.cern

Overview

• .cern is a brand generic top-level domain (gTLD) applied for and delegated under ICANN's New gTLD Program.
• It represents the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), intended to identify CERN-related Internet resources and services.

History

• Application and reveal: .cern was applied for as part of the New gTLD Program (reveal day referenced 13 June 2012).
• Contract: A Registry Agreement with ICANN was signed on 5 June 2014 after passing Initial Evaluation.
• Delegation: The .cern string was delegated to the DNS Root Zone on 16 August 2014 (implementation date recorded as 16 August 2014).
• Registry details: ICANNWiki lists Afilias as the registry operator; the application materials and summary describe CERN as managing the TLD and acting as the registry/sponsoring organization.

Usage and Audience

• Primary holder: Initially configured as a single-registrant TLD — only CERN itself is eligible to register domain names under .cern.
• Community: Intended to serve CERN and its associated community, including the organization's members, researchers and institutional services.
• Future scope: The applicant indicated the possibility of opening registrations to selected third parties in the future, if CERN decides to do so.

Registration Rules

• Single-registrant model: At launch, registrations are restricted to CERN as the sole registrant.
• Potential opening: The applicant stated that, should registrations be opened to third parties later, registry operations would be organized to avoid multiple applications for the same domain name.

SEO and Brand Impact

• Brand positioning: As a brand gTLD operated/managed by CERN, .cern is designed to reinforce CERN's institutional identity and trust associated with the organization.
• Intended signal: Use of .cern domains signals an official association with CERN and its activities, aligning web presence with the organization's brand and community.

% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       CERN

organisation: European Organization for Nuclear Research ("CERN")
address:      Route de Meyrin
address:      Geneve CH-1211
address:      Switzerland

contact:      administrative
name:         Andreas Wagner
organisation: European Organization for Nuclear Research ("CERN")
address:      Route de Meyrin
address:      Meyrin Geneve CH-1211
address:      Switzerland
phone:        +41 22 767 4888
e-mail:       cern.gtld@cern.ch

contact:      technical
name:         Senior Director, DNS Infrastructure Group
organisation: Afilias
address:      300 Welsh Road
address:      Building 3, Suite 105
address:      Horsham PA 19044
address:      United States of America (the)
phone:        +1 215.706.5700
fax-no:       +1 215.706.5701
e-mail:       tld-tech-poc@afilias.info

nserver:      A0.NIC.CERN 2a01:8840:da:0:0:0:0:1 65.22.224.1
nserver:      A2.NIC.CERN 2a01:8840:dd:0:0:0:0:1 65.22.227.1
nserver:      B0.NIC.CERN 2a01:8840:db:0:0:0:0:1 65.22.225.1
nserver:      C0.NIC.CERN 2a01:8840:dc:0:0:0:0:1 65.22.226.1
ds-rdata:     20371 8 2 5a48eab25c4cf4978949d677c182876c48a6c5b7e2282926a954e8e9c8bec393

whois:        whois.nic.cern

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.cern.ch

created:      2014-08-13
changed:      2023-08-22
source:       IANA