Domain for Individuals, .Name, Goes Live

Billed as the domain name reserved exclusively for individuals, a new Internet suffix, .name, has gone live.

London-based The Global Name Registry said in a statement that the launch of the new domain marks a breakthrough in the expansion of the Domain Name System and offers consumers everywhere the opportunity to set up unique, highly personal, and secure online identities.

Global Name Registry, the company operating the new domain, said .name is the first Internet domain reserved for individuals rather than businesses, which typically use .com., .net, or .org.

The company said .name allows an individual to create a personal Web address, www.firstname.lastname.name, as well as an e-mail address, firstname@lastname.name. The company has registered 60,000 domain names and e-mail accounts so far and said that in the future, consumers will be able to use their .name address as their mobile phone number and as a digital key for e-commerce transactions.

Domain Choice Grows

"The number of registrations recorded shows great potential for growth of the .name customer base, highlighting a great demand for individual space on the Internet," Andrew Tsai, chief executive officer of Global Name Registry, said in the statement. "Global Name Registry is pleased to be able to offer consumers a top-level domain that will serve the needs of the individual online and will rapidly become the platform for their personal digital identity."

Officials at Global Name Registry could not be reached for further comment.

Last year, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers added seven new top-level domain names: .name, .biz, .info, .pro, .museum, .aero, and .coop. Although it had been stalled by a lawsuit over its distribution practices, .biz was finally activated in November.

ICANN was organized in September 1998 to oversee certain Internet technical management functions that were previously managed by the U.S. government or by its contractors and volunteers. Specifically, ICANN is responsible for coordinating management of the DNS, allocating Internet Protocol address space, and handling other Internet protocol tasks.

ICANN recently offered at-large membership to Internet users around the world, enabling users to have a vote on many key posts in the organization.