.lv is 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 ...

country code A country code is a short alphanumeric identification code for countries and dependent areas. Its primary use is in data processing and communications. Several identification systems have been developed. The term ''country code'' frequently re ...

top-level domain 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 ...

(

ccTLD 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 ...

) for

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. It was introduced on 29 April 1993, two years after the country's independence. The domain is managed and administered by NIC.LV (Network Solutions Department of the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Latvia). Registration is permitted at the second level, and this is the form of registration currently encouraged by the registry; however, registrations are also accepted at the third level beneath a number of subdomains: * .com.lv - commercial entities * .edu.lv - educational institutions * .gov.lv - government and semi-government entities. * .org.lv - various forms of affiliation groups * .mil.lv - defense/military entities of Latvia * .id.lv - individuals * .net.lv - network infrastructure providers * .asn.lv - associations * .conf.lv - conferences and exhibitions requiring short duration Internet connectivity Registration is open to foreigners, though the dispute policy says that precedence is generally given to domestic users. There does not appear to be much non-Latvian use of this TLD; exceptions include a few sites apparently using it to suggest

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

—much as .la is used for

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

—or "love"—as in "my.lv," "we.lv," or "true.lv"—and "live"—as in "xbx.lv" used by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

for shortening links to their

Xbox Live The Xbox network, formerly known and commonly referred to as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Gaming for the Xbox brand. It was first made available to the origina ...

service—but these types of uses are not widespread.

Internationalized domain name An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that contains at least one label displayed in software applications, in whole or in part, in non-Latin script or alphabet or in the Latin alphabet-based characters with diacrit ...

s may also be registered.

References

External links

IANA .lv whois information
Country code top-level domains Telecommunications in Latvia Internet properties established in 1993 Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries members {{Compu-domain-stub