{"slug": "did-you-know-tlds-can-be-websites", "title": "Did You Know TLDs Can Be Websites?", "summary": "A developer discovered that some top-level domains (TLDs) can host websites by adding DNS records directly to the TLD apex. Examples include the .ai TLD, which previously hosted a web server, and the .uz TLD, which currently serves a website. The finding highlights an obscure technical capability of DNS infrastructure.", "body_md": "You've probably registered a domain with [Route53](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/domain-register.html?trk=02c7b25c-78f4-4968-8fa2-241bdf0bcf97&sc_channel=el) or another popular registrar.\n\nYou pick something like `seanboult.dev`\n\n, spin up a [web server](https://builder.aws.com/content/3BfvbBpwbonTDicuPTMLZBTt4Br/deploy-a-web-server-to-the-cloud?trk=02c7b25c-78f4-4968-8fa2-241bdf0bcf97&sc_channel=el), configure your A record, attach a TLS cert, and boom it's [live](https://seanboult.dev).\n\nWell in the past, before the AI boom, there once was a web server on `.ai`\n\nand it made its way to [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28253928).\n\nThis was a cool relic that always intrigued me. Here is a snapshot from the [Wayback Machine](https://web.archive.org/web/20160729161050/http://ai/).\n\nWell now you're like wait, I can't go to [http://ai](http://ai) today? No, sadly at some point the A record was removed and the web server was shut down.\n\nDon't worry though, at the time of writing this I found another one.\n\nWell without further ado, here it is! [https://uz](https://uz).\n\nSeems the TLS cert does not match the common name so you'll have to force your way in...\n\nSo how does this work?\n\nWell, the same way you can add an A record to the apex of your domain (such as example.com), a registry operator can add DNS records directly to the apex of a Top-Level Domain zone, such as `.uz`\n\nin this case.\n\nWould love to know if you find more like this, leave a reply if you do.\n\nIf we ever did one on `.aws`\n\nwhat would you like to see there 🤔?\n\nAs always, happy happy coding 😉!\n\nFollow AWS for more articles like this.\n\nFollow me for all things tech\n\n.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/did-you-know-tlds-can-be-websites", "canonical_source": "https://dev.to/aws/did-you-know-tlds-can-be-websites-2j13", "published_at": "2026-07-16 19:41:43+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-16 20:02:51.767778+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["developer-tools"], "entities": ["Route53", "AWS", "Hacker News", "Wayback Machine"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/did-you-know-tlds-can-be-websites", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/did-you-know-tlds-can-be-websites.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/did-you-know-tlds-can-be-websites.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/did-you-know-tlds-can-be-websites.jsonld"}}