Wa.gov domain now available to cities and counties

Wa.gov domain now available to cities and counties

City and county governments in Washington now have the option of using the .wa.gov domain name space for their websites. This domain was previously only available to state agencies, boards, and commissions.

The Washington State Department of Information Services (DIS) is offering the name space through a partnership with the Association of Washington Cities (AWC) to simplify government domain names by creating a common entry point into the city and county name space. DIS manages the .wa.gov name for the United States General Services Administration (GSA).

Prior to 2003, the GSA did not allow cities and counties to use .gov, prompting several Washington cities to use www.cityname.wa.us and other alternatives. Once the use of .gov was expanded to local government, many municipalities adopted www.cityname-wa.gov, registered through the GSA. Counties devised similar formats for their website domain names.

Yet, -wa.gov differs slightly from the well-known .wa.gov used by a multitude of state government agencies, and many cities desired the .wa.gov alternative, hence the partnership formed with DIS by the AWC.

Cities and counties may use whatever domain they wish. For more information on the .wa.gov name space, cities can visit the AWC web site at awcnet.org. Counties may call the DIS Service Desk at 360-753-2453.