Back .gov Arabic .gov AST .gov BE .gov BE-X-OLD .gov Bulgarian .gov BH .গভ Bengali/Bangla .gov BS .gov Catalan .gov CE
 | |
| Introduced | January 1, 1985 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Sponsored top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency |
| Sponsor | Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency |
| Intended use | Governmental entities |
| Actual use | Only the 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 |
| DNSSEC | yes |
| Registry website | get |
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. The TLD is administered by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA),[1] a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security.
.gov is one of the original six top-level domains, defined in RFC 920.[2] Though "originally intended for any kind of government office or agency",[3] only U.S.-based government entities may register .gov domain names, a result of the Internet originating as a U.S. government-sponsored research network.
Other countries typically delegate a second-level domain for government operations on their country-code top-level domain (ccTLD); for example, .gov.uk is the domain for the Government of the United Kingdom, and .gc.ca is the domain for the Government of Canada. The United States is the only country that has a government-specific top-level domain in addition to its ccTLD (.us), a direct result of the United States federal government's role in the creation of the Internet.
.gov domains are registered at get.gov.
- ^ "Delegation Record for .gov". Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. Retrieved July 11, 2021.
- ^ Postel, John; Reynolds, Joyce (October 1984). "RFC 920 - Domain Requirements". Ietf Datatracker. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
- ^ Postel, John (March 1994). "RFC 1591 - Domain Name System Structure and Delegation". Ietf Datatracker. Retrieved June 20, 2021.