Dotcoms want to stay that way

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Marilyn Bell’s Web site won’t be using ".info" when the Internet suffix debuts today. Her informational guide on Alaska’s Kodiak Island will remain a dotcom at kodiakisland.com.

Orbis Online, an e-commerce technology company in Texas, is also taking a pass on new domain names, shunning ".biz" and the others. Dan Hair, chief financial officer, believes the new names will only confuse Web surfers.

In an online world dominated by dotcoms, many individuals, companies and groups are saying "No, thanks" to not-coms — the seven new domain name suffixes scheduled to debut in coming months.

"I’ve thought about these, but I can use only so many domain names," Bell said. "I do think ‘.com’ will for a long time be the first thought of."

By far the most popular of the 252 Internet suffixes available, ".com" has become virtually synonymous with the Internet — and the rise and fall of the so-called New Economy. More than 24 million names have been registered.

To help relieve overcrowding, the Internet’s oversight body last year approved seven new suffixes, the first major additions since the domain name system was created in the mid-1980s.

Sites ending in ".info" are scheduled to become active today, followed by ".biz" on Oct. 1 and ".name" on Dec. 13. Schedules for the others have yet to be determined.

Jeff Harmes, an intellectual property lawyer in Seattle, said his business clients have shown relatively little interest in the new names.

"To a certain extent, there’s a bit of domain-name burnout," Harmes said. "The sense of urgency and shortage of domain names eased considerably. A lot of domain names are becoming available again because businesses that use them go out of business."

Chris Bura, president of domain name registration company AllDomains.com, said the new names are "for a while going to be the ugly stepchild of dotcom."

During the height of the dotcom boom, good ".com" names were in such high demand that scores of them commanded thousands, even millions, of dollars in the resale market. Business.com went for a record $7.5 million.

But demand fell with the economy.

"A lot of domains we have will sell for $8,000 or $10,000, while 18 months ago they would have brought $50,000 to $150,000," said Greg McLemore, chief executive of WebMagic, a venture capital and consulting firm in Pasadena, Calif.

Early adopters of ".biz" and ".info" names include speculators hoping to resell good names at higher prices, and companies looking to protect their trademarks. Dell Computer Corp., for instance, sought about 20 names under each suffix but hasn’t determined how it will use them.

The new names have also generated greater interest abroad, where ".com" is viewed as an American suffix.

Of the 50,000 ".info" names registered through Aug. 27, about 60 percent came from outside the United States. By contrast, according to an analysis by Matt Zook of the Internet Geography Project at the University of California, Berkeley, 60 percent of ".com" belonged to U.S. companies and groups.

NeuLevel Inc., the company in charge of ".biz," is spending tens of millions of dollars in newspaper and online advertising. It’s promoting ".biz" as the first truly global suffix for businesses.

The ".name" suffix will be targeted strictly at individuals, so they could run Web sites and receive e-mail using their own names. The ".pro" suffix will be for professionals, ".museum" for museums, ".aero" for the travel industry and ".coop" for business cooperatives.

Internet users won’t have to do anything special to reach sites using the new suffixes. The names will be recognized by the Internet’s master directories, just like ".com," ".gov" or ".uk."

But from a practical standpoint, Internet users have become accustomed to adding ".com" to whatever company or group they are looking for, said James Jepsen, a graphic designer in Santa Maria, Calif.

Adding ".biz" and other names, he said, "will just make it that much harder to find sites on the Net."