The Internet just got bigger

After months of deliberation, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has chosen to add seven new top level domains to the current list containing dot-com, dot-org and dot-net.

The new TLDs are dot-biz, dot-info, dot-name, dot-pro, dot-museum, dot-aero and dot-coop.

The TLDs contain a mix that is for both general use, such as dot-info, and restricted use, such as dot-pro, which is limited to doctors, lawyers, accountants and other professionals.

Significant in the decision is the fact that these TLDs’ registries, the authoritative databases that map names within the TLD to IP Address, will now be spread out among several companies. Previously Network Solutions Inc. was the sole registry operator for TLDs. This move, however, is hardly a shock, given that even an NSI spokesman in July said, “a reasonable person would assume” they would not win additional registries.

Competition in the TLD space was in fact one of ICANN’s stated reasons for adding new TLDs. The other stated reasons were increasing the number of available domain names, which it certainly, did and increasing the utility of the TLD system.

The additions also address the problem of utility, said Sloan Gaon, director of business development for Register.com, which, along with Baltimore Technologies and London-based Virtual Internet, submitted and won the bid to operate the dot-pro TLD.

“Dot-pro is targeted at 20 million professionals worldwide including doctors lawyers and accountants,” he said. “It will provide a heightened level of validation and credibility to users on Internet, in that in order for someone to register they will have to provide credentials.”

According to Gaon, the new registries must hammer out the details of their wins over the next few months with ICANN. Most, he predicted, should be available in the first or second quarter of 2001.