Domain hacks: country codes the internet adopted
Some two-letter country codes became famous for what they spell, not where they are. Here is every ccTLD that picked up a second meaning, and the country that still owns it.
.io British Indian Ocean Territory · input/output
.ai Anguilla · artificial intelligence
.si Slovenia · superintelligence
.co Colombia · company, or a short alternative to .com
.me Montenegro · personal sites and "about me" pages
.tv Tuvalu · television, video and streaming
.fm Micronesia · FM radio, podcasts and audio
.gg Guernsey · "good game"
.ly Libya · English adverbs and link shorteners (think bit.ly)
.al Albania · words ending in -al, like "digit.al", "glob.al" or "person.al"
.sh Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha · shell scripts and developer tools
.md Moldova · Markdown
.am Armenia · AM radio and audio brands
.so Somalia · short, punchy brand names
.to Tonga · action names like "go.to" and "how.to"
.ws Samoa · "website" or "world site"
.cc Cocos (Keeling) Islands · a short, generic-looking alternative
.nu Niue · "now" in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch
.is Iceland · English sentences like "this.is"
.it Italy · phrases like "do.it" and "make.it"
.la Laos · Los Angeles
.im Isle of Man · instant messaging and "I am"
.ac Ascension Island · academic and research projects
.vc Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · venture capital
.tk Tokelau · free domains (historically)
.gl Greenland · short links (Google ran goo.gl for years)
.cm Cameroon · catching .com typos
.us United States · words ending in -us, like "plus" or "campus"
.in India · words ending in -in, like "login" or "plugin"
.at Austria · phrases like "look.at" and "meet.at"
.be Belgium · "to be" phrases like "let.it.be"