Editing .ws

{{short description|Internet country-code top-level domain for Samoa}}
<!-- DO NOT REINSERT ANY LINK TO www.website.ws. YOU WILL BE MARKED AS A SPAMMER!!! -->
{{Infobox Top level domain
| name          = .ws
| image         = DotWS domain logo.png
| introduced    = 14 July 1995
| type          = [[Country code top-level domain]]
| status        = Active
| registry      = [[SamoaNIC]] ([[Computer Services Ltd. Samoa]])
| sponsor       = [[Government of Samoa]]
| intendeduse   = Entities connected with [[Samoa]]
| actualuse     = Not used much inside [[Samoa]], popular for [[domain hack|domain hacks]], [[URL shortening]] and [[Emoji domain|emoji domains]] as well as websites related to [[WorldStarHipHop|WorldStar]]
| restrictions  = None
| structure     = Registrations are directly at second level
| document      = [http://www.samoanic.ws/legal/ Policies]
| disputepolicy = [[UDRP]]
| website       = [https://www.samoanic.ws/ SamoaNIC]<br/>[https://www.CSL.ws Computer Services Ltd.]
}}

'''.ws''' is the [[Internet]] [[country code]] [[top-level domain]] ([[ccTLD]]) for [[Samoa]]. It is administered by SamoaNIC, for the [[Foreign minister|Ministry of Foreign Affairs]] of the [[Government of Samoa]].

The .ws domain is an abbreviation for "Western Samoa", which was the nation's official name in the 1970s when two-letter country codes were standardized. Although there are no geographic restrictions on registration of most second-level .ws domains, '''.org.ws''', '''.gov.ws''', and '''.edu.ws''' registration is restricted.

Prior to March 14, 2008, .ws domains were not allowed to be transferred from one domain registrar to another.

The .ws country code has been marketed as a [[domain hack]], with the ws purportedly standing for "world site",  [[website]] or [[web service]], providing a "global" Internet presence to registrants, as it supports all [[internationalized domain name]]s. A popular use for the domain is for [[news]] organizations for [[URL shortening]] purposes, mainly suffixed as "(organization name)ne.ws".

Due to its potential popularity, a sliding scale of prices is operated by the registrar, depending on the brevity of the desired domain. Domains with four characters or more are competitively priced while three-, two-, and single-character domains have their own pricing tiers, quickly scaling into thousands of United States dollars. A company named "Global Domains International" operates a [[multi-level marketing]] scheme for .ws domain reselling.

In 2016, .ws gained popularity as one of the first [[Domain name registry|domain name registries]] to offer [[emoji domain]]s.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Mihalcik|first1=Carrie|title=Emoji could soon take over domain names|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/emoji-godaddy-domain-names/|access-date=1 September 2017|publisher=CNET|date=28 October 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Coren|first1=Michael|title=The land rush for emoji domains is coming|url=https://qz.com/828436/the-land-rush-for-emoji-domains-is-coming/|access-date=1 September 2017|publisher=Quartz|date=11 November 2016}}</ref>

{{as of|2018}}, there are approximately 25,000 emoji domains registered on .ws.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Johnson|first1=Paddy|title=Emoji Domains Are the Future (Maybe)|url=https://gizmodo.com/emoji-domains-are-the-future-maybe-1823319626|access-date=4 March 2018|publisher=Gizmodo|date=2 February 2018}}</ref>

Google treats the .ws [[ccTLD]] as a generic top level domain [[gTLD]].<ref>{{Citation |title=International targeting |url=https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/managing-multi-regional-sites|department=Google Search Central |publisher=Google Inc. |access-date=4 July 2021}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Internet in Samoa]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
<!-- DO NOT REINSERT THE LINK TO www.website.ws. YOU WILL BE MARKED AS A SPAMMER!!! -->
* [https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/ws.html IANA .ws whois information]
* [https://www.SamoaNIC.ws/ SamoaNIC.ws] (for registrants in Samoa and some nearby countries)

{{CcTLD}}
{{Samoa topics}}
{{Oceania topic|Internet in }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:WS}}
[[Category:Country code top-level domains]]
[[Category:Communications in Samoa]]


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