.us

us
IntroducedFebruary 15, 1985 (1985-02-15)
TLD typeCountry code top-level domain
StatusActive
RegistryRegistry Services, LLC (owned by GoDaddy)
SponsorNational Telecommunications and Information Administration
Intended useEntities connected with the United States
Actual useUsed in the United States but not as widely as gTLDs
Registered domains2,053,374 (December 2023)[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

us is the Internetcountry code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United States. It was established in February 1985. Registrants of us domains must be U.S. citizens, residents, or organizations – or foreign entities with a presence in the United States or a territory of the United States.[2] Most registrants in the U.S. have registered for .com, .net, .org and other gTLDs, 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, an acquired subsidiary domain name registry of GoDaddy, on behalf of the United States Department of Commerce.[4]

Domain us is less commonly used by American businesses and enterprises than the internationally more common com.[5]

History

On February 15, 1985, us was created as the Internet's first ccTLD.[6][7] Its original administrator was Jon Postel of the Information Sciences Institute (ISI) at the University of Southern California (USC). He administered us under a subcontract that the ISI and USC had from SRI International (which held the us and the gTLD contract with the United States Department of Defense) and later Network Solutions (which held the us and the gTLD contract with the National 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 covering IANA operating costs by charging locality name registrars, who would pass the costs along to individual registrants. In September 1998, the United States Postal Service proposed 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 the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the United 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 by Verisign.[10][13][14]

On October 26, 2001, Neustar was 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 subdomain del.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 the National 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, GoDaddy acquired Neustar's registry business.[20]

Locality namespace

The us ccTLD is historically organized under a complex locality namespace hierarchy. Until second-level registrations were introduced in 2002, us permitted only fourth-level domain registrations of the form organization-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 .org and other TLDs.[10] In the 2010s, the first top-level domains for U.S. cities became available as paid alternatives to third-level locality domains, including .nyc as an alternative to .new-york.ny.us.

Many locality-based zones of us are delegated to various public and private entities known as delegated 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 any domain name registrars serve 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 the de facto manager.[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 commercial Internet service providers. Nearly 90% of the respondents offer domain registrations for free.[10]

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

States and territories

A two-letter second-level domain is formally reserved for each U.S. state, federal territory, and the District of Columbia. Each domain corresponds to a USPS abbreviation. For example, .ny.us is reserved for websites affiliated with New York, while .va.us is for those affiliated with Virginia. Second-level domains are also reserved for five U.S. territories: .as.us for American Samoa, .gu.us for Guam, .mp.us for the Northern Mariana Islands, .pr.us for Puerto Rico, and .vi.us for the U.S. Virgin Islands. However, these domains go unused because each territory has its own ccTLD per ISO 3166-1 alpha-2: respectively, .as, .gu, .mp, .pr, and .vi.

Vehicle registration plates of Pennsylvania bore the URL www.state.pa.us from September 1999 to December 2004.

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 .gov domains: for example, California's government portal is located at www.ca.gov. 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

A large number of third-level domains are reserved for localities within states. Each fourth-level domain registration under this namespace follows the format organization-name.locality.state.us, where state is a state's two-letter postal abbreviation and locality is a hyphenated name that corresponds to a ZIP code or appears in a well-known atlas.[10]

Two values of organization-name are 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 the locality, omitting the organization-name. For example, the website of the City of Brunswick, Ohio, is located at www.brunswick.oh.us rather than www.ci.brunswick.oh.us, and the website of Delhi Township, Ohio, is located at www.delhi.oh.us instead of www.twp.delhi.oh.us. Unusually, Lima, Ohio, is located at www.cityhall.lima.oh.us.

Many large cities use .gov extensions, for example Chicago (www.chicago.gov); Rochester, New York (www.cityofrochester.gov); and Atlanta (www.atlantaga.gov). Although most New York City websites have moved to www.nyc.gov, us redirects exist for individual city agencies, such as the Independent Budget Office at www.ibo.nyc.ny.us and the Board of Elections at vote.nyc.ny.us.

