Government Domains

Government domains are mainly used by government authorities in different countries. The United States is the only country that is allowed to use the .gov as the generic top level domain. The US is the only country that uses .gov as the generic top level domain, whereas other countries are permitted to use the .gov only at the second level. The registration is administered by an independent agency of the federal government called General Services Administration. All states in the US can use this domain.

The usage of .gov is restricted to government entities. These include the governmental departments of the US, agencies on the federal level, state governmental entities and US territories.

Government domains are one of the safest domains with the least amount of risk. These are also among the frequently tested domains. Some web activities are risky when done at certain other domains such as .info or .com. These sites have a greater chance of receiving spam when compared to government domains.

An individual or a citizen cannot normally register for .gov domains unless he is a government official. The .gov domain can also be registered by independent authorities under the government. You can register government domains online only if you satisfy all the terms and conditions for the government authorities in a particular country. You will be provided with a username and password in order to access such a domain.

The government policies might be different in different countries. Some countries even restrict the use of government domains to higher authorities of the government. In some countries the top level domains are sponsored by the government itself. The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) facilitates all these domain registrations with the help of accredited registrars in that country. You can find the list of accredited registrars for your country from ICANN's official website.

Some countries like Pakistan offer more than one government domain for registration. They offer these domains for the government authorities belonging to different areas within that country.

Government domains are mainly used for giving the right information to the public. The modification or the renewal of government domains is possible only with the help of accredited registrars.