.nu
Encyclopedia
.nu is the Internet country code top-level domain
(ccTLD) assigned to the island state of Niue
. It was one of the first ccTLDs to be marketed to the Internet
at large as an alternative to the gTLDs .com
, .net
, and .org
. Playing on the phonetic similarity between nu and new, it was promoted as a "new" TLD in which there was an abundance of good domain names available.
, Denmark
, Norway
, the Netherlands
and Belgium
, as nu is the word for "now" in Swedish
, Danish
and Dutch
. Partially owing to restrictive domain rules for the ccTLD assigned to Sweden, .se
, .nu was used for creative marketing of website
s such as www.tv.nu.
s, supporting the full Unicode
character set. Unlike other TLDs, no browser plugin or punycode
capable browser was required on the client side for use of these names, as .NU Domain's web servers converted and redirected any web queries issued in a variety of international character encodings. However, in March 2010, .NU Domain announced at ICANN that they had recently disabled their general wildcard domain name resolution technology, and thus were implementing IDNs only by the now standard punycode implemention, and were reducing the accepted set of IDN characters for .NU Domain names to a subset of the ISO-8859-1
western European characters.
issued a report explaining the functionality of SiteAdvisor. As part of that report, .nu domain websites were stated to be among the highest-risk TLDs for browser exploits. However, in most other respects, .nu sites were ranked overall as a low to moderate risk. Shortly thereafter, .NU Domain issued a press release stating that SiteAdvisor had ranked .nu sites among the lowest for risk. In 2008 McAfee
reported that .net
and .com
had become the riskiest TLDs.
Country code top-level domain
A country code top-level domain is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, a sovereign state, or a dependent territory....
(ccTLD) assigned to the island state of Niue
Niue
Niue , is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean. It is commonly known as the "Rock of Polynesia", and inhabitants of the island call it "the Rock" for short. Niue is northeast of New Zealand in a triangle between Tonga to the southwest, the Samoas to the northwest, and the Cook Islands to...
. It was one of the first ccTLDs to be marketed to the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
at large as an alternative to the gTLDs .com
.com
The domain name com is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from commercial, indicating its original intended purpose for domains registered by commercial organizations...
, .net
.net
The domain name net is a generic top-level domain used in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The name is derived from network, indicating its originally intended purpose for organizations involved in networking technologies, such as Internet service providers and other infrastructure companies...
, and .org
.org
The domain name org is a generic top-level domain of the Domain Name System used in the Internet. The name is derived from organization....
. Playing on the phonetic similarity between nu and new, it was promoted as a "new" TLD in which there was an abundance of good domain names available.
Administration
Internet Niue (formerly 'Internet Users Society - Niue') administers the TLD in order to provide a number of local services for Niue itself. IUSN funds the island's internet connection; provides complimentary PCs and internet connectivity for all residents; and in 2003 established free use WiFi hotspots at various locations throughout the country, claiming to be the "first WiFi nation".Usage of .nu
The .nu domain is particularly popular in SwedenSweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, as nu is the word for "now" in Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
, Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
and Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
. Partially owing to restrictive domain rules for the ccTLD assigned to Sweden, .se
.se
.se is the Internet country code top-level domain for Sweden . The top domain is operated by .SE , but domains must be registered through one of the approved registrars. .SE is a foundation and is managed on the basis of its charter of foundation and its statutes...
, .nu was used for creative marketing of website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
s such as www.tv.nu.
Internationalised domains
In March 2000, .NU Domain Ltd became the first TLD to offer registration of Internationalized domain nameInternationalized domain name
An internationalized domain name is an Internet domain name that contains at least one label that is displayed in software applications, in whole or in part, in a language-specific script or alphabet, such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi or the Latin alphabet-based characters with diacritics,...
s, supporting the full Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
character set. Unlike other TLDs, no browser plugin or punycode
Punycode
In computing, Punycode is an instance of a general encoding syntax by which a string of Unicode characters is transformed uniquely and reversibly into a smaller, restricted character set....
capable browser was required on the client side for use of these names, as .NU Domain's web servers converted and redirected any web queries issued in a variety of international character encodings. However, in March 2010, .NU Domain announced at ICANN that they had recently disabled their general wildcard domain name resolution technology, and thus were implementing IDNs only by the now standard punycode implemention, and were reducing the accepted set of IDN characters for .NU Domain names to a subset of the ISO-8859-1
ISO/IEC 8859-1
ISO/IEC 8859-1:1998, Information technology — 8-bit single-byte coded graphic character sets — Part 1: Latin alphabet No. 1, is part of the ISO/IEC 8859 series of ASCII-based standard character encodings, first edition published in 1987. It is informally referred to as Latin-1. It is generally...
western European characters.
Domain revocation policy
.NU domain names are revoked without refund for displaying child porn, being involved with phishing, spamming, email theft, search engine abuse, or any unlawful purpose. Various domains such as vous.nu and por.nu return "THIS DOMAIN NAME HAS BEEN REVOKED BY .NU DOMAIN" and are not available for registration on .NUdomains' site.Pricing
Domain names can be as short as one character. A premium of €500/yr applies to name registrations of one character in length, €250 for domain names of two-character length, and €30 per year for domain names of any other length, although alternate registrars have two-letter domain names available for the price of normal length names. In June, 2008, .NU Domain began permitting registration of all-numeric domain names.Litigation
A 2005 UDRP case regarding nudomain.com made the assertion under "Factual background" that "The Complainants [WorldNames, Inc. and NU Domain Ltd] own and operate the .NU ccTLD". The companies in question are operating the registry for .nu on behalf of the Internet Users Society, but it is incorrect to state that they "own" the TLD, as TLDs in general are delegated and managed rather than "owned". The case does, however, point out that these companies own a registered trademark to ".nudomain" in several countries.McAfee SiteAdvisor
In March 2007, McAfee SiteAdvisorMcAfee SiteAdvisor
SiteAdvisor is a service that reports on the safety of web sites by crawling the web and testing the sites it finds for malware and spam. The service was originally developed by SiteAdvisor, Inc, an MIT startup first introduced at CodeCon on February 10, 2006 and later acquired by McAfee on April...
issued a report explaining the functionality of SiteAdvisor. As part of that report, .nu domain websites were stated to be among the highest-risk TLDs for browser exploits. However, in most other respects, .nu sites were ranked overall as a low to moderate risk. Shortly thereafter, .NU Domain issued a press release stating that SiteAdvisor had ranked .nu sites among the lowest for risk. In 2008 McAfee
McAfee
McAfee, Inc. is a computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. It markets software and services to home users, businesses and the public sector. On August 19, 2010, electronics company Intel agreed to purchase McAfee for $7.68 billion...
reported that .net
.net
The domain name net is a generic top-level domain used in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The name is derived from network, indicating its originally intended purpose for organizations involved in networking technologies, such as Internet service providers and other infrastructure companies...
and .com
.com
The domain name com is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from commercial, indicating its original intended purpose for domains registered by commercial organizations...
had become the riskiest TLDs.
External links
- IANA WHOIS record for .nu
- Internet Niue (organisation's URL before rebranding)
- Niue is dead. Long live .nu!, The RegisterThe RegisterThe Register is a British technology news and opinion website. It was founded by John Lettice, Mike Magee and Ross Alderson in 1994 as a newsletter called "Chip Connection", initially as an email service...
- Official website of the government of Niue