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

The us TLD registrar serves as the default delegated manager for all undelegated third-level locality domains, as well as any locality domains relinquished by delegated managers. Under Neustar and GoDaddy, the registrar has discontinued delegation of third-level locality domains, as well as registration of domain names under any locality or affinity domain for which it serves as the delegated manager.[25]

Alternative locality names

Some delegated managers alternatively register domains under common abbreviations of locality names, which are not necessarily interchangeable, for example:

Canonical domainAlternative domainLocalityStatus
albuquerque.nm.usabq.nm.usAlbuquerque, New Mexico
atlanta.ga.usatl.ga.usAtlantaClosed to new registrations[25]
chicago.il.uschi.il.usChicagoClosed to new registrations since 1997[26]
city-of-commerce.ca.uscommerce.ca.usCommerce, CaliforniaClosed to new registrations[25]
houston.tx.ushou.tx.usHoustonClosed to new registrations[25]
jacksonville.fl.usjax.fl.usJacksonville, Florida
lexington.ky.uslex.ky.usLexington, KentuckyClosed to new registrations[25]
los-angeles.ca.usla.ca.usLos Angeles
Los Angeles County, California
louisville.ky.uslou.ky.usLouisville, KentuckyClosed to new registrations[25]
milwaukee.wi.usmil.wi.usMilwaukee
minneapolis.mn.usmpls.mn.usMinneapolisClosed to new registrations[25]
new-york.ny.usnyc.ny.usNew York CityClosed to new registrations[25]
palo-alto.ca.uspla.ca.usPalo Alto, CaliforniaClosed to new registrations[25]
philadelphia.pa.usphl.pa.usPhiladelphiaClosed to new registrations[25]
redwood-city.ca.usrwc.ca.usRedwood City, CaliforniaClosed to new registrations[25]
sacramento.ca.ussac.ca.usSacramento, CaliforniaClosed to new registrations[25]
Sacramento County, California
salt-lake-city.ut.ussalt-lake.ut.usSalt Lake CityClosed to new registrations[25]
slc.ut.us
san-antonio.tx.ussat.tx.usSan AntonioClosed to new registrations[25]
san-francisco.ca.ussf.ca.usSan Francisco
san-luis-obisbo.ca.usslo.ca.usSan Luis Obispo, CaliforniaClosed to new registrations[25]
San Luis Obispo County, California
san-jose.ca.ussj.ca.usSan Jose, California
santa-clara.ca.usscl.ca.usSanta Clara, CaliforniaClosed to new registrations[25]
Santa Clara County, California
seattle.wa.ussea.wa.usSeattle
south-san-francisco.ca.usssf.ca.usSouth San Francisco, CaliforniaClosed to new registrations[25]

Affinity namespaces

Directly beneath the state.us zone, several affinity namespaces are reserved for specific purposes:

Some of these affinity namespaces have been supplanted by more convenient sponsored top-level domains. The first sTLD, .museum, became available in October 2001 as an alternative to the .mus namespace. Since April 2003, the .edu top-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.[28]

Although the Kentucky Department of Education operates the .k12.ky.us namespace for Kentucky 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 at www.gallatin.k12.ky.us, while Paducah Public Schools are located at paducah.kyschools.us and the McCracken County Public Schools use mccracken.kyschools.us as a redirect to www.mccrackencountyschools.net.

Kids.us

The Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107–317 (text)(PDF)) established a .kids.ussecond-level domain. The general public could register third-level domains under .kids.us for educational content that met strict requirements, including conformance to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and adherence to Children's Advertising Review Unit standards. Webpages were prohibited from linking outside the .kids.us namespace. On July 27, 2012, in response to declining usage and a petition by Neustar the previous year, the NTIA suspended .kids.us registrations. By that time, 651 domains were registered under .kids.us, and only five registrants (Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., PBS Kids, the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies, and Super-Fun Sports Inc., operating trampoline.kids.us and trampolines.kids.us) were operating active websites.[29]

Restrictions on use

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 a bona fide presence in the United States

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

To prevent anonymous registrations that do not meet these requirements, in 2005 the National Telecommunications and Information Administration ruled that registrants of us domains may not secure private domain name registration via anonymizing proxies, and that their contact information must be made public.[30] Registrants are required to provide complete contact information without omissions.[31]

Under the locality namespace, delegated managers may impose additional requirements.[10] For example, the former Texas Regional Hostmaster restricted each of its delegated localities to organizations that had a mailing address in that locality.[32]

Some sponsored top-level domains (sTLDs) are restricted to U.S.-based entities, other than some grandfathered registrations. These domains are much more popular than the equivalent domains under us.

sTLD Allowed use us alternative
eduCommunity colleges cc.state.us
Technical and vocational schools tec.state.us
govFederal government agencies fed.us
Tribal governments tribe.nsn.us
State governments state.state.us
Local governments type.locality.state.us
milArmed forces N/a

Territories of the United States use their own country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). Identical domains are reserved under us but in practice go unused.

ccTLD Territory us alternative
asAmerican Samoaas.us
guGuamgu.us
mpNorthern Mariana Islandsmp.us
prPuerto Ricopr.us
um (deprecated) United States Minor Outlying Islandsum.us
viUnited States Virgin Islandsvi.us

