.us
Internet country code top-level domain for the United States
.us is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United States. It was established in February 1985. Registrants of us domains must be U.S. citizens, residents, or organizations – or foreign entities with a presence in the United States or a territory of the United States. Most registrants in the U.S. have registered for .com, .net, .org and other gTLDs, instead of us, which has primarily been used by state and local governments, even though private entities may also register us domains. The domain is managed by Registry Services, LLC, an acquired subsidiary domain name registry of GoDaddy, on behalf of the United States Department of Commerce.
The us domain is less commonly used by American businesses and enterprises than the internationally more common .com.
History
On February 15, 1985, us was created as the Internet's first ccTLD. Its original administrator was Jon Postel of the Information Sciences Institute (ISI) at the University of Southern California (USC). He administered us under a subcontract that the ISI and USC had from SRI International (which held the us and the gTLD contract with the United States Department of Defense) and later Network Solutions (which held the us and the gTLD contract with the National Science Foundation).
Postel and his colleague Ann Westine Cooper codified the us ccTLD's policies in December 1992 as RFC 1386 and revised them the following June in RFC 1480. Registrants could only register third-level domains or higher in a geographic and organizational hierarchy.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “.us” as internet country code top-level domain for the United States. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as internet country code top-level domain for the United States. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q37861. None of the 3 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1985, 1992, 1386 and 1480.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “.us”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow .us primary sources, .us archive and Internet research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “.us”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “.us” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.