Date: Thu Nov 16, 2000 8:25 pm
Subject: ICANN Approves Seven New Internet Domain Names


ICANN Approves Seven New Internet Domain Names

MARINA DEL REY, Calif. (Reuters) - The Internet's governing body on
Web site names Thursday added seven new domain names,
including .biz, .info and .name, in a move to relieve pressure on the
overcrowded .com and .net spaces.

Other names accepted by the board of the Internet Corp. for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN) include .pro, .museum, .aero, .coop, all of
which would be restricted to Web sites operated by people or
companies in related industries or fields, and would complement the
25 million existing Web addresses among the seven major domain names.

The ICANN board did not approve a number of other contenders such
as .kids, .web and .geo.

Major companies involved in winning bids to operate the huge
databases holding Web site addresses, also called registries,
included VeriSign Inc. (NasdaqNM:VRSN - news) , 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. (NYSE:IBM - news) and Register.com, a fast- growing U.S.
reseller of Web site addresses.

Web domains not approved in the final discussion included .iii, which
purported to grant permanent domain names to people to make e-mail
forwarding easier, and .kids, which the board said could lead to Web
sites with content harmful rather than beneficial for children