Most countries have been assigned a top-level domain, i.e., .US (United States).  These domain names operate outside the direct supervision of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numers ("ICANN").  Previously the U.S. Government only issued .US domain names to state and local government agencies.  Recently the U.S. Government decided to change its policy and it is now possible for any U.S. resident, U.S. government entity, U.S. public serivce organization and business to establish an identity on the Internet via a .US domain name.