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domain name In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services, and more. ...
gov is a
sponsored top-level domain A sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) is 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, alongside country-code top-level domains (ccTLD ...
(sTLD) in the
Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed name service that provides a naming system for computers, services, and other resources on the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information ...
of the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
. The name is derived from the word ''government'', indicating its restricted use by
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
entities. The
TLD A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domain name, domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the DNS root zone, root zone of the nam ...
is administered by the
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible for cybersecurity and infrastructure protection across all levels of government, coordinating cyber ...
(CISA), a component of the
United States Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the Interior minister, interior, Home Secretary ...
. .gov is one of the original six top-level domains, defined i
RFC 920
Though "originally intended for any kind of government office or agency", only U.S.-based government entities may register .gov domain names, a result of the Internet originating as a U.S. government-sponsored research network. Other countries typically delegate a
second-level domain In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a second-level domain (SLD or 2LD) is a domain that is directly below a top-level domain (TLD). For example, in , is the second-level domain of the TLD. Second-level domains commonly refer to the organ ...
for government operations on their
country-code top-level domain A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all tw ...
(ccTLD); for example, .gov.uk is the domain for the
Government of the United Kingdom His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
, and .gc.ca is the domain for the
Government of Canada The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes Minister of t ...
. The United States is the only country that has a government-specific top-level domain in addition to its ccTLD ( .us), a direct result of the United States federal government's role in the creation of the Internet. .gov domains are registered a
get.gov


History

is one of the original top-level domains created in 1984 (the other five being , , , , and ). The first site registered was in June 1985. Beginning in 1997, the
General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. G ...
(GSA) began administering .gov. In February 2011, the GSA selected
Verisign Verisign, Inc. is an American company based in Reston, Virginia, that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the , , and generic top-level d ...
to manage the registry services, replacing Native Technologies, Inc. Responsibility for the TLD was transferred to the
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible for cybersecurity and infrastructure protection across all levels of government, coordinating cyber ...
(CISA) under the DOTGOV Online Trust in Government Act of 2020, part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. In January 2023, CISA selected
Cloudflare Cloudflare, Inc., is an American company that provides content delivery network services, cybersecurity, DDoS mitigation, wide area network services, reverse proxies, Domain Name Service, ICANN-accredited domain registration, and other se ...
to replace Verisign in providing registry services. Cloudflare will also provide authoritative DNS services for the .gov domain.


Use

Many governments in the United States use a .gov domain, though most use .us (e.g., leg.state.nv.us), .com (e.g., myflorida.com), .org (e.g., lacity.org), or other TLDs (e.g., senate.mn). The full list of registered .gov domains is published a
get.gov/data
During GSA's administration of .gov, registration and annual renewal fees peaked at $400 per year. When CISA began managing the TLD in April 2021, all fees were removed. Federal Executive branch policy requires the use of .gov for civilian agencies, but some U.S. government-related websites use non-.gov domain names, including the
United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...
(e.g., usps.com) and various recruiting websites for armed services (e.g., goarmy.com). The
United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...
and its subsidiary organizations typically use the .mil sTLD instead of .gov.


Eligibility

U.S.-based government organizations and publicly controlled entities are eligible to obtain a .gov domain. This includes federal, state, local, or territorial government, as well as any tribal government recognized by the federal government or a state government. To register a .gov domain, an authorization letter must be submitted to CISA. The signer of the letter differs by entity type, but it is typically an agency's head, chief information officer (CIO), or highest-ranking or elected official. Historically, only U.S. federal government agencies were allowed to register a .gov domain. In May 2002, GSA proposed a change that would open registration to state, local, and tribal governments in the U.S., a change that went into effect in March 2003. In November 2019, before the transfer of .gov to CISA, GSA's authorization process was shown to be weak after someone impersonated the mayor of Exeter, Rhode Island in an authorization letter and successfully gained control of exeterri.gov. In response, GSA said it had implemented additional fraud prevention controls, and CISA advocated for transferring the TLD from GSA.


Policy

The DOTGOV Act requires that CISA maintain requirements that "minimize the risk of .gov internet domains whose names could mislead or confuse users". These include: * Requested names must correspond with the requesting entity's organization's name or services. * Generic terms are reserved for federal agencies, though generic words can be combined with state or local municipality names. * Most non-federal domain types require a two-letter
United States postal abbreviations Several sets of codes and abbreviations are used to represent the political divisions of the United States for postal addresses, data processing, general abbreviations, and other purposes. Table This table includes abbreviations for three inde ...
or state name equivalent, though exceptions are made. Rules have been established for municipalities whose names are unique, who are well-known, or that are among the most populous cities and counties in the nation. The Act also requires that .gov domains not be used for political campaign or commercial purposes, and that domains are registered only by authorized individuals. .gov has been used to serve certain policy goals. As an action following Executive Order 13571, President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
restricted executive branch agencies from registering new .gov domains in an attempt to eliminate unnecessary, redundant, or outdated sites. US government agencies used the .gov registrar to make it easy for new registrants to opt-in to HTTPS preloading and to make it easier for the public to report potential security issues.


Use by states and territories

, all states, the District of Columbia, and all territories except for the Northern Mariana Islands have operational domains in ''gov'':


International equivalents

While the use of ''gov'' as a top-level domain is restricted to the United States, several other countries have
second-level domain In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a second-level domain (SLD or 2LD) is a domain that is directly below a top-level domain (TLD). For example, in , is the second-level domain of the TLD. Second-level domains commonly refer to the organ ...
s of the same name or similar semantics for governmental purposes, including the following. Note that the governments of some jurisdictions use alternate domains in public communications (for example, the
Government of Canada The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes Minister of t ...
adopted ''canada.ca'' as its main public-facing URL in the 2010s, and some Canadian provinces have made similar changes).


See also

*
usa.gov USA.gov is the official web portal of the United States. It is designed to improve the public's interaction with the United States government by quickly directing website visitors to the services or information they are seeking, and by invitin ...
* .us


References


External links


Official .gov registration site


* Domain Requirements (defined .com and the other original top-level domains) * U.S. Government Internet Domain Names
Complete list of .gov domains
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gov Sponsored top-level domains Domain names in the United States General Services Administration Internet properties established in 1985