Dutch firm bets on browser to free net of suffixes

HELSINKI, FINLAND: A Dutch technology company has emerged as a front-runner in a project to rid the Internet of limited number of suffixes such as .com, and offer single names which can be countries, company names or fantasy words.

Such a system, which enables countries, individuals and firms to have a Web address which consists of a single name, offers flexibility and is language and character independent.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which operates the root servers of the Internet guiding all Web traffic, has been working for years on a similar plan as it determines which suffixes, known as top-level domains (TLDs), are recognized by those root servers.

A root server is a master list of all top-level domain names, such as .com, .net, .org, and individual country codes, made available to all routers.

Earlier this month ICANN said there was pent-up demand for freeing suffixes, but delayed the plan to approve them into 2011.

To bypass the ICANN system Amsterdam-based UnifiedRoot has created browser SunDial, which enables web users to visit web sites associated with Unifiedroot TLDs, as well as all web sites registered in the ICANN system.

"We expect in short term that other browsers will also adopt our solution," Erik Seeboldt, managing director of UnifiedRoot, said in an interview.

So far free SunDial browser has been downloaded more than 15,000 times directly from UnifiedRoot, but Seeboldt said due to different other firms distributing the browser total downloads were unknown.

{#PageBreak#}

Seeboldt said he was convinced leading browser providers -- such as Microsoft, Mozilla and Google -- would tweak their software to allow access to UnifiedRoot domains.

"When there is traffic other browsers start to come to us," he said.

UnifiedRoot offers practically unlimited numbers of suffixes, unlike the short list of suffixes currently in use.

Seeboldt said first 7-8 new root domains using new suffixes would open in early 2011.

Its offer is different from other "alternative root" providers such as New.net which offers to register names in front of a small range of new suffixes, such as .golf or .law.

Critics argue alternative root companies such as UnifiedRoot introduce ambiguity because they bring a new set of traffic rules to the Web which are, certainly in the beginning, only recognized by a limited number of computers around the world.

To avoid conflicts between top level domains from UnifiedRoot and ICANN, the Dutch company will not register existing ICANN TLDs, and it informs ICANN of any names registered into its system.

Seeboldt said the communication between UnifiedRoot and ICANN has been mostly one-way.

"It seems they are not taking us very seriously," he said.

A spokesman for ICANN said parallel platforms like UnifiedRoot had a limited scope.

"While these systems might indeed function, it's important to note that many are not part of a single root, which to a large extent defines the Internet, its global reach and true value," he said.