.ws is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Samoa (officially Western Samoa until 1997). It has existed since July 14, 1995 and is operated by the local Computer Services Ltd. managed. The company, in turn, reports directly to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Addresses are only assigned on the second level; they can be between 4 and 63 characters long. The use of umlauts in a .ws domain is not possible. There are no particular restrictions on the assignment, so anyone can register a .ws address. The domain has been marketed specifically as an abbreviation for website since the turn of the millennium , although such an abbreviation is completely uncommon - nevertheless, this domain is used by people from all over the world and is widespread.
In addition to the generic top-level domains and ten other ccTLDs, .ws is one of the few addresses for which WIPO is responsible. This means that in case of disputes between two or prospective owner and the contracting authority the international arbitration can be called, which in the case of .com would not be possible.
complaint
In the course of the introduction of new top-level domains , the government of Samoa protested at ICANN . In their opinion, the ending .website could easily be confused with .ws . The US company DotWebsite , which applied for the allocation of .website , rated the concerns as negligible.
