.ws

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**.ws**

Introduced	1995
TLD type	Country code top-level domain
Status	Active
Registry	SamoaNIC (Computer Services Ltd. Samoa); marketed internationally by Global Domains International
Sponsoring organization	Government of Samoa
Intended use	Entities connected with Samoa
Actual use	Gets a lot of use, mostly not in Samoa; marketed as "WebSite" or "WorldSite"
Registration restrictions	None
Structure	Registrations are directly at second level
Documents	Policies
Dispute policies	UDRP
Web site	SamoaNIC; Website.ws

.ws is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Samoa. It is administered by SamoaNIC, for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Samoa. Global Domains International markets .ws registrations worldwide.

It has been marketed — and achieved a degree of popularity — as an alternative to the more "crowded" generic top-level domains, where the selection of unregistered domain names is much more limited. In this context, .ws is suggested to stand for "web site" or "world site"; the original intent was to abbreviate "Western Samoa", the nation's official name when two-letter country codes were standardized in the 1970s. There are no geographic restrictions on registration of .ws domains. One limitation with .ws domains is that they cannot be transferred, so if a person registers a name, he will not be able to switch registrars later; this is because of the contract signed between the registrars and the main registry. See more information about this here.

2nd level domains: 3 TLDs for domain registration to the general public: .WS, .COM.WS and .NET.WS. WS also offers 3 restricted TLDs: .ORG.WS, .GOV.WS and .EDU.WS.

[edit] External links

IANA .ws whois information
SamoaNIC.ws (for registrants in Samoa and some nearby countries)
Website.ws (for registrants elsewhere in the world)

Country code top-level domains
Active: .ac .ad .ae .af .ag .ai .al .am .an .ao .aq .ar .as .at .au .aw .ax .az .ba .bb .bd .be .bf .bg .bh .bi .bj .bm .bn .bo .br .bs .bt .bv .bw .by .bz .ca .cc .cd .cf .cg .ch .ci .ck .cl .cm .cn .co .cr .cu .cv .cx .cy .cz .de .dj .dk .dm .do .dz .ec .ee .eg .er .es .et .eu .fi .fj .fk .fm .fo .fr .ga .gd .ge .gf .gg .gh .gi .gl .gm .gn .gp .gq .gr .gs .gt .gu .gw .gy .hk .hm .hn .hr .ht .hu .id .ie .il .im .in .io .iq .ir .is .it .je .jm .jo .jp .ke .kg .kh .ki .km .kn .kr .kw .ky .kz .la .lb .lc .li .lk .lr .ls .lt .lu .lv .ly .ma .mc .md .mg .mh .mk .ml .mm .mn .mo .mp .mq .mr .ms .mt .mu .mv .mw .mx .my .mz .na .nc .ne .nf .ng .ni .nl .no .np .nr .nu .nz .om .pa .pe .pf .pg .ph .pk .pl .pm .pn .pr .ps .pt .pw .py .qa .re .ro .ru .rw .sa .sb .sc .sd .se .sg .sh .si .sk .sl .sm .sn .sr .st .sv .sy .sz .tc .td .tf .tg .th .tj .tk .tl .tm .tn .to .tr .tt .tv .tw .tz .ua .ug .uk .us .uy .uz .va .vc .ve .vg .vi .vn .vu .wf .ws .ye .yt .yu .za .zm .zw
Reserved/unassigned: .eh .kp .me .rs Allocated/unused: .bv .gb .sj .so .um Phaseout: .su .tp Deleted/retired: .cs .dd .zr
See also: Generic top-level domains