Introduced 1994 Registry KazNIC | Status Active | |
TLD type Country code top-level domain Sponsor Association of IT Companies of Kazakhstan Intended use Entities connected with Kazakhstan | ||
.kz and .қаз (abbreviation of Kazakh: Қазақстан, Qazaqstan) are the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Kazakhstan.
Contents
Registrations can be made directly at the second level (with no requirement of Kazakhstan presence) or at the third level beneath categories which have specific restrictions, and are generally limited to Kazakhstan-related entities.
Second-level domains
In June 2011, Google redirected all traffic from google.kz to google.com in response to a demand issued by the Kazakh Ministry of Communications and Information that requires all .kz domain names to operate on physical servers within the borders of Kazakhstan. Senior Vice President Bill Coughran said "creating borders on the web raises important questions for us not only about network efficiency but also about user privacy and free expression." By hosting google.kz only on servers inside Kazakhstan, "we would be helping to create a fractured Internet."
.қаз
A second country code top-level domain, .қаз ("qaz") for Kazakhstan is now active. It is used with web addresses using Cyrillic letters. It was launched in March 2012, when the first site, a test site, http://Тест.қаз ("test.qaz") was activated.
Own second level domains are allowed, but there are also the following standardized second-level domains:
Some second-level domains have been reserved in a prioritized manner, such as президент.қаз ("prezident.qaz"). Between May 1, 2012 to July 31, 2012, companies and trademark holders could apply for their names.