SPECIAL PROJECTS

NEWSFLASH: .INFO/.BIZ

October will see the launch of two top level domains (TLD): .info and .biz.

First up is .info, which has no restrictions on registering a site with the .info extension. Next in line is .biz, which is for businesses. That was clear enough. Will organizations queue up to buy new domain names? Will they register their current name with a new extension?

Answers: 'maybe' for the first question and 'probably' for the second, especially if the name is trademarked. How many users will take up the new TLDs and how quickly? How soon will search engines add the new TLDs to their drop down boxes and advanced search pages? Will the new TLDs ease or complicate our ability to design targeted searches on the Web?

This researcher is going to test some search engines later this fall to better answer some of these questions.

Actually, there are five more new top level domain extensions that will become available. Nic.net (http://www.nic.net) explains the use of the new extensions:

.NAME - Second-level names such as jones.name would be reserved and then offered to individuals registering dan.jones.name or patrick.jones.name. It is not clear how the Global will handle multiple individuals with the same first names (e.g., Dan Jones).

.AERO - aviation groups

.MUSEUM - the suffix for accredited museums worldwide.

.COOP - for business cooperatives such as credit unions and rural coops. The suffix would be available for members of those groups.

.PRO - for professionals. Attorney Dan Jones, for example, could register as DanJones.law.pro. Individuals would have to prove their professional status. Existing .com, .net and .org addresses do not require that documentation.

To learn more about top level domains, go to The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) at http://www.icann.org.

Keep your browser tuned to Internet Prospector for more news on the new TLDs.

Pamela J. Smith

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