The top-level domain (TLD) “.WS” is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Samoa, a Polynesian country situated in the South Pacific Ocean. The .WS TLD is managed by the Samoa National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Authority. It is a two-letter code, derived from the international standard ISO 3166-1 which provides short-form codes to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. The ISO 3166-1 codes are used as a basis for the creation of ccTLDs (Source: International Organization for Standardization).
However, the .WS extension is also highly desirable due to its potential interpretation as “web site”, making it easy to remember and popularize. Despite being the ccTLD for Samoa, the .WS domain has been marketed worldwide as a domain for general use. Companies, organizations, and individuals not based in Samoa also use it. Global Domains International (GDI), the official worldwide registry for all .WS domain names, promotes it predominantly for this international “web site” association rather than its location-specific purpose (Source: Global Domains International).
Furthermore, it’s worth noting that WS has an open registration policy, meaning anyone from anywhere can register a .WS domain. This has resulted in the TLD gaining popularity with web developers and enterprises across the globe (Source: Global Domains International).
The technical specification of .WS is similar to most domain extensions. It supports ASCII characters and is managed using a domain name system protocol (DNS). The DNS protocol maps the .WS domain names to their corresponding IP addresses making the domain resources accessible over the internet (Source: ICANN).
An example of a .WS domain in use is emoji.ws. It’s an emoji search engine, demonstrating the advantage of the .WS domain’s potential for being fun, catchy, and memorable.
Sources:
- International Organization for Standardization: Top Level Domain Country Codes
- Global Domains International: .WS Domain Registry Service
- ICANN: Technical Overview of DNS
