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By Ron Jackson
There
are now hundreds of ccTLDs (country code top level
domains) on the Internet as every country on earth, as well
as other selected geo locations, have one of their own.
They have become extremely popular too with over 132
million ccTLD domains currently registered worldwide
(according to Verisign's latest Domain
Name Industry Brief). The honor of being the
very first ccTLD on the web went to America's
Internet Address, .US, with the extension officially
launched on February 15, 1985, 38 years ago
today!
That
fact surprises a lot of people. .US feels like a newer
TLD, largely because it wasn't made available to all
Americans (and others who do business in America) for
another 17 years! The .US version of Independence Day
didn't arrive until April 24, 2002 when the gates
that had limited it to specific uses (schools, law
enforcement, etc) finally came down.
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Despite
the other original TLDs, including .com, .net and .org,
getting a huge head start, .US has now taken its place as one
of the best options for those looking to secure a meaningful,
memorable address on the Internet. Nearly 2 million
.US domains have been registered by individuals,
organizations, small to medium sized businesses and major
international corporations. The list includes the
dominant force in video conferencing, Zoom.us,
America's fastest growing supermarket chain (with over 2,500
stores) Aldi.us,
Ollies.us
(America's biggest chain of closeout bargain stores with
nearly 400 stores across the U.S), fashion
king CalvinKlein.us,
MasterCard.us,
Shell.us,
Bosch.us, world
famous ice cream maker HaagenDazs.us,
CBRE.us
(the huge real estate services provider with 200 offices
across America), ClubMed.us,
AirFrance.us,
AndersonCompanies.us,
Osram.us
and many more.
For
domain buyers, the positive side of .US being held back for
so long is that a lot of great domain names are still
available at affordable prices in America's most
meaningful namespace. Even at 38 (21 if you take away the 17
years the TLD wasn't allowed to leave the house!), .US still
has lots of room to grow - giving fans of the
nation's official domain extension even more reason
to celebrate.
Posted
February 15, 2023. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2023/0215.htm
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