
Ask HN: Why do many websites use a country code as the top-level domain? - chmaynard
Many top-level domains correspond to a specific country code, such as <i>.ie or </i>.nz. I&#x27;m familiar with the .com, .edu, .org, .gov convention used in the United States, so using the country code as the top domain seems pointless and confusing to me. For example, for a long time CERN used cern.ch despite the fact that they&#x27;re located in both France and Switzerland.<p>Why is this the current practice?
======
andrelaszlo
In Sweden, my home country, the se TLD became the de facto default for local
companies, or the Swedish branch of international companies. Using an se
domain just seemed like the correct choice for a Swedish site. I'm guessing
it's for practical reasons to begin with. It was probably much easier to deal
with the local registrar, for example. Payments and the registration process
were not as simple or fast as they are today.

RFC1591 may also give a hint:

"This domain has grown very large and there is concern about the
administrative load and system performance if the current growth pattern is
continued. Consideration is being taken to subdivide the COM domain and only
allow future commercial registrations in the subdomain."

[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1591](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1591)

------
icedchai
Probably because the domain was available in the country code and not the
.com? Many CC TLDS opened up registration to those outside of their country,
making it more common to register domains in those TLDS.

------
RNeff
Many public institutions use the .us TLD. The Sonoma Public Library in the
northern county of Sonoma in California is sonoma.lib.ca.us

------
smt88
I can't answer fully, but TLD governance does vary. That will sometimes
contribute to the decision to use one or another.

