Control of the US country code top level domain (ccTLD), .us,
will be sold to the highest bidder willing to control it for at
least the next four years, according to a document by the US
Department of Commerce (DOC) made available in advance of its
official invitation for bids on 11th June 2001.
The DOC is expected to issue a formal request for bids from
those wanting to manage and co-ordinate the registry and expand its
presently limited services. To date, little use of the .us name has
been made because of rules that are much more restrictive than
those for the .uk equivalent.
While anyone in the US can register a .us name, the naming
structure is based on national geography, in four levels. The first
level is .us. The second level domain is the applicant’s state,
then the third level domain is the city or county. Finally, the
fourth level domain can be assigned to an organisation or to an
individual. For example, Microsoft is based in Redmond, Washington
and would, if it wanted a .us domain name, use the address
www.microsoft.redmond.wa.us.
The length of the domain names has made .us an unpopular choice
for businesses, but it is used by local governments and
community-based organisations. Administration of sub-domain
registries is delegated to local entities. The city council of
Redmond, for example, is at www.ci.redmond.wa.us.
The DOC has acknowledged the demand for more generic names using
.us. The bidder who wins control of the registry will not also be
allowed to act as registrar, a dual role which led to recent
criticism for VeriSign, controller of the .com name. Many
registrars sell .com names, but all must pay commission on each to
VeriSign, the central registry. VeriSign competes with the
re-sellers by also selling .com names direct.
