Reference no: EM133151228
BASICS; Web Addresses Sprout New Suffixes, Needed or Not
DURING the height of the Internet gold rush, the virtual equivalent of a miner's plot of land was a snappy Web address ending in .com.
At the peak of the frenzy, cybersquatters bought hundreds, even thousands, of prime addresses, hoping to sell them at a profit to latecomers willing to pay exorbitant prices for simple, easy-to-remember names.
This land grab nearly exhausted the pool of .com names; one study determined that a fair number of the generic words in the dictionary had been registered as Web addresses. So the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, which the Commerce Department set up to oversee the Internet's address system, began studying new suffixes to be added to the familiar .com, .net and .org.
After much preparation, the first of seven new extensions, called top-level domains, are finally appearing online, giving businesses and consumers new options when registering Web addresses.
The seven new suffixes include four general domains: .biz, intended for business purposes; .info, open to any use; .name, for registration by individuals, and .pro, for professionals like lawyers, accountants or physicians. The remaining three are sponsored by specific sectors: .museum, to be used by museum groups; .aero, for the air transport industry, and .coop, for co-operative businesses or organizations.
But now that the dot-com frenzy has subsided, it is unclear how urgently the new extensions are needed. Many .com names are returning to the pool as domain resellers stop paying annual registration fees for addresses they snapped up but were unable to sell; others have been relinquished by companies that folded or individuals who abandoned plans to build Web sites.
Despite these uncertainties, the new addresses are already appearing online, along with a growing number of alternatives that exist outside the official domain name system. For those interested in registering a new address or trying to figure out what the new extensions mean, here is a guide to sorting through the alphabet soup.
Registering New Names
Each new domain is managed by a company or organization under contract with Icann.
The company that manages each domain, called a registry, operates the database that translates each name into a numeric address recognized by the computers and routers that move data on the Internet. But the registries do not sell domain names to the public; that task is handled by one of dozens of accredited companies, called registrars, that collect fees for each name and pay a portion to the registry.
Of the new domains, .biz and .info are farthest along the pipeline, having begun accepting applications for addresses over the summer. Some of those new addresses began operating last month.
As is the case with .com, .net and .org addresses, a .biz or .info address can be obtained through an accredited registrar. A list of accredited registrars is available at www.icann.org or at the Web sites run by the registries.
Prices for the new addresses are similar to those of other domains, $10 to $35 a year. Consumers can shop for the best rate. Higher prices do not necessarily mean better service, so check the fine print for services like renewal notification and make sure that there is a phone number and an address for the company, not just an e-mail link.
Early Problems
The registries responsible for .biz and .info, NeuLevel Inc. and Afilias Ltd., respectively, have both had some glitches. Last summer NeuLevel charged a nonrefundable fee of $2 for each .biz address application, intending to select one application at random if there was more than one applicant for an address. That led to a lawsuit, still pending, claiming that the process constituted an illegal lottery. In the meantime, .biz addresses for which there was only one application began functioning in early October. NeuLevel plans to open real-time registration on Wednesday, so that applications will be processed as they are submitted.
Afilias used a different procedure for .info names, allowing trademark owners to submit applications for addresses (Coke.info, for example) before opening the system to the public. Loopholes enabled some people to register .info addresses using false trademark data, though Afilias has promised to challenge those registrations and invalidate any made with false information. Despite that glitch, Afilias opened its system to general registration in September, and .info addresses registered in the preliminary phase began functioning in October. Once again, some domain resellers have been busy buying up names so some .biz and .info addresses have already been taken.
Afilias said that more than 500,000 .info names had been registered. NeuLevel said it had registered 289,000 names during its initial phase, which ended in late September. By comparison, more than 24.3 million .com, 4.9 million .net, and 3.2 million .org addresses have been registered, according to VeriSign, so plenty of choices are left in the new domains.
Next: Dot-Name
The next new domain that may be of interest to consumers is .name, which is intended to offer individuals distinct addresses for their Web sites, in the format john.smith.name. Global Name Registry, the company managing the .name domain, also plans to offer e-mail forwarding services so that .name domain holders can receive e-mail at addresses like [email protected].
Applications for the first round of .name addresses can be submitted to registrars until Nov. 22, and they are priced similarly to those of other domains. Global Name Registry expects the initial .name addresses to begin functioning on Dec. 13.
Alternatives: Outside Domains
Apart from the seven new extensions approved by Icann, some countries have decided to market their two-letter country code domains, designated years ago to reserve a plot in cyberspace for each nation, for use by businesses or consumers. For example, the tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu, which happened to be assigned the extension .tv, licensed the rights to its domain to The .tv Corporation, a company based in Los Angeles. The company (www.tv) charges $50 a year to register a name in the .tv domain but reserves the right to charge ''premium prices'' for what it considers more valuable names.
Partly out of frustration with Icann's process for introducing new domains, New.net, a company based in Pasadena, Calif., has introduced a set of addresses that exist outside the official domain name system. So far, New.net has introduced more than 80 extensions in English and five other languages, including such options as .church, .family, .club and .kids.
New.net charges $35 a year for each registration, and the company said it has registered ''tens of thousands'' of names. Addresses can be registered at the company's Web site (www.new.net) or through registrars that have agreed to register the names. But here is the catch: because New.net functions outside the official domain name system, only Internet users who download a browser plug-in or subscribe to a service provider that has adopted New.net's technology can view sites at these addresses. The company says it has deals with five of the seven leading Internet service providers in the United States, but not America Online or the Microsoft Network, the two largest.
Icann will consider adding extensions to the official domain name system. But that is not likely to happen anytime soon. And depending on how the first seven extensions fare, there may be no reason to hurry.
- What is a cybersquatter? What was the internet gold rush? Shy did cybersquatters buy web addresses during the internet gold rush?
- Why has the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ICANN) issued new domain extensions?
- What are the four general domains now available?
- According to the article, who manages the domains? Who sells domain names to the public?
- What problems have the registries managing .biz and .info encountered, according to the article?
- According to the article, what advantage does a .name domain offer consumers?
- In addition to the extensions approved by ICANN, what other domain extensions are available worldwide?
- How has new.net gotten around the ICANN-approved extension? What does a user need to use the domains registered by this company?