.us
| Top-level domain .us | |
|---|---|
| introduction | February 15, 1985 |
| category | country-specific |
| Registry | NeuStar Inc. |
| Award | unrestricted |
| number | 2.3 million |
.us is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United States of America . It has existed since February 15, 1985 and was managed by NeuStar , whose contract ran until August 31, 2013 . Since 2002, addresses can be registered on both the second and third level. However, some second-level domains are reserved for individual US states , such as .ny.us for websites that belong to New York , with some state governments preferring .gov domains. For example, California's domain is .ca.gov. The guidelines for disputes between owners of .us domains are regulated in the usTLD Dispute Resolution Policy (usDRP).
Award rules
Typically, only US citizens and businesses have the right to register a .us address. However, foreign companies can also register, provided they can show bona fide (good faith) company representation in the USA in the form of a branch or a subsidiary. The latter requirements do not necessarily have to be proven by submitting documents when registering, but NeuStar regularly carries out spot checks to check the registration information.
For a long time, this top-level domain had a shadowy existence, as most companies and private individuals use the much more popular domains .com , .net and .org , so that .us was mainly used by official bodies such as district governments. Only recently has the picture been slowly changing and private individuals are also registering .us addresses. This is mainly due to massive advertising by NeuStar.
properties
In total, a .us domain can be between three and 63 characters long; two-digit addresses such as .de are not possible. The registry wants to prevent other country-specific top-level domains from being registered as second-level domains, which could result in misleading endings such as .de.us . The connection of a .us domain is fully automated and is usually completed within a few hours. Special characters are not supported at the moment, only alphanumeric characters can be used. Since the English language is completely covered by the previous character set, it is generally not expected that the Punycode procedure will ever be implemented for .us .
Compared to other country-specific top-level domains, higher prices are achieved for .us domains, especially if they are so-called speaking domains (for example join.us , German follow us ). The ending .us is considered to be of above-average value internationally.
In January 2013, the US Department of Commerce announced a hearing on .us to discuss the needs and problems of the top-level domain. The results are to be incorporated into the new contract with the NeuStar registry , which begins in September 2013. A similar procedure did not lead to any noteworthy change in 2007, however, NeuStar continued to function as the awarding authority.
Protection of minors
In December 2002, the Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act was passed, which, among other things, provided for the introduction of a special area below the ccTLD .us. As a result, the second-level domain .kids.us was started in 2003 . In this way, parents and children should be given the opportunity to identify harmless content in terms of youth protection from the domain. However, the complicated award criteria ensured that .kids.us was never able to establish itself on a broad front. According to industry reports, only a few hundred domains were registered. Therefore, the US Department of Commerce announced in July 2012 that it would discontinue the allocation of new domains with effect from July 27, 2012.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Registered .us domains. (No longer available online.) In: Domains.info. Archived from the original on November 12, 2014 ; accessed on January 22, 2015 (current .us domain number).
- ↑ Delegation Record for .US. IANA , accessed on September 13, 2012 .
- ^ A b Florian Hitzelberger: Public hearing on .us started. In: domain-right. February 7, 2013, accessed on July 20, 2013 : “.us is currently being managed by Neustar Inc., but the contract will end on August 31, 2013. The NTIA therefore asks all interested parties to comment on the regulations and requirements relating to the future administration of .us; Any suggestions or suggestions can be incorporated into the registry contract. "
- ↑ .us domain. united-domains , accessed on June 20, 2012 ("Features" tab).
- ↑ Lennart Schmid: "America's address": .us should become more popular. In: united-domains blog. April 24, 2012. Retrieved August 4, 2012 .
- ↑ Properties of a .us domain. united-domains. Retrieved November 20, 2012 .
- ^ Daniel Dingeldey: Retail prices for .us domains. In: domain-right. Retrieved November 20, 2012 .
- ↑ Florian Hitzelberger: News from .tk, .us and .se. In: domain-right. July 30, 2007, accessed on July 20, 2013 : "The top level domain .us, the US country code that was only liberalized in April 2002, may be about to change the registry: The contract with the previous administrator NeuStar ends in October of this year."
- ↑ Child-friendly ending .kids.us will be switched off. In: domain-right. July 19, 2012. Retrieved July 19, 2012 .