.to
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| Introduced | 1995 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | Tonga Network Information Center (Tonic) |
| Sponsor | Government of Tonga |
| Intended use | Entities connected with Tonga |
| Actual use | Used for a varied assortment of sites, few related to Tonga, some connected with Toronto and is often used for torrent websites, has launched a URL shortening service |
| Registration restrictions | Open to everyone but some vulgar words not allowed to register and use for spam prohibited. |
| Structure | Registrations permitted at second level; some Tonga-related entities have domains at third level under labels like .gov.to |
| Documents | FAQ |
| Dispute policies | Some trademarked names reserved; no other dispute policy |
| Website | Tonic |
.to is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) of the island kingdom of Tonga.
The government of Tonga sells domains in its ccTLD to any interested party. Because to is a common English preposition, it became popular to craft memorable URLs called domain hacks that take advantage of this, such as Daniel Bernstein's website http://cr.yp.to, URL shortening services such as http://go.to, and BitTorrent websites.
The .to ccTLD is administered by the Tonga Network Information Center (Tonic).
The city of Toronto, in Ontario, Canada, has TO (pronounced Tee-O) as its nickname. Therefore, the .to extension is used by many small businesses located in Toronto, despite Canada's own .ca.
As the .to domains are paid for, all normal DNS operations are possible and registered sites are not required to display ads on behalf of the registrar. Some domains are free, like .edu.to, but only to real Tongan educational institutions. At this moment businesses registered in Tonga can also get free domains. People who sell on .to domains can claim a bonus.
.to is one of the few ccTLDs that (officially) does not maintain a (public) WHOIS database providing registrant information [1].
In December 2009, the URL shortener TO./ NanoURL was launched by the TLD itself. The service creates a URL address which looks like http://to./xxxx, where xxxx represents a combination of random numbers and letters. NanoURL currently generates the shortest URLs of all URL shortening services. This rare form of URL may cause problems with some browsers, which interpret this as a search term and look it up on a search engine, instead of opening it[2]
See also
.tv ccTLD, similarly used as a homonym
External links
References
- ↑ http://www.tonic.to/faq.htm?B6G53667;;;#16
- ↑ .TO ccTLD Becomes Worlds Shortest URL Shortener DomainNameNews, 3 March 2009
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