Department of Educationoperates the.k12.ky.us namespace forKentucky school districts,most districts instead use subdomains of the less formal domain kyschools.us, which the department operates in a similar manner. For example, Gallatin county schools have a website atwww.gallatin.k12.ky.us,whilePaducah Public Schoolsare located atpaducah.kyschools.usand theMcCracken County Public Schoolsusemccracken.kyschools.usas a redirect towww.mccrackencountyschools.net.

Kids.us[edit]

The Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States)107–317 (text)(PDF)) established a.kids.ussecond-level domain.The general public could register third-level domains under.kids.usfor educational content that met strict requirements, including conformance to theChildren's Online Privacy Protection Actand adherence toChildren's Advertising Review Unitstandards. Webpages were prohibited from linking outside the.kids.usnamespace. On July 27, 2012, in response to declining usage and a petition by Neustar the previous year, the NTIA suspended.kids.usregistrations. By that time, 651 domains were registered under.kids.us,and only five registrants (Nickelodeon,Nick Jr.,PBS Kids,theSmithsonianCenter for Education and Museum Studies, andSuper-Fun Sports Incoperating trampoline.kids.us and trampolines.kids.us) were operating active websites.[25]

Restrictions on use[edit]

Under.us nexus requirements,.us domains may be registered only by the following qualified entities:

  • Any United States citizen or resident,
  • Any United States entity, such as organizations or corporations,
  • Any foreign entity or organization with abona fidepresence in the United States

To ensure that these requirements are met,GoDaddyfrequently conducts "spot checks" on registrant information.

To prevent anonymous registrations that do not meet these requirements, in 2005 theNational Telecommunications and Information Administrationruled that registrants of.us domains may not secure private domain name registration via anonymizing proxies, and that their contact information must be made public.[26]Registrants are required to provide complete contact information without omissions.[27]

Under the locality namespace, delegated managers may impose additional requirements.[10]For example, the Texas Regional Hostmaster restricts each of its delegated localities to organizations that have a mailing address in that locality.[28]

Other top-level domains related to the United States[edit]

Country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) forterritories of the United States[edit]

New generic top-level domainsfor areas in the United States[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^".US Top-Level Domain Stats and Trends"..US Domains - About.US.Scottsdale, Arizona: Registry Services. 2021.RetrievedJanuary 23,2023.
  2. ^"UsTLD Nexus Requirements Policy for Registrants| About.US - About.US".Archived fromthe originalon April 15, 2021.RetrievedDecember 3,2020.
  3. ^"zoom.us (video call app)".Zoom Video.Archivedfrom the original on June 6, 2002.RetrievedJanuary 7,2021.
  4. ^"About the.US Top-Level Domain - Overview |.US Domains - About.US".about.us.RetrievedDecember 5,2023.
  5. ^"The Most Popular Domain Extensions | Top 10 TLDs".Ionos.October 17, 2022.Archivedfrom the original on May 10, 2023.RetrievedMay 10,2023.
  6. ^Portenueve, Elisabeth (October 23, 2003)."History of the Internet. ccTLDs in chronological order of Top Level Domain creation at the Internic".AFNIC.Archived fromthe originalon October 12, 2001.RetrievedMarch 29,2015.
  7. ^"IANA —.us Domain Delegation Data".iana.org.RetrievedFebruary 1,2020.
  8. ^Carl Malamud (1992)."Exploring the Internet: Round Three, Marina del Rey".public.resource.org.RetrievedOctober 19,2018.
  9. ^Jon, Postel; Ann Westine, Cooper (December 1992)."The US Domain".tools.ietf.org.RetrievedOctober 19,2018.
  10. ^abcdefghijk"..US Compliance Report"(PDF).Neustar. n.d.RetrievedNovember 21,2017.
  11. ^Wass 2003,p. 127.
  12. ^Requesting comments on draft statement of work regarding.us
  13. ^Amendment 21 to the NSI Cooperative Agreement
  14. ^THE GLOBALISATION OF REGULATION AND ITS IMPACT ON THE DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM: DOMAIN NAMES AND A NEW REGULATORY ECONOMY by ELIZABETH A WILLIAMS
  15. ^Whoisquery for the domain names "DELICIO.US" and "ICIO.US". Whois database last updated March 29, 2015. Accessed March 29, 2015.
  16. ^Lopp, Michael(December 3, 2004)."A Del.icio.us Interview".Rands in Repose.RetrievedMarch 29,2015.
  17. ^Manheim, Karl M. and Solum, Lawrence B.,"An Economic Analysis of Domain Name Policy"(2004). University of San Diego Law and Economics Research Paper Series. 1.http://digital.sandiego.edu/lwps_econ/art1
  18. ^".us Domain Space".National Telecommunications and Information Administration.February 17, 2015.RetrievedMarch 28,2015.
  19. ^"Tackling the Opioid Crisis by Cutting off Online Sales in the usTLD - About.US".
  20. ^"GoDaddy Acquires Neustar's Registry Business".prnewswire(Press release).RetrievedOctober 26,2023.
  21. ^Wass 2003,pp. 127–129.
  22. ^"Structure and History".Neustar. Archived fromthe originalon April 2, 2015.RetrievedMarch 28,2015.
  23. ^"Ohio.gov".State of Ohio. Archived fromthe originalon September 17, 2017.
  24. ^"EDUCAUSE Announces Expansion of Eligibility for.edu Internet Names to Nationally Accredited Institutions"(Press release).Educause.February 11, 2003. Archived fromthe originalon December 4, 2011.RetrievedAugust 28,2016.
  25. ^"Kids.us Education Advisory Committee Report"(PDF).Neustar. October 28, 2014. p. 2. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on April 2, 2015.RetrievedMarch 28,2015.
  26. ^"Ruling on '.us' Domain Raises Privacy Issues".washingtonpost.March 4, 2005.RetrievedMarch 31,2015.
  27. ^"The usTLD Nexus Requirements Policy".neustar.us. June 20, 2014. Archived fromthe originalon October 31, 2012.RetrievedMay 14,2016.
  28. ^"Locality Domain Names in TX.US Administered by the Texas Regional Hostmaster".Texas Regional Hostmaster. May 4, 2000. Archived fromthe originalon March 8, 2015.RetrievedMarch 29,2015.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=.us&oldid=1226995580"