Tuvalu (.tv), Libya (.ly), Anguilla (.ai).
Matt of wordpress got ma.tt (Trinidad & Tobago).
Some countries (eg, Canada) require some kind of residency.
What other TLDs are special?
I understand the (arguable) necessity and the prolific scams, but it seemed cruel to broke teenagers.
This was also one of the only ways for a broke middle schooler without a credit card to get a cool "real" domain.
Combine it with dyndns, self-host some ancient-but-free bulletin-board software (Woltlab Burning Board may ring a bell for the European / German audience) after learning about this "Apache2" and "mod_php" thing and your small slice of internet with 10 users max is done. Good times. :D
Have this instead “How a Tiny Pacific Island Became the Global Hub of Cybercrime”
Or used JavaScript tricks to hide the ads, or redirect the outer page to an ad-free URL. I know you could do the former on cjb.net, but perhaps .tk required the latter.
.fi (Finland) was used by crypto/web3 companies during the 2021-22 hype cycle because it associates with finance (as in DeFi = decentralized finance).
.is (Iceland) and .at (Austria) are English words and can be used for cleverish domains that form sentences in URLs, as in: this.is/amazing
At least I have found what I have expected on that domain.
I'm not personally willing to gamble on the $500 price tag though
Not sure what else I'd use it for though...
https://www.thewebmaster.com/archived/io-tld-top-level-domai...
Also, that article is wild!
In the future, we'll have a coup in some country and it will cause web chaos just from the TLD issue. (I've seen first-hand how some countries handle their ccTLDs...)
All two-letter TLDs are. Now that you know the pattern, you'll be able to identify all the other ccTLDs as well.
Lots of islands, lots of of countries with spotty international recognition, a couple countries that no longer exist (like the Soviet Union), and a couple "regions" (EU, Antarctic)
If there is some political issue and say .ai domains are taken over, what's stopping IANA from just taking over that TLD and moving the zone to some other entity? Most domains there are owned by international business and some IANA members might want to keep them running.
There have been a few disputes around certain ccTLDs, in the end it's a mixture of political and commercial interests that need ad-hoc mediation in most cases.
.cx (Christmas Island) domains were relatively common some 20 years ago, iirc because of some dynamic DNS provider.
And of course .io is the ccTLD for the British Indian Ocean territories
(For anyone who doesn't know -- don't go there. At least not while you're in public.)
Oracle.
IMO Arduino's use of the domain wasn't as famous as Creative Commons' use of the domain creativecommons.cc ... but Arduino is still at arduino.cc, while Creative Commons has moved to .org.
IIRC it sort of has a residency requirement, but there are companies that will proxy your registration for you. More trouble than its worth to just not abuse the TLDs in this manner.
I assumed it was a domain created for personal sites, but it turns out its for the country.
There's the usual second level domains .co.me, .net.me, .org.me, .gov.me etc. reserved for actual Montenegrin entities.
Also, .ws (Western Samoa), which was sold as "web site".
.nu (Niue) was originally owned by a Niue non-profit in Massachusetts, US, but was later transferred into Swedish ownership as "nu" means "now" in Swedish and lots of websites in Sweden were using it.
Felis catus is your taxonomic nomenclature,
An endothermic quadruped, carnivorous by nature;
Your visual, olfactory, and auditory senses
Contribute to your hunting skills and natural defenses.
I find myself intrigued by your subvocal oscillations,
A singular development of cat communications
That obviates your basic hedonistic predilection
For a rhythmic stroking of your fur to demonstrate affection.
A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents;
You would not be so agile if you lacked its counterbalance.
And when not being utilized to aid in locomotion,
It often serves to illustrate the state of your emotion.
O Spot, the complex levels of behavior you display
Connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array.
And though you are not sentient, Spot, and do not comprehend,
I nonetheless consider you a true and valued friend.
I'm really quite fond of it. It's the Indonesian TLD, but there aren't residency requirements (for top-level domains). I've got the relevant `.com`s as a fallback, but I hope this sticks around without drama.
Not something to do lightly for an actively used domain name if you're an actual business, as it may establish presence in a jurisdiction you'd rather not be in; but it should be fine enough for personal use; worst case, you abandon the domain when it becomes an issue and maybe avoid travel to that country.
It’s still up, but it’s going down real soon.