New Web Country Code Available to U.S. Users

U.S. Internet users looking for a star-spangled Web presence can now sign up for domain names with a .us tag.

Addresses in the United States’ retooled Internet country code were opened up last week to U.S. citizens and businesses after years during which the domain was reserved primarily for local governments, schools and libraries.

Unlike better-known domains such as .com and .org, which fall under the control of the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, country codes such as France’s .fr and Japan’s .jp are assigned to each country to manage as they please. The United States has until now reserved its .us domain for local governments, schools and libraries, under a decentralized, nonprofit system that assigned addresses based on locality.

Washington-based NeuStar Inc., which won the right to manage the domain in October, plans to preserve the existing system while also opening it to commercial development.

The privately held company also is working with the U.S. government to set up a kids-only address that would bar violent content, pornography or other inappropriate material. A bill that would set up a .kids.us subdomain has cleared a House of Representatives committee and next faces a vote in the full chamber.