Now, 7 more domain names add to the confusion

Eric Lai

MARINA DEL REY: Soon there will be even more dots to remember, adding to the

Internet's already mind-boggling array of addresses.

The Internet's governing body on Thursday made a big change to the landscape

of the World Wide Web, approving seven new Web site domain names to complement

the existing list topped by .com, .net, .org and .gov.

Out of the 44 applications, the board of the Internet Corporation for

Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) chose .biz, .info, .name, .pro, .museum,

.aero and .coop - and rejected a slew of other options hotly debated by industry

players.

The choice of the new domain names, which are expected to become available to

businesses and consumers by the middle of next year, culminates a drawn-out

process for setting the next stage of growth on the Internet.

"This is a first giant step for domain-kind," said Esther Dyson,

chairperson of ICANN.

Major companies involved in winning bids to operate the huge databases

holding Web site addresses, also called registries, included VeriSign Inc.,

which currently enjoys a near-monopoly as the sole registry operator for all

domain names not ending in a country suffix, International Business Machines

Corp. and Register.com , a fast-growing US reseller of Web site addresses.

Some of the new domain names, like .info and .name, will be open to almost

anyone to register starting by the middle of next year. Others, such as .museum,

and .biz, will be restricted to members of companies or relevant fields.

No dot Web, for now



One of the most vied-for domain names, .web, was at the last moment taken out of
the "approved" basket because of a controversy over the ownership.

Affilias, a consortium of big companies including VeriSign, was wrangling with a

small California company, Image Online Design Inc., which said it registered

tens of thousands of users for .web in the past several years due to what it

claims was a prior agreement.

An impassioned speech by Vint Cerf, an ICANN board member who was later

elected new board chairman on behalf of Image Online, helped sway the board at

the last moment, which granted Affilias the .info domain name, considered to be

a less popular domain name, instead.

For observers, the climb-down symbolized a small victory for the original

spirit of the Internet, represented here by the ponytailed techies and

entrepreneurs, over the encroachment of big businesses.

The new domains will likely lead to a price reduction. Domain names typically

cost $35 per year. Companies that won the new domains will compete head-on with

VeriSign Inc., which via its $20 billion acquisition of Network Solutions, Inc.

earlier this year has a near-monopoly on the registration of domain names.

There are more than an estimated 25 million top-level domain names, nearly

all of them ending in .com or .net. There is a much smaller list of

country-level domain names, which end in country suffixes like .cn for China or

.uk for Britain.

Critics say the fact that only seven top-level domain name suffixes now exist

has directly led to trademark disputes between similar-sounding companies, and

rampant speculation by cybersquatters hoping to cash in on valuable names. The

new domain names should give alternatives to companies victimized by

cybersquatters, said Ken Hansen, an executive with NeuStar Inc., which will

introduce the .biz domain name next year.

Continued...

Embroiled in controversy



ICANN has been embroiled in controversy ever since it was created in 1998 by the
United States government to oversee the domain name system. About half of the

board members were chosen on ICANN's inception, with the other half chosen by

constituencies within ICANN.

That has led to accusations of nepotism, and over-representation by corporate

and big business interests instead of regular Internet users, especially outside

of the United States, and calls for ICANN's abolishment.

To assuage critics, ICANN earlier this year held a direct election via the

Internet for five new board members, who did not start their terms until after

the board meeting. But it is also considering limiting further direct elections

of board members, which prompted some ICANN attendees to wear buttons saying

"Help Stamp Out ICANN Board Squatting".

The board also tried to become more transparent. The final decisions were

made in front of a non-participating but packed audience in a hotel meeting room

here, and were also broadcast over the Internet, where viewers could immediately

post their vociferous reactions on the ICANN Web site or even e-mail the board

members as they agonized.

In choosing new domains to add and the companies to run them, the board said

it was looking for diversity in company size, and region, strength of their

business plan, and their technical proficiency to handle this.

"Competing with .com requires technical ability. You need to emphasize

this, or competition can't exist," said Jun Murai, a member of ICANN's

board.

But some complained that with the emphasis on the financial fitness of the

applicants, ICANN was looking more like a venture capitalist rather than a

non-profit corporation.

"ICANN has become a large gatekeeper deciding who has the right to print

money on the Internet," said Karl Auerbach, a long-time critic of ICANN who

favors adding up to 10,000 new domain name suffixes per year. Auerbach is an

incoming ICANN board member who did not participate in the selection process.

Among the domain names not approved by the board Thursday were .iii, which

would've granted permanent domain names to individuals to make e-mail forwarding

easier, and .kids, as it said it could lead to Web sites with content harmful

rather than beneficial for children. The most surprising omission from the

board's group was the .geo domain name, which would've created a huge

Web-accessible database of businesses and monuments based on location.

(C) Reuters Limited 2000.