New Domains Get Down to Business

The Internet now has more naming options. Two new top-level domains, .biz and .info, went live on Wednesday, according to a statement released by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

ICANN approved the names last month, but has yet to approve five other TLDs -- .name, .pro, .aero, .coop, and .museum -- which were proposed last November.

These are the first new official TLDs since the original group, including .com and .org, were launched in the 1980s, ICANN says.

Initially, .biz and .info will be used for informational Web sites run by NeuLevel and Afilias, the two companies selected by ICANN to run the TLDs.

Registration of names ending with .biz and .info will be available from September through over 90 accredited registrars, ICANN says in the statement.

ICANN has been criticized in some quarters for being slow to approve new TLDs, as a consequence of its monopoly over the TLD approval process. In response, ICANN says it has a responsibility to ensure long-term Internet stability and to be able to guarantee new TLDs will work properly for every Internet user wherever they are.

A prominent ICANN critic, New.net, has introduced 30 TLDs without ICANN's agreement, relying on special client software that allows a user's computer to find the domains on the Internet. New.net also has agreements with several Internet service providers in the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe that are automatically set up to recognize these unauthorized domains.

Registrar Verisign also offers simulated TLDs by using the country-code TLDs of a few small nations. In this way, companies can use .tv (Tuvalu), .nu (Niue), .cc (Cocos and Keeling Islands) and .bz (Belize) as relevant-sounding TLDs.