de

.de is the [country code top-level domain] (ccTLD) for the [Federal Republic of Germany] . [DENIC] (the [Network Information Centre] responsible for .de domains) does not require specific [second-level domain] s, as it is the case with the [.uk] domain range for example.

The name is based on the first two letters of the [German] name for Germany ( Deutschland ). Prior to 1989, East Germany had a separate [ISO 3166-1] code ( dd ), and had a largely inactive ccTLD, [.dd]

.de is currently the second most popular ccTLD in terms of number of registrations, after [.cn] , and is third after [.com] and [.cn] among all TLDs.

The first point of registration for .de domains was at the Department of Computer Science of the [University of Dortmund] . uni-dortmund.de was among the first registered .de-domains.

.de registrations may be directly ordered from [DENIC] but it is faster and cheaper to do so via a [DENIC] member ( [registrar] ).

As of 23 October 2009, DENIC allowed the registration of single- and two-letter domains as well as number-only domains.

Registrations of [internationalized domain name] s are also accepted so that all [diacritics of German] may be used. The eszett, [ß] , cannot be registered, however, as existing internet infrastructure will automatically replace it with ss in any web address.