New.net sidesteps ICANN to increase domain names

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by Rick Perera

(IDG) -- Private company New.net announced plans Monday to offer a series of new Internet TLDs (top-level domains), from .chat to .xxx, in a process calculated to sidestep the monopoly control of nonprofit organization ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) on such domains, the company said in a statement.

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Users will have to download special software to enable their browsers to access the New.net domain names, though the company said that it is also working with ISPs to encourage them to activate the names automatically at the network level. The company claims more than 16 million users have access to its names, and added, "We are confident that New.net domain names will soon be recognized universally across the Internet."

New.net offers companies, via its site, the possibility to register domain names using 20 new TLDs, including .chat, .club, .family, .free, .game, .gmbh, .hola, .inc, .kids, .law, .ltd, .med, .mp3, shop, .soc, .sport, .travel, .video, .tech, and .xxx. The TLDs were chosen by means of market research, New.net said, and the company will continue to introduce new TLDs according to the demands of Internet users. The site promises name registration for $25 per year.

In November ICANN chose seven new TLDs to relieve overcrowding of the .com and .net domains. ICANN said it would offer .biz for businesses, .info for general use, .name for individuals, .pro for professionals, .museum for museums, .coop for business cooperatives, and .aero for the aviation industry, but did not fix a date when registrations would begin.

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VeriSign assigns IP addresses to test multilingual domain names
January 26, 2001
Analysis: Will new domains be helpful or confusing?
November 29, 2000
Multilingual domain names under fire
November 10, 2000

VeriSign opens domain names to 70 languages
(IDG.net)
Esperanto domain names supported by Register.com
(IDG.net)
VeriSign sidesteps split-up with ICANN agreement
(Network World Fusion)
New top-level domains up for discussion this week
(Computerworld)
ICANN gets pitches for new top-level domains
(Computerworld)
ICANN member castigates organization in Senate hearing
(IDG.net)
Get an inside track to Net names for your business
(InfoWorld.com)
Geographic domains on shaky ground
(The Industry Standard)

New.net
ICANN

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