7 ms·

Is there any domain other than com/edu/gov that’s actually used for its official meaning, and isn’t hosted by a government body? I feel like 99% of .ly sites h

by setr 5y ago

Is there any domain other than com/edu/gov that’s actually used for its official meaning, and isn’t hosted by a government body? I feel like 99% of .ly sites have nothing to do with libya

detaro 5y ago
I'd guess most ccTLDs are primarily used for the country, only a few get commonly "misused".
- subhro 5y ago
  /me looks at .io and wonders.
  - detaro 5y ago
    My point. There's 300+ ccTLDs, or 250+ if you only count ASCII ones. There's maybe about a dozen regularly "misused" ones. (.tk is actually the largest ccTLD, but the rest of the top 10 is normal)
ffffwe3rq352y3 5y ago
Only one off the top of my head is ebay. The Canada site is: ebay.ca Really the only place I use regularly that has it...
- Symbiote 5y ago
  Alexa also lists amazon.ca, google.ca, canada.ca, kijiji.ca, realtor.ca, (ebay.ca), walmart.ca, cbc.ca, bestbuy.ca, airbnb.ca, homedepot.ca, and several *.gc.ca sites. In my experience, outside the USA many ccTLDs are commonly used – including the "domain hack" ones, in their own country.
  - smnrchrds 5y ago
    It helps that .ca domains are not available for all. As an individual, you need to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to purchase one. For companies, they need to have presence in Canada.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - SamBam 5y ago
    Yeah, seriously. Spend any time in Europe. Most local websites are at their ccTLD.
SahAssar 5y ago
If you live outside of the US, yes quite a lot. That's what cctld's are for, the weird part you are observing is that nobody in the us seems to want to use their cctld.
- xeromal 5y ago
  Because .com is the defacto US cctld at this point.
  - User23 5y ago
    You can’t anonymously hold a domain in .us.
    - rakshazi 5y ago
      You can't anonymously hold a domain in any *TLD. Yes, even in freenom's TLDs (you're not a domain holder with free domains)
      - squarefoot 5y ago
        Only in the US or everywhere? I see there are anonymizing services to mask the domain details so that any whois query returns a pointer to their office rather than the effective domain owners. A service that does the opposite might be handy for example to expose spammers.
        rakshazi 5y ago
        Anywhere. Yes, there are "whois guard" services, but that's actually email relays (like aliases). You must provide your identity information (name, surname, other passport/id data, address, etc.) to buy a domain name. Any "privacy-oriented" registrar just hides that information from whois records, but you still share it to registrar, so in case of government requests or data leak your PII will be exposed. There is no anonymity in internet, only pseudoanonymity.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Zababa 5y ago
Most French-only websites are .fr
nextaccountic 5y ago
Most Brazilian sites use .br and I've not seen a non-Brazilian site use it
GFischer 5y ago
Here in Uruguay most of the .uy sites are local businesses.

by setr 5y ago

Is there any domain other than com/edu/gov that’s actually used for its official meaning, and isn’t hosted by a government body? I feel like 99% of .ly sites have nothing to do with libya

detaro 5y ago

I'd guess most ccTLDs are primarily used for the country, only a few get commonly "misused".

subhro 5y ago
/me looks at .io and wonders.
- detaro 5y ago
  My point. There's 300+ ccTLDs, or 250+ if you only count ASCII ones. There's maybe about a dozen regularly "misused" ones. (.tk is actually the largest ccTLD, but the rest of the top 10 is normal)

ffffwe3rq352y3 5y ago

Only one off the top of my head is ebay. The Canada site is: ebay.ca Really the only place I use regularly that has it...

Symbiote 5y ago
Alexa also lists amazon.ca, google.ca, canada.ca, kijiji.ca, realtor.ca, (ebay.ca), walmart.ca, cbc.ca, bestbuy.ca, airbnb.ca, homedepot.ca, and several *.gc.ca sites. In my experience, outside the USA many ccTLDs are commonly used – including the "domain hack" ones, in their own country.
- smnrchrds 5y ago
  It helps that .ca domains are not available for all. As an individual, you need to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to purchase one. For companies, they need to have presence in Canada.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- SamBam 5y ago
  Yeah, seriously. Spend any time in Europe. Most local websites are at their ccTLD.

SahAssar 5y ago

If you live outside of the US, yes quite a lot. That's what cctld's are for, the weird part you are observing is that nobody in the us seems to want to use their cctld.

xeromal 5y ago
Because .com is the defacto US cctld at this point.
- User23 5y ago
  You can’t anonymously hold a domain in .us.
  - rakshazi 5y ago
    You can't anonymously hold a domain in any *TLD. Yes, even in freenom's TLDs (you're not a domain holder with free domains)
    - squarefoot 5y ago
      Only in the US or everywhere? I see there are anonymizing services to mask the domain details so that any whois query returns a pointer to their office rather than the effective domain owners. A service that does the opposite might be handy for example to expose spammers.
      - rakshazi 5y ago
        Anywhere. Yes, there are "whois guard" services, but that's actually email relays (like aliases). You must provide your identity information (name, surname, other passport/id data, address, etc.) to buy a domain name. Any "privacy-oriented" registrar just hides that information from whois records, but you still share it to registrar, so in case of government requests or data leak your PII will be exposed. There is no anonymity in internet, only pseudoanonymity.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

Zababa 5y ago

Most French-only websites are .fr

nextaccountic 5y ago

Most Brazilian sites use .br and I've not seen a non-Brazilian site use it

GFischer 5y ago

Here in Uruguay most of the .uy sites are local businesses.