.info

Last updated
.info
.info logo.png
IntroducedJune 