On Friday, USA.gov started allowing bit.ly to produce 1.USA.gov URLs whenever anyone uses bit.ly to shorten a .gov or .mil URL. A few people have asked why the short URLs use subdomains of USA.gov rather than 1.gov or go.gov. People asked the same question when USA.gov launched Go.USA.gov.

The reason is usability. While every character counts in a short URL, the purpose of USA.gov’s short URLs is to help the end user—the person who actually sees and clicks on the URL—to know what they’re dealing with.

While the United States owns the .gov top level domain, .gov is used as the official second level domain of many countries, including China and India. It is not reasonable to expect that most people understand the nuances of the domain name system and understand what each part of a URL represents.

Keeping USA.gov in the URL, while sacrificing a few characters, makes it 100% clear to people worldwide that the link will take them to official U.S. government information.

As a bonus, because Go.USA.gov and 1.USA.gov include USA.gov in their URLs, you can now search Twitter for USA.gov and any keyword to find timely conversations happening around official U.S. government information. Try it out: here’s a search for USA.gov and gas.

Here’s a list of countries that use gov as the official second level domain for their government websites, taken from the Public Suffix List:

1. gov.ac – Ascension Island
2. gov.ae – United Arab Emirates
3. gov.af – Afghanistan
4. gov.al – Albania
5. gov.as – American Samoa
6. gov.au – Australia
7. gov.az – Azerbaijan
8. gov.ba – Bosnia
9. gov.bb – Barbados
10. gov.bf – Burkina Faso
11. gov.bm – Bermuda
12. gov.bo – Bolivia
13. gov.br – Brazil
14. gov.bs – Bahamas
15. gov.bt – Bhutan
16. gov.by – Belarus
17. gov.bz – Belize
18. gov.cl – Chile
19. gov.cm – Cameroon
20. gov.cn – China
21. gov.co – Colombia
22. gov.cu – Cuba
23. gov.cx – Christmas Island
24. gov.dm – Dominica
25. gov.dz – Algeria
26. gov.ec – Ecuador
27. gov.ee – Estonia
28. gov.ge – Georgia
29. gov.gg – Guersney
30. gov.gh – Ghana
31. gov.gi – Gibraltar
32. gov.gn – Guinea
33. gov.gr – Greece
34. gov.hk – Hong Kong
35. gov.ie – Ireland
36. gov.im – Isle of Man
37. gov.in – India
38. gov.iq – Iraq
39. gov.ir – Iran
40. gov.is – Iceland
41. gov.it – Italy
42. gov.je – Jersey
43. gov.jo – Jordan
44. gov.kg – Kyrgyzstan
45. gov.ki – Kiribati
46. gov.km – Comoros
47. gov.kn – Sanit Kitts and Nevis
48. gov.kp – Kim Jong Il’s place
49. gov.ky – Cayman Islands
50. gov.kz – Kazakhstan
51. gov.la – Laos
52. gov.lb – Lebanon
53. gov.lc – Saint Lucia
54. gov.lk – Sri Lanka
55. gov.lr – Liberia
56. gov.lt – Lituania
57. gov.lv – Latvia
58. gov.ly – Libya
59. gov.ma – Morocco
60. gov.me – Montenegro
61. gov.mg – Madagascar
62. gov.mk – Republic of Macedonia
63. gov.ml – Mali
64. gov.mn – Mongolia
65. gov.mo – Macau
66. gov.mr – Mauritania
67. gov.mu – Mauritius
68. gov.mv – Maldives
69. gov.mw – Malawi
70. gov.my – Malaysia
71. gov.nc.tr – Turkey
72. gov.ng – Nigeria
73. gov.nr – Nauru
74. gov.ph – Philppines
75. gov.pk – Pakistan
76. gov.pl – Poland
77. gov.pn – Pitcairn Islands
78. gov.pr – Puerto Rico
79. gov.ps – Palestinian territories
80. gov.pt – Portugal
81. gov.rs – Serbia
82. gov.ru – Russia
83. gov.rw – Rwanda
84. gov.sa – Saudi Arabia
85. gov.sb – Solomon Islands
86. gov.sc – Seychelles (which has the best flag)
87. gov.sd – Sudan
88. gov.sg – Singapore
89. gov.sl – Sierra Leone
90. gov.st – São Tomé and Príncipe
91. gov.sy – Syria
92. gov.tj – Tajikistan
93. gov.tl – East Timor
94. gov.tn – Tunisia
95. gov.to – Tonga
96. gov.tt – Trinidad and Tobago
97. gov.tw – Taiwan
98. gov.ua – Ukraine
99. gov.vc – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
100. gov.vn – Vietnam
101. gov.ws – Samoa

Bonus .gouvs!

• gouv.bj – Benin
• gouv.fr – France
• gouv.ht – Haiti
• gouv.km – Comoros
• gouv.ml – Mali
• gouv.rw – Rwanda
• gouv.sn – Senegal