Some U.S. cities are the focus of generic top-level domains under the New gTLD Program. These gTLDs are not necessarily affiliated with the delegated managers of the corresponding third-level domains within the us locality namespace.

gTLD City us alternative
bostonBostonboston.ma.us
miamiMiamimiami.fl.us
nycNew York Citynew-york.ny.us
nyc.ny.us
vegasLas Vegaslas-vegas.nv.us

Unofficially, some ccTLDs belonging to other countries are used by U.S.-based private organizations and state government agencies based on their similarity to postal state abbreviations or informal city name abbreviations.

ccTLD Intended for Informal use us alternative
laLaosLouisianala.us
Los Angeles[33]la.ca.us
los-angeles.ca.us
mnMongoliaMinnesota[34]mn.us
msMontserratMississippi[35]ms.us

See also

References

  1. ^".US Top-Level Domain Stats and Trends"(PDF). .US Domains - About.US. Tempe, Arizona: Registry Services, LLC. 2023. Retrieved October 28, 2024.
  2. ^"UsTLD Nexus Requirements Policy for Registrants| About.US - About.US". Archived from the original on April 15, 2021. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
  3. ^"zoom.us (video call app)". Zoom Video. Archived from the original on June 6, 2002. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
  4. ^"About the .US Top-Level Domain - Overview | .US Domains - About.US". www.about.us. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
  5. ^"The Most Popular Domain Extensions | Top 10 TLDs". Ionos. October 17, 2022. Archived from the original on May 10, 2023. Retrieved May 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 from the original on October 12, 2001. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
  7. ^"IANA—.us Domain Delegation Data". www.iana.org. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
  8. ^Carl Malamud (1992). "Exploring the Internet: Round Three, Marina del Rey". public.resource.org. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
  9. ^Jon, Postel; Ann Westine, Cooper (December 1992). "The US Domain". tools.ietf.org. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
  10. ^ abcdefghij"..US Compliance Report"(PDF). Neustar. n.d. Retrieved November 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. ^Whois query 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. Retrieved March 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. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
  19. ^"Tackling the Opioid Crisis by Cutting off Online Sales in the usTLD - About.US".
  20. ^"GoDaddy Acquires Neustar's Registry Business". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  21. ^Wass 2003, pp. 127–129.
  22. ^"Structure and History". Neustar. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
  23. ^Dixon, Cameron (February 8, 2023). "New domain requirements for federal executive branch agencies". get.gov. Washington, D.C.: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Retrieved November 23, 2025.
  24. ^Owen, R.K. (July 1997). "Registering in the US Domain (For Free)". Linux Journal. No. 39. ISSN 1075-3583.
  25. ^ abcdefghijklmnopq"usTLD Locality-Based Structure". About.US. Tempe, Arizona: Registry Services. Retrieved February 7, 2025.
  26. ^Piette, Steve (May 12, 2013). "The Clout Project, what is it, and how do I use it?". Chicago: The Clout Project. Retrieved June 9, 2025.
  27. ^"Public Suffix List". Public Suffix List. Mountain View, California: Mozilla Foundation. July 18, 2025. Retrieved July 20, 2025.
  28. ^"EDUCAUSE Announces Expansion of Eligibility for .edu Internet Names to Nationally Accredited Institutions" (Press release). Educause. February 11, 2003. Archived from the original on December 4, 2011. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
  29. ^"Kids.us Education Advisory Committee Report"(PDF). Neustar. October 28, 2014. p. 2. Archived from the original(PDF) on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
  30. ^"Ruling on '.us' Domain Raises Privacy Issues". washingtonpost.com. March 4, 2005. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
  31. ^"The usTLD Nexus Requirements Policy". neustar.us. June 20, 2014. Archived from the original on October 31, 2012. Retrieved May 14, 2016.
  32. ^"Locality Domain Names in TX.US Administered by the Texas Regional Hostmaster". Texas Regional Hostmaster. May 4, 2000. Archived from the original on March 8, 2015. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
  33. ^Maierbrugger, Arno (July 10, 2013). "Laos rents '.la' Internet domain to Los Angeles businesses". Inside Investor. Archived from the original on September 14, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
  34. ^DomainNRG. "StateFair.MN and DomainNRG Launch the "Most Minnesotan" Domain Name Competition". www.prweb.com. Retrieved March 20, 2025.
  35. ^"Mississippi Company Has Unique Product To Personalize Email Addresses". Archived from the original on 3 May 2010. Retrieved 26 November 2018.

Further reading

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=.us&oldid=1337077590#Second-level_domains_for_states"