January 8, 2014
In addition to .AU, there are four other country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) representing Australia and its territories.
One of those we wrote about yesterday - .NF, representing Norfolk Island.
Of the other extensions, one may seem quite familiar - .CC. This extension was designated to Cocos (Keeling) Islands, situated between Australia and Sri Lanka. While it has a tiny population of around 600, one of its most famous 'exports' is the .CC name.
The .CC extension can be registered by anyone these days, although the second level free .CO.CC extension suffered a somewhat tarnished reputation due to the large number of sploggers and scammers registering those names a couple of years ago.
Another ccTLD associated with Australia is the .CX extension. This is domain space assigned to Christmas Island; which is located in the Indian Ocean. As with .CC, there are no restrictions for registering a .CX domain.
Also associated with Australia is the .HM ccTLD. This has been reserved for the Heard and McDonald Islands, located in the southern Indian Ocean.
Barren Antarctic islands with a population of zero; there are no active sites associated with the Islands under .HM and again, registration of a .HM name is open to anyone.
Trivia: The official web site for Heard and McDonald Islands is hosted under a different extension - ww.heardisland.aq. The .AQ extension represents Antarctica.
There are literally hundreds of Top Level Domains (TLDs) either in use or reserved for use by various countries and organisations. While many of these can be registered by anyone, for Australians doing business online it's best to stick with extensions that have the highest level of Australian consumer awareness and trust - COM.AU and to a lesser degree; .COM
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