At least one dot-com crunch will be ending soon. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers last week selected seven new top-level domains, ranging from .biz to .museum, to allow individuals and businesses to create new online addresses.
The selections culminated a five-year effort to add new top-level domains and relieve the shortage of available names ending in .com. The move creates competition for VeriSign (VRSN)'s Network Solutions (dossier) unit, which runs the registry of .com addresses. The sponsors of the new domain names will manage their respective registries.
The ICANN board of directors approved only seven out of 44 proposed domains. But they say they hope to add many more in the future if the first round of new names proceeds smoothly.
The new domains will be: .biz, restricted to businesses; .info, open to all comers; .name, reserved for personal registrations by name; .pro, set aside for licensed professionals like lawyers, doctors and accountants; .aero, for anything related to air transport; .museum, limited to museums; and .coop, for cooperative businesses like credit unions.
Before the new domains open for business, sponsors must negotiate terms and conditions of their use with ICANN. That process is scheduled to last at least until the end of the year.
The selection process was not without controversy. ICANN selected the .info proposal backed by Afilias, a consortium of 19 firms - including Network Solutions - that register names in .com. Critics of Network Solutions had called on ICANN to reject the bid because of Network Solution's involvement. But ICANN's board approved the bid after learning that Network Solutions owned just 5 percent of Afilias and would not operate the registry for .info.
Others were unhappy that Afilias plans to give trademark holders an exclusive period to register trademarked names before the domain is opened to the general public.
Beleaguered domain registrar Register.com (RCOM) could get a boost from ICANN's decisions. The New York-based company, which has seen its stock price slip from a high of $116 in March to less than $8 last week, was a primary sponsor of the .pro domain and a participant in the .info bid by Afilias.
ICANN's board also selected WorldCom executive Vint Cerf to replace Esther Dyson as the group's chairman.
