In this context, the word hack denotes a clever trick (as in programming), not an exploit or break-in (as in security).
This makes them potentially valuable as redirectors, pastebins, base domains from which to delegate subdomains and URL shortening services.
Working with Bit.ly, The New York Times launched an URL shortener in late 2009 under the domain nyti.ms using the ccTLD of Montserrat.
[14] In March 2010, National Public Radio launched its own URL shortener under the domain n.pr using the ccTLD of Puerto Rico.
In late 2010, Apple launched a URL shortener at the domain itun.es, using the ccTLD of Spain, in a similar move to Google's goo.gl.
Spotify also uses the URL Shortener spoti.fi, using the ccTLD of Finland, to link to artist, partners, playlists, albums and songs.
Some prominent examples include: rome.ro (John Romero), melan.ie (Melanie C), sive.rs (Derek Sivers) and nav.al (Naval Ravikant).
While there is technically no restriction, these domain hacks tend to limit themselves to using only ccTLDs that are words in-and-of-itself, such as the aforementioned Italy as well as Iceland (.is) and Montenegro (.me).
The third-level domains del.icio.us, cr.yp.to and e.xplo.it make use of the SLDs icio.us, yp.to and xplo.it from the ccTLDs .us (United States), .to (Tonga) and .it (Italy) to spell "delicious", "crypto" and "exploit" respectively.
In some cases, an entire ccTLD has been re-purposed in its international marketing, such as .am (Armenia), .fm (Federated States of Micronesia), .cd (Democratic Republic of the Congo), .dj (Djibouti), and .tv (Tuvalu) for sites delivering various forms of audiovisual content.
In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, the domain .ag for Antigua and Barbuda is used by corporations in the legal form of Aktiengesellschaft (commonly abbreviated as AG).
The American Samoa domain .as is popular in countries where AS or A/S (Aktieselskab/Aksjeselskap) is the legal suffix for stock-based corporations, such as in Denmark and Norway, where such companies frequently employ it.
In Italy some TLDs are identical to Italian Provinces' identifier, such as .to (Turin) or .tv (Treviso) and are thus extensively used for web domains in the area.
The addition of -je to most nouns also produces a diminutive form (e.g., huis.je, or the defunct iPhone app feest.je (feestje meaning "party").
English words that end with -rs (e.g., cars, fixers, powers) provide means for another popular domain hack which utilizes the Serbian .rs ccTLD.
Notably, Czech file sharing service uloz.to was founded in 2007, and its name ulož to means "save it".
Additionally, the domain is attractive to speakers of Romance languages, because it is a conjunction, pronoun or an affirmative interjection in many.
In Spanish and Portuguese, -ar is the ending of the infinitive of many verbs, so hacks with Argentina's TLD .ar are common (e.g., educ.ar, meaning "to educate").