From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .gov
.gov
.gov ganizations use the mil sTLD. Some U.S. governmental
entities use other domains, such as com domains by the
United States Postal Service (which uses both
usps.gov and usps.com for the same website, al-
though it only advertises the com address), and the Unit-
ed States Army’s recruitment website (goarmy.com,
this trend is repeated at the recruitment websites of the
other branches of the U.S. military).
Additionally, some technically private organizations
having some formal association with the federal govern-
Introduced 1985 ment make use of gov, such as the Federal Reserve Sys-
tem (federalreserve.gov).
TLD type Sponsored top-level domain
All governments in the U.S. are allowed to apply for
Status Active delegations in gov, such as atlantaga.gov for the city of
Atlanta, loudoun.gov for the county of Loudoun, Virginia
Registry General Services Administration
and georgia.gov for the U.S. state of Georgia. This was not
Sponsor General Services Administration always true; under an earlier policy, only federal agencies
Intended Governmental entities were allowed to use the domain, and agencies beneath
use cabinet level were required to use subdomains of their
parent agency. There is a lack of consistency in address-
Actual use United States government; formerly only
es of state and local government sites, with some using
federal government but later expanded to
include state and local government gov, some us, some using both (the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania uses www.pa.gov, www.pennsylvania.gov and
Registration Must meet eligibility requirements and www.state.pa.us for the same web site) and still others in
restrictions submit authorization letter
com, org or other TLDs.
Structure Registrations at second level permitted
Documents RFC 920; RFC 1591; RFC 2146 Availability
Dispute None Use of the gov domain is restricted to governments en-
policies tities. According to GSA guidelines, this includes U.S.
Website dotgov.gov Governmental departments, programs, and agencies on
the federal level; federally recognized tribes (referred to
DNSSEC yes
by the GSA as Native Sovereign Nations, which must use
the suffix -NSN.gov); State governmental entities and
The domain name gov is a sponsored top-level domain
programs; cities and townships represented by an elect-
(sTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The
ed body of officials; counties and parishes represented by
name is derived from government, indicating its restricted
an elected body of officials; and U.S. territories.[1]
use by government entities in the United States. The gov
The URL for registration services is
domain is administered by the General Services Admin- [2]
http://www.dotgov.gov.
istration (GSA), an independent agency of the United
States federal government.
The U.S. is the only country that has a government- Authorization
specific top-level domain in addition to its country-code To register a gov domain, a letter of authorization must
top-level domain. This is a result of the origins of the In- be submitted to the GSA. For federal agencies, the autho-
ternet as a U.S. federal government-sponsored research rization must be submitted by cabinet-level chief infor-
network (see ARPANET and National Science Foundation mation officer (CIO). For state governments, authoriza-
Network). Other countries typically delegate a second- tion from the governor or state CIO is required. Domain
level domain for this purpose. names for cities require authorization from the mayor
Some U.S. federal agencies use fed.us rather than or equivalent official; for counties, authorization may be
gov. The Department of Defense and its subsidiary or-
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .gov
submitted by county commissioners or equivalent offi- Indiana in.gov
cials, or by the highest-ranking county official.[3] For Na-
Iowa iowa.gov and ia.gov
tive Sovereign Nations, the authorization must come
from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.[4] Kansas ks.gov and kansas.gov
Kentucky ky.gov and kentucky.gov
Naming conventions Louisiana louisiana.gov
The GSA provides guidelines for naming of second-level Maine maine.gov
domains, such as those used by state and local govern- Maryland maryland.gov
ments. For states, the domain name must include the full Massachusetts mass.gov
state name or postal abbreviation, and the abbreviation
Michigan michigan.gov
must not be obscured by inclusion in a larger word. For
example, invalidid.gov for Idaho would be an unacceptable Minnesota mn.gov (redirects to state.mn.us)
domain name. For local governments, the domain name Mississippi mississippi.gov
must include the state name or abbreviation. However, Missouri mo.gov
many .gov domain names (such as boston.gov and seat-
Montana mt.gov and montana.gov
tle.gov) do not conform to the naming convention be-
cause they were already registered before the GSA enact- Nebraska nebraska.gov
ed this policy.[5] Nevada nv.gov
New Hamp- nh.gov and visitnh.gov
Policy shire
Policy regarding the gov domain is laid out in 41 CFR New Jersey nj.gov and newjersey.gov
Part 102-173, a Final Rule promulgated by the GSA in the New Mexico newmexico.gov
Federal Register on March 28, 2003.[6] New York ny.gov
No new gov domains for U.S. federal executive
North Caroli- nc.gov and northcarolina.gov
branch departments have been allowed to be registered
na
since June 13, 2011, as a result of the implementation of
Executive Order 13571[7] issued by President Obama. The North Dakota nd.gov
move is part of a general attempt to improve the efficien- Ohio ohio.gov and oh.gov
cy of U.S. governmental Web usage by weeding out un- Oklahoma ok.gov
necessary, redundant, outdated, or wasteful sites. [8]
Oregon oregon.gov
Pennsylvania pa.gov and pennsylvania.gov
States in GOV Puerto Rico pr.gov
As of November 2009, all states in the U.S. have opera-
Rhode Island ri.gov
tional domains in gov:
South Caroli- sc.gov
Alabama al.gov and alabama.gov
na
Alaska alaska.gov
South Dakota sd.gov
Arizona az.gov
Tennessee tennessee.gov and tn.gov
Arkansas ar.gov and arkansas.gov
Texas texas.gov
California ca.gov and california.gov
Utah utah.gov
Colorado colorado.gov
Vermont vermont.gov
Connecticut ct.gov
Virginia virginia.gov
Delaware Delaware.gov
Washington wa.gov and washington.gov
Florida florida.gov and fl.gov (redirects to
West Virginia wv.gov
myflorida.com)
Wisconsin wisconsin.gov
Georgia georgia.gov and ga.gov
Wyoming wyoming.gov
Guam guam.gov
The District of Columbia follows this trend with dc.gov
Hawaii hawaii.gov (redirects to ehawaii.gov)
Idaho idaho.gov
Illinois Illinois.gov
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .gov
See also final_rule_102.aspx#10217335. Retrieved
2007-03-21.
• usa.gov [5] "Sec. 102-173.50 What is the naming convention for
• .us States?". General Services Administration.
https://www.dotgov.gov/portal/web/dotgov/
References [6]
policy#10217350. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
Dotgov.gov
[1] "Eligibility Requirements". General Services [7] Executive Order--Streamlining Service Delivery
Administration. https://www.dotgov.gov/ and Improving Customer Service (whitehouse.gov)
help_qualify.aspx. Retrieved 2007-03-21. [8] .gov Reform Effort: Improving Federal Websites
[2] "Delegation Record for .GOV". IANA. (usa.gov)
http://www.iana.org/root-whois/gov.htm.
Retrieved 2009-07-27.
[3] "Authorization Letter". General Services External links
Administration. https://www.dotgov.gov/ • IANA .gov whois information
auth_letter.aspx. Retrieved 2007-03-21. • RFC 920 defined .com and the other original top-level
[4] "Who authorizes domain names?". General domains.
Services Administration. https://www.dotgov.gov/ • RFC 2146 (U.S. Government Internet Domain Names)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=.gov&oldid=474859424"
Categories:
• DNSSEC
• Sponsored top-level domains
• Domain names in the United States
• General Services Administration
• 1985 introductions
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