ccTLD, for those do not know, most commonly stands for Country Code Top Level Domains. These domains are used to specify the region in which the domain is hosted or the region the site is about. Like a .in domain, in which “.in” stands for India, should be a website about India, or hosted in India. Although, someone may make a website and not be in India, that is fine. More importantly, in my opinion, these domains are useless.

The internet was started by the United States Department of Defense and it spread quickly throughout the entire world. However, the first few tld’s to be proposed for commerical use were .com, .net and .org being the most common today. All of a sudden, these new ccTlds are being put in use, and I think they are useless. Without analyzing specifics, as I will later on in this article, let’s look at some ccTlds:

.ac  .ad  .ae  .af  .ag  .ai  .al  .am  .an  .ao  .aq  .ar  .as  .at  .au  .aw  .ax  .az  .ba  .bb  .bd  .be  .bf  .bg  .bh  .bi  .bj  .bm  .bn  .bo  .br  .bs  .bt  .bw  .by  .bz  .ca  .cc  .cd  .cf  .cg  .ch  .ci  .ck  .cl  .cm  .cn  .co  .cr  .cu  .cv  .cx  .cy  .cz  .de  .dj  .dk  .dm  .do  .dz  .ec  .ee  .eg  .er  .es  .et  .eu  .fi  .fj  .fk  .fm  .fo  .fr  .ga  .gd  .ge  .gf  .gg  .gh  .gi  .gl  .gm  .gn  .gp  .gq  .gr  .gs  .gt  .gu  .gw  .gy  .hk  .hm  .hn  .hr  .ht  .hu  .id  .ie  .il  .im  .in  .io  .iq  .ir  .is  .it  .je  .jm  .jo  .jp  .ke  .kg  .kh  .ki  .km  .kn  .kp  .kr  .kw  .ky  .kz  .la  .lb  .lc  .li  .lk  .lr  .ls  .lt  .lu  .lv  .ly  .ma  .mc  .md  .me  .mg  .mh  .mk  .ml  .mm  .mn  .mo  .mp  .mq  .mr  .ms  .mt  .mu  .mv  .mw  .mx  .my  .mz  .na  .nc  .ne  .nf  .ng  .ni  .nl  .no  .np  .nr  .nu  .nz  .om  .pa  .pe  .pf  .pg  .ph  .pk  .pl  .pn  .pr  .ps  .pt  .pw  .py  .qa  .re  .ro  .rs  .ru  .rw  .sa  .sb  .sc  .sd  .se  .sg  .sh  .si  .sk  .sl  .sm  .sn  .sr  .st  .su  .sv  .sy  .sz  .tc  .td  .tf  .tg  .th  .tj  .tk  .tl  .tm  .tn  .to  .tr  .tt  .tv  .tw  .tz  .ua  .ug  .uk  .us  .uy  .uz  .va  .vc  .ve  .vg  .vi  .vn  .vu  .wf  .ws  .ye  .za  .zm  .zw

Complete list of definitions and regions can be accessed at: http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/

Obviously because the IANA allowed these ccTLDs to be put into circulation, they must have thought they may have some use. But it could have been to just be equal to all other countries. In reality, these domains are nothing more than just showcase domains to make everyone happy, and of course google has google regged at almost all of these ccTLDs.

As a domainer, I was once offered to buy Darfur.in. I instantly was interested in this domain considering the huge genocide going on in Darfur, and how this domain could be developed to help everyone and possibly sell it. (I thought this was ethical because I would be using the domain for good, and not exploiting the genocide.)  But back to the point, I loved the idea and the price of $13. Then I thought to myself, oh wait, it was .in domain. Why would I want to buy a domain with the subject of a location in Africa, with a ccTLd of India, thousands of miles away.

I asked the seller why I should buy this domain, testing the seller’s salesman skills, and he said that some people in India will be concerned. Not the answer for me. I never bought the domain.

If a company is going to start a website, I see no reason to use a ccTLD when the main TLD is .com. In the event that the name of their company isn’t available in the .com, go .net or modify your name. The actual name of domain matters much less, in most cases, than the content of the website. However most people are most prone to type in .com at the end. A government agency, or a big organization may want to have their ccTLD dependant on their country, but it is also important to secure the .com.

With all of this in mind, I see no reasoning to ccTlds in general.