.us

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.us
.us -- America's Internet Address
Introduced 1985
TLD type Country code top-level domain
Status Active
Registry Neustar
Sponsoring organization United States Department of Commerce
Intended use Entities connected with United States of America
Actual use Not much used, as Americans prefer gTLDs
Registration restrictions U.S. nexus requirement can be enforced by challenge, but seldom is
Structure Originally registrations were within complex hierarchy, but currently direct second-level registrations are allowed; kids.us permits 3rd-level registrations for child-friendly sites
Documents RFC 1480; USDoC agreements with Neustar
Dispute policies usTLD Dispute Resolution Policy (usDRP)
Web site nic.us

.us is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United States of America, established in 1985. Registrants of .us domains must be United States citizens, residents, or organizations, or a foreign entity with a presence in the United States. Most registrants in the country have registered for .com, .net, .org and other gTLDs, rather than .us, which has traditionally only been used by some state governments. In particular, the domains .gov and .mil have been reserved for US usage. Probably the most widely used .us site is the free hosting site imageshack.us.

However, from April 2002, second-level domains became available for commercial use. Previously, registrants could only register third-level domains or higher. The .us domain is administered by NeuStar Inc..

Contents

Second-level domains

Namespace within states (largely deprecated)

  • <locality>.<state>.us: cities, counties, parishes, and townships
  • ci.<locality>.<state>.us: city government agencies (subdomain under locality)
  • town.<locality>.<state>.us: town government agencies (subdomain under locality)
  • co.<locality>.<state>.us: county government agencies (subdomain under locality)
  • <school-name>.k12.<state>.us: public school districts
  • <school-name>.pvt.k12.<state>.us: private schools
  • <school-name>.cc.<state>.us: community colleges
  • <school-name>.tec.<state>.us: technical and vocational schools
  • <library-name>.lib.<state>.us: state, regional, city, and county libraries
  • <organization-name>.state.<state>.us: state government agencies
  • <organization-name>.gen.<state>.us: general independent entities (groups not fitting into the above categories)

Use as English word

Since "us" is a pronoun in the English language, this opens up possibilities for domain names which are English phrases, similar to names used in other ccTLDs, such as i.am and start.at. Help.us would be one possible such domain, possibly of use for soliciting donations. However, there has been little actual use of .us in this manner. Such domains are known as domain hacks. del.icio.us is the most visited website with one of these domain names.

External links


Country code top-level domains
Active: .ac  .ad  .ae  .af  .ag  .ai  .al  .am  .an  .ao  .aq  .ar  .as  .at  .au  .aw  .az  .ba  .bb  .bd  .be  .bf  .bg  .bh  .bi  .bj  .bm  .bn  .bo  .br  .bs  .bt  .bv  .bw  .by  .bz  .ca  .cc  .cd  .cf  .cg  .ch  .ci  .ck  .cl  .cm  .cn  .co  .cr  .cu  .cv  .cx  .cy  .cz  .de  .dj  .dk  .dm  .do  .dz  .ec  .ee  .eg  .er  .es  .et  .fi  .fj  .fk  .fm  .fo  .fr  .ga  .gd  .ge  .gf  .gg  .gh  .gi  .gl  .gm  .gn  .gp  .gq  .gr  .gs  .gt  .gu  .gw  .gy  .hk  .hm  .hn  .hr  .ht  .hu  .id  .ie  .il  .im  .in  .io  .ir  .is  .it  .je  .jm  .jo  .jp  .ke  .kg  .kh  .ki  .km  .kn  .kr  .kw  .ky  .kz  .la  .lb  .lc  .li  .lk  .lr  .ls  .lt  .lu  .lv  .ly  .ma  .mc  .md  .mg  .mh  .mk  .ml  .mm  .mn  .mo  .mp  .mq  .mr  .ms  .mt  .mu  .mv  .mw  .mx  .my  .mz  .na  .nc  .ne  .nf  .ng  .ni  .nl  .no  .np  .nr  .nu  .nz  .om  .pa  .pe  .pf  .pg  .ph  .pk  .pl  .pm  .pn  .pr  .ps  .pt  .pw  .py  .qa  .re  .ro  .ru  .rw  .sa  .sb  .sc  .sd  .se  .sg  .sh  .si  .sj  .sk  .sl  .sm  .sn  .sr  .st  .su  .sv  .sy  .sz  .tc  .td  .tf  .tg  .th  .tj  .tk  .tm  .tn  .to  .tr  .tt  .tv  .tw  .tz  .ua  .ug  .uk  .us  .uy  .uz  .va  .vc  .ve  .vg  .vi  .vn  .vu  .wf  .ws  .ye  .yt  .yu  .za  .zm  .zw
Reserved/unassigned: .ax  .cs  .eh  .kp       Allocated/unused: .bv  .gb  .iq  .sj  .so  .um       Startup/transition:  .eu  .tl  .tp       Deleted/retired: .bu  .cs  .dd  .zr
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