.gov

gov
Introduced January 1, 1985 (1985-01-01)
TLD type Sponsored top-level domain
Status Active
Registry General Services Administration
Sponsor General Services Administration
Intended use Governmental entities
Actual use United States government; formerly only federal government but later expanded to include state and local government
Registration restrictions Must meet eligibility requirements and submit authorization letter
Structure Registrations at second level permitted
Documents RFC 920; RFC 1591; RFC 2146
Dispute policies None
Website dotgov.gov
DNSSEC yes

The domain name gov is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The name is derived from the word government, indicating its restricted use by government entities in the United States. The gov domain is administered by the General Services Administration (GSA), an independent agency of the United States federal government.

The U.S. is the only country that has a government-specific top-level domain in addition to its country-code top-level domain. This is a result of the origins of the Internet as a U.S. federal government-sponsored research network. Other countries typically delegate a second-level domain for this purpose, for example: .gc.ca is the second-level domain for the Government of Canada and all subdomains.

Some U.S. federal agencies use com, instead of gov. The Department of Defense and its subsidiary organizations use the mil sTLD. Some U.S. governmental entities use other domains, such as com domains by the United States Postal Service, usps.com and the United States Army's recruitment website (goarmy.com). The US military repeats this pattern for recruitment websites of other branches.

All governments in the U.S. were allowed to apply for delegations in gov before May 2012.[1] For example, domains have been registered for the city of Atlanta (atlantaga.gov), for the county of Loudoun, Virginia (loudoun.gov), and for the U.S. state of Georgia (georgia.gov). This was not always possible; under an earlier policy, only federal agencies were allowed to use the domain, and agencies below cabinet level were required to use subdomains of their parent agency. Inconsistencies exist in addressing of state and local government sites, with some using gov, some us, some using both. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania uses www.pa.gov, www.pennsylvania.gov and www.state.pa.us for the same web site, and still others in com, org or other TLDs.

Availability

Use of the domain gov is restricted to government entities. According to GSA guidelines, this includes U.S. governmental departments, programs, and agencies on the federal level; federally recognized tribes, referred to by the GSA as Native Sovereign Nations, which must use the suffix -NSN.gov; State governmental entities and programs; cities and townships represented by an elected body of officials; counties and parishes represented by an elected body of officials; and U.S. territories.[2]

The URL for registration services is www.dotgov.gov.[3]

Authorization

To register a gov domain, a letter of authorization must be submitted to the GSA. For federal agencies, the authorization must be submitted by cabinet-level chief information officer (CIO). For state governments, authorization from the governor or state CIO is required. Domains for cities require authorization from the mayor or equivalent official; for counties, authorization may be submitted by county commissioners or equivalent officials, or by the highest-ranking county official.[4] For Native Sovereign Nations, the authorization must come from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.[5]

Naming conventions

The GSA provides guidelines for naming of second-level domains, such as those used by state and local governments. For states, the domain name must include the full state name or postal abbreviation, and the abbreviation must not be obscured by inclusion in a larger word. For example, invalid.gov for Idaho would be an unacceptable domain name. For local governments, the domain name must include the state name or abbreviation. However, many .gov domain names (such as boston.gov and seattle.gov) do not conform to the naming convention because they were already registered before the GSA enacted this policy and thus they had to be grandfathered in.[6]

Policy

Policy regarding the gov domain is laid out in 41 CFR Part 102-173.

No new gov domains for U.S. federal executive branch departments have been allowed to be registered since June 13, 2011, as a result of the implementation of Executive Order 13571[7] issued by President Obama. The move was part of a general attempt to improve the efficiency of U.S. governmental Web usage by weeding out unnecessary, redundant, outdated, or wasteful sites.[8]

Since May 2012, the Federal Executive Branch has a policy of registering no new second-level domains for its agencies, except on a case-by-case basis. Agencies are also prohibited from using other top-level domains such as .org and .com.[9] "Federal Agency domains" were also deleted on August 26, 2014.[1]

Use by states and territories

As of February 2014, all states, the District of Columbia, and all territories except for the Northern Mariana Islands have operational domains in gov:

State or Territory Domain
Alabama al.gov and alabama.gov
Alaska alaska.gov
American Samoa as.gov and americansamoa.gov
Arizona az.gov and arizona.gov
Arkansas ar.gov and arkansas.gov
California ca.gov and california.gov (Appears to not be in use, the last time recorded as active was on April 16, 2009)[10]
Colorado co.gov and colorado.gov
Connecticut ct.gov
Delaware de.gov and delaware.gov
District of Columbia dc.gov
Florida florida.gov and fl.gov (redirects to myflorida.com)
Georgia ga.gov and georgia.gov
Guam guam.gov
Hawaii hawaii.gov and ehawaii.gov
Idaho idaho.gov
Illinois il.gov and illinois.gov
Indiana in.gov and indiana.gov
Iowa ia.gov and iowa.gov
Kansas ks.gov and kansas.gov
Kentucky ky.gov and kentucky.gov
Louisiana la.gov and louisiana.gov
Maine maine.gov
Maryland md.gov and maryland.gov
Massachusetts ma.gov mass.gov and massachusetts.gov
Michigan mi.gov and michigan.gov
Minnesota mn.gov and minnesota.gov
Mississippi ms.gov and mississippi.gov
Missouri mo.gov and missouri.gov
Montana mt.gov and montana.gov
Nebraska ne.gov and nebraska.gov
Nevada nv.gov and nevada.gov
New Hampshire nh.gov
New Jersey nj.gov and newjersey.gov
New Mexico newmexico.gov
New York ny.gov
North Carolina nc.gov and northcarolina.gov
North Dakota nd.gov and northdakota.gov
Ohio oh.gov and ohio.gov
Oklahoma ok.gov and oklahoma.gov
Oregon oregon.gov
Pennsylvania pa.gov and pennsylvania.gov
Puerto Rico pr.gov and puertorico.gov
Rhode Island ri.gov and rhodeisland.gov
South Carolina sc.gov
South Dakota sd.gov
Tennessee tn.gov and tennessee.gov
Texas tx.gov and texas.gov
Utah utah.gov
Vermont vt.gov and vermont.gov
Virgin Islands vi.gov
Virginia virginia.gov
Washington wa.gov and washington.gov
West Virginia wv.gov
Wisconsin wi.gov and wisconsin.gov
Wyoming wy.gov and wyoming.gov

International equivalents

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Welcome - DOTGOV". Dotgov.gov. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  2. ↑ "Eligibility Requirements". General Services Administration. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
  3. ↑ "Delegation Record for .GOV". IANA. Archived from the original on 17 May 2008. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
  4. ↑ "Authorization Letter". General Services Administration. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
  5. ↑ "Who authorizes domain names?". General Services Administration. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
  6. ↑ "Sec. 102-173.50 What is the naming convention for States?". General Services Administration. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
  7. ↑ "Executive Order 13571--Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service". The White House. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  8. ↑ "Lost and Found - Mapping Page - DigitalGov". Usa.gov. Archived from the original on 21 August 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  9. ↑ "Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People". United States Federal CIO Council. May 23, 2012. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  10. ↑ "State of California". Archived from the original on 25 June 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
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