Domain Names

Policy:

All new Web sites of Department of Commerce organizations shall have .gov or .fed.us as the top level domain. In addition, within one year of the adoption of this policy all existing Web sites of Department of Commerce organizations shall have .gov or .fed.us as the top level domain.

Scope:

All Department of Commerce Web Sites, except intranet sites not available to the public.

Purpose:

This policy is designed to ensure that the public can easily recognize Commerce Department Web sites as U.S. Government sites and to ensure that Commerce Web pages are indexed by the USA.gov search engine.

Exceptions:

Chief Information Officers of the Operating Units and offices listed below may grant exceptions to this policy. In instances where an exception is to be granted a copy of the justification shall be sent to the Department of Commerce Chief Information Officer.

    • Bureau of the Census
    • National Institute of Standards and Technology
    • Bureau of Economic Analysis
    • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
    • Bureau of Industry and Security
    • National Telecommunications and Information Administration
    • Economic Development Administration
    • National Technical Information Service
    • Economics and Statistics Administration
    • Office of the Inspector General
    • International Trade Administration
    • Patent and Trademark Office
    • Minority Business Development Administration

Deadline for Implementation:

February 8, 2002.

Discussion:

The CIO Council anticipates that exceptions granted to this policy will be rare and supported by a clear and compelling justification.

For more information see References (US Government only) at:

References:

Revision History:
August 28, 2008 : Corrected formatting.
January 11, 2001: Approved.

Department of Commerce Web Advisory Council (WAC)
U.S. Department of Commerce

Send questions and comments about this page to WAC@doc.gov
Page last updated October 28, 2010