As a ccTLD (country code top level domain), .US brands itself as “America’s Internet Address.” It has existed since 1985 and was originally used primarily by governmental organizations and libraries. In 2002, it was made available to the general public. Any US citizen or resident, as well as any business or organization, including federal, state, and local government with a presence in the United States can register a .US domain name. Neustar is the registry operator for a number of TLDs including .US. We will be doing separate posts for each one.

Uses range from personal email addresses to government organizations to American businesses. One of the unique examples is for the Neustar-driven approval for children’s web content. This is a designation for websites appropriate for kids under 13 such as nick.kids.us (games for kids from the Nickelodeon television network) or americaslibrary.kids.us (presented by the US Library of Congress). The community site WeAre.Us has an innovative and helpful domain focusing on the “us” factor. Many businesses also find their Internet home in a .US domain name including social media/public relations site bub.blicio.us or cabinetmakers CampbellDesign.us or technology firm Bose at Bose.us. Zipcodes are also popular. These pages are parked, but are still valuable Internet real estate: www.20166.us or www.90210.us.

Neustar launched a social media marketing program in January 2009 to increase .US brand recognition. This includes a banner ad campaign that has generated clickthrough rates up to seven times the industry average. They also created a Facebook application for .US. They provide businesses and personal .US users with social media news and other great resources.

.US Quick Facts

• There are 1.4 million .US domain names under management.
• Neustar is the registry operator.
• Most of the .US domains (87%) are registered and used in the United States, followed by Canada and then Europe.
• .US purchasers are predominately male (84%) between the ages of 35 – 64 years old and use the domain for both business and personal reasons.

Available Resources:
Registries offer a wide range of resources for Resellers. Here are some of the key links you can use to learn more about .US:

• .US FAQs
• .US News page
• Facebook application: www.interestedin.us
• Media Center with resources for all Neustar gTLDs and ccTLDs. This includes webcasts, podcasts, and white papers.

.US Promotion:
Our .US promotion started on June 1st and continues until July 31, 2009. There’s more information on the promotion page.