Registrations are permitted at the second level or at the third level beneath various generic second level categories.
Some qualifications and restrictions apply to third-level registrations depending on which second-level domain they are within.
Second-level registrations have had some limitations including requiring registrants to have a connection with Spain, but these restrictions were lifted in a multi-stage process completed by the end of 2005, at which point registrations at the second level of .es were open to anybody worldwide.[citation needed]
Until the liberalization in November 2005, registering in .es was expensive and encumbered compared to other ccTLDs.
The second-level word had to be either atrade mark valid in Spain, the exact name of the registering business or association, or the first name andat least the first surname of the registering individual.
Common words and placenames were unregisterable.
There was also a requirement of a minimum of three characters in the name, though some exceptions likehp.es (Hewlett-Packard Spain) andpp.es (People's Party) were allowed.
As an alternative, many Spanish organizations registered under.com,.org or.net. While beinggeneric top-level domains, organisations may also use one or more other regional variants below[2]:
Although very popular in Spain for its intended use, .es has been used fordomain hacks such as geociti.es, a website mirroringGeocities; adspac.es, a mobile-based advertising firm; thelettervsixtim.es, for the gameVVVVVV; and iTun.es foriTunes Ping URL shortening.
