.to

.to
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. Often used for torrent websites and domain hacks.
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
Registry 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. The .to ccTLD is administered by the Tonga Network Information Center (Tonic).[1]

Because to is a common English preposition, it became popular to craft memorable URLs called domain hacks that take advantage of this; URL shortening/redirection services (e.g. go.to) are a popular use. Other domain hacks do not use the to as a preposition, including Daniel J. Bernstein's website cr.yp.to, London web development company Potato p.ota.to, and uploading services such as uloz.to (which means "save it" in Czech and Slovak).

"T.O." is also a common nickname for Toronto, Canada and is used as a city domain extension as exemplified by popular Toronto sites www.dine.to (Dining in Toronto) and www.jobs.to (Job Bank Toronto). This domain extension is also used for the city of Torino (Turin), Italy.

As the .to domains are purchased, 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 commission.

.to is one of the few ccTLDs that (officially) do not maintain a (public) WHOIS database providing registrant information. It is possible to contact domain registrants via tonic.to by typing the domain in the domain search field under "New Domain Name".[2]

The top-level domain to itself had an A record and a HTTP server since at least 1998.[3]

The .to registry allows the creation of emoji domain names.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Tonga Network Information Center
  2. ↑ "Tonic Corporation Frequently Asked Questions: Does Tonic offer a whois service?". Tonic.
  3. ↑ to. at the Wayback Machine (archive index)
  4. ↑ Hughes, Matthew (15 August 2017). "This site helps you find the perfect Emoji domain name (with one caveat)". The Next Web. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
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