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even usps.gov just redirects to usps.com which I feel is a bit of a loss.

Lots of small towns have dot coms when they could have dot gov.



USPS is (since 1970) an Independent Agency rather than an agency of the executive branch. This was sort of a semi-privatization measure that isolates USPS from the federal government, USPS operates mostly as a government-owned independent corporation. There are a number of other independent agencies as well, they way they relate to .gov domains varies. I don't think there's a well-settled policy on whether independent agencies should use .gov domains. Amtrak doesn't, the CIA does, NCUA does, Federal Reserve mostly doesn't (except the board which is a federal agency). I think it depends mostly on brand identity and how much they want to be perceived as private sector vs. government agencies, since independent agencies often straddle a line between the two.


USPS I think from a branding perspectives wants to be compared to retail shipping and not come across and some stuffy/slow bureaucratic agency, even though they totally are.


They’re a lot more functional than UPS or FedEx.


It does feel like the redirect should go the other way around.


Even weirder, https://anpost.ie redirects to https://www.anpost.com/

So apparently the Irish Post Office wants to be seen as an international player?




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