.us

Overview

• .us is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United States, established on February 15, 1985.
• It is managed by Registry Services, LLC (the .us registry), operating on behalf of the U.S. Department of Commerce; Registry Services is an acquired subsidiary of GoDaddy (Neustar's registry business was acquired by GoDaddy in 2020).
• The namespace includes both second-level registrations and a historical locality-based hierarchy of third- and fourth-level domains tied to states and localities.

History

• Created in February 1985 and originally administered by Jon Postel and the Information Sciences Institute (USC/ISI).
• Early policies were codified in RFC 1386 and revised in RFC 1480; the design included a delegated, locality-based hierarchy.
• From 1993–1997 many geographic subdomains were delegated to public and private entities (delegated managers).
• Oversight transferred to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in October 1998.
• Network Solutions and later Neustar operated registry functions; Neustar was awarded the .us contract in 2001 and renewed multiple times. In Q2 2020, GoDaddy acquired Neustar's registry business.
• Second-level .us registrations became available in April 2002; previously registrations were limited to third- or fourth-level names in the locality hierarchy.
• In 2012 the NTIA suspended new registrations under the special kids.us namespace; in 2019 the .us registry explicitly prohibited sale of opioids via the .us space under its Acceptable Use Policy.

Usage and Audience

• Intended for entities connected with the United States. Common users include:
  • U.S. federal, state, tribal, and local governments (though many have migrated to .gov)
  • Local government services, school districts, libraries, museums and other civic institutions via the locality/affinity namespaces
  • Private U.S. businesses, organizations, individuals, and foreign entities with a bona fide presence in the U.S.
  • Domain hacks and creative uses (historic example: del.icio.us / icio.us)
• In practice, .us is less commonly used by American commercial enterprises than generic TLDs such as .com, .net and .org. Many local governments and institutions still use .us locality names but some have moved to .gov or other TLDs.

Registration Rules

• Nexus requirement (registrant eligibility):
  • U.S. citizens or residents;
  • U.S. entities (organizations or corporations);
  • Foreign entities with a bona fide presence in the United States.
• Registrants must provide complete, public contact information; use of private/anonymized WHOIS/proxy registrations is disallowed for .us.
• Delegated managers (for locality zones) may impose additional, locality-specific requirements (for example, requiring a local mailing address).
• Second-level registrations have been available since 2002; the locality namespace supports third- and fourth-level names following the format organization.locality.state.us.
• Registrants must comply with the .us Acceptable Use Policy, which bans illegal uses including malware distribution, child exploitation, intellectual-property infringement, spam, unauthorized impersonation, sale of pharmaceuticals (including opioids, per a 2019 policy statement), and other activities contrary to U.S. law or .us policies.
• Dispute resolution: the usTLD Dispute Resolution Policy (usDRP) applies; approved providers include AAA and NAF.

SEO and Brand Impact

• .us is an explicitly national TLD that signals U.S. affiliation; it can reinforce a U.S.-focused brand or government identity.
• The TLD is less prevalent in commercial and global branding than .com, so for businesses seeking a global audience .com often remains preferred.
• For government, education, and local services, .us locality and affinity namespaces communicate official or community-focused intent, though many governments use .gov or other sTLDs for clearer public trust signals.
• Registry policies (nexus checks, public WHOIS, acceptable-use enforcement) influence trust and legitimacy for .us domain holders.

Notable Cases or Examples

• del.icio.us (icio.us) — an early and famous domain-hack use of the .us ccTLD.
• kids.us — a special second-level domain established by law (Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002) that was suspended for new registrations by NTIA in 2012 due to declining usage.
• Examples of reserved and affinity namespaces:
  • state.state-us (e.g., state.ny.us) and fed.us for federal agencies (historically); nsn.us for Native Sovereign Nations (e.g., mohegan.nsn.us).
  • k12.state.us, lib.state.us, mus.state.us and other affinity names used by schools, libraries, and museums.
• Local government examples: many city and county sites use ci.locality.state.us or co.locality.state.us formats; some local governments operate directly at locality.state.us (e.g., brunswick.oh.us).
• Policy actions and governance changes: NTIA oversight (1998), Neustar administration (2001 onward), and GoDaddy's acquisition of the registry business in 2020; the registry's 2019 prohibition on opioid sales within .us.

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

domain:       US

organisation: Registry Services, LLC
address:      100 S. Mill Ave, Suite 1600
address:      Tempe AZ 85281
address:      United States of America (the)

contact:      administrative
name:         IANA Contact
organisation: Registry Services, LLC
address:      100 S. Mill Ave, Suite 1600
address:      Tempe AZ 85281
address:      United States of America (the)
phone:        +1 480 505 8800
fax-no:       +1 480 393 4275
e-mail:       iana@about.us

contact:      technical
name:         IANA Contact
organisation: Registry Services, LLC
address:      100 S. Mill Ave, Suite 1600
address:      Tempe AZ 85281
address:      United States of America (the)
phone:        +1 480 505 8800
fax-no:       +1 480 393 4275
e-mail:       iana@about.us

nserver:      B.CCTLD.US 156.154.125.70 2001:502:ad09:0:0:0:0:29
nserver:      F.CCTLD.US 2001:500:3682:0:0:0:0:11 209.173.58.70
nserver:      K.CCTLD.US 156.154.128.70 2001:503:e239:0:0:0:3:1
nserver:      M.CCTLD.US 204.74.105.1 2610:a1:3180:0:0:0:0:53
nserver:      N.CCTLD.US 204.74.107.1 2610:a1:3280:0:0:0:0:53
nserver:      W.CCTLD.US 2001:dcd:1:0:0:0:0:15 37.209.192.15
nserver:      X.CCTLD.US 2001:dcd:2:0:0:0:0:15 37.209.194.15
nserver:      Y.CCTLD.US 2001:dcd:3:0:0:0:0:15 37.209.196.15
ds-rdata:     59017 8 2 7daf469d42b5d8e5537fd4dd4b6057710e9a61f72c32eb7fb6526f52277ec2b0

whois:        whois.nic.us

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.nic.us

created:      1985-02-15
changed:      2024-08-29
source:       IANA