.gal

Overview

• .gal is a GeoTLD intended to highlight the Galician people, the Galician language and Galician culture.
• The string is managed by Asociación PuntoGal and serves as an online identity space for Galicia and its cultural community.

History

• ICANN approved the .gal application (approval reported 14 June 2013).
• A Registry Agreement was signed with ICANN on 07 November 2013.
• .gal was delegated to the DNS Root Zone on 11 April 2014.
• The Wikipedia infobox lists an "introduced" date of 13 March 2014; operational milestones reported include the first domain becoming operational on 16 May 2014 and the first 93 domains going online on 25 July 2014.
• The initiative was backed by thousands of supporters and formal Galician cultural institutions; Asociación PuntoGal leads the registry and intends to reinvest revenues into projects promoting Galician language and culture in technology.

Usage and Audience

• Target audience: Galician people, organizations and projects that promote or are related to the Galician language and culture.
• Support and backing: the initiative was supported by more than 13,000–13,700 individuals and over 100 institutions, including the Royal Galician Academy, the Galician Culture Council and the region's three universities.
• The TLD positions itself similarly to community-oriented strings such as .cat, aiming to create a distinct cultural/linguistic online space.

Registration Rules

• Registrations are intended for bona-fide members of the Galician linguistic and cultural community.
• Applicants/registrants must state their intended use for a domain; false statements can lead to removal and loss of future participation in the community TLD.
• Policy phases: the registry differentiates rules across Pre-launch, Launch and General Availability phases.
• At General Availability, community nexus is subject to post-validation through an ongoing compliance program; validation and trademark protections are emphasized to deter cybersquatting and abusive registrations.
• Registrations are taken directly at the second level.

SEO and Brand Impact

• .gal is marketed to strengthen Galician online identity and cultural branding, helping Galician language and cultural projects be more discoverable and identifiable online.
• The registry highlights compliance checks and trademark protections to increase trustworthiness and reduce abusive registrations, which supports brand protection for community stakeholders.
• Asociación PuntoGal's commitment to reinvesting funds into cultural and language technology projects is positioned as a benefit to the community and its online presence.

Notable Cases or Examples

• dominio.gal — cited as the first .gal domain; reported operational on 16 May 2014.
• First 93 .gal domain names reportedly went online on 25 July 2014.
• The application and launch process was supported by thousands of individuals and numerous Galician institutions, lending community legitimacy to the TLD.

% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       GAL

organisation: Asociación puntoGAL
address:      Tabernas 11
address:      A Coruña Galicia 15701
address:      Spain

contact:      administrative
name:         TLD Administrative Contact
organisation: CORE Association
address:      2, Cours de Rive
address:      Geneva CH-1204
address:      Switzerland
phone:        +41 223 125 610
fax-no:       +41 223 125 612
e-mail:       secretariat@corenic.org

contact:      technical
name:         TLD TechAdmin
organisation: CORE Association
address:      2, Cours de Rive
address:      Geneva CH-1204
address:      Switzerland
phone:        +41 223 125 610
fax-no:       +41 223 125 612
e-mail:       dnsmaster@corenic.org

nserver:      ANYCAST10.IRONDNS.NET 195.253.64.12 2a01:5b0:4:0:0:0:0:c
nserver:      ANYCAST23.IRONDNS.NET 195.253.65.11 2a01:5b0:5:0:0:0:0:b
nserver:      ANYCAST24.IRONDNS.NET 195.253.65.12 2a01:5b0:5:0:0:0:0:c
nserver:      ANYCAST9.IRONDNS.NET 195.253.64.11 2a01:5b0:4:0:0:0:0:b
ds-rdata:     32469 10 2 31d40665954899244190d71e2365cf3623a825580b9bf277953adef2599b49ab

whois:        whois.nic.gal

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://asociacion.dominio.gal/

created:      2014-03-13
changed:      2022-01-07
source:       IANA