The domain names .ngo and .ong are

generic top-level domain Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of eve ...

s (gTLD) of the

Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned to ...

(DNS) used in the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, sponsored and managed by the

Public Interest Registry Public Interest Registry is a not-for-profit based in Reston, Virginia, created by the Internet Society in 2002 to manage the .ORG top-level domain. It took over operation of .ORG in January 2003 and launched the .NGO and .ONG top-level domains in ...

. The backend is provided by

Afilias Afilias, Inc. is a US corporation that is the registry operator of the .info, .mobi and .pro top-level domain, service provider for registry operators of .org, .ngo, .lgbt, .asia, .aero, and a provider of domain name registry services for countr ...

. The .ngo domain name is an acronym which stands for "

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

", reflecting the intended usage of the domain. In June 2011, ICANN expanded the Internet's naming system to allow applications for new top-level domain names. The Public Interest Registry declared publicly an interest in the .ngo domain in August 2011 and applied for it in May 2012. The PIR simultaneously applied for the top-level domain .ong, which is a similarly recognisable initialism for "organisation non gouvernementale" in French, and equivalent terms in many other

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...

such as

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional It ...

and

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania ** Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...

. Until May 2022, registrants did not purchase an .ngo or .ong domain name separately; a single registration was valid for two domain names which end in either .ngo or .ong, but are otherwise identical. Unlike the more prevalent .org domain, which is also managed by the Public Interest Registry, .ngo will require validation of the registrant's non-governmental status. Non-governmental organizations told the Public Interest Registry they needed a closed domain that validated the legitimacy of websites accepting online donations to avoid fraud. The Public Interest Registry plans to use the funds from selling .ngo domains to develop an “NGO Community Program” to reach out to NGOs in developing nations. It also intends to create a directory service of NGOs to support their SEO and visibility, and develop a closed community for NGOs to learn from each other. The new domains have been publicly available since May 6, 2015. As of June 1, 2022 the .NGO and .ONG domain names are being sold separately.

References

External links

PIR product page for .ngo and .ong
Generic top-level domains Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries members Computer-related introductions in 2015 Non-governmental organizations {{compu-domain-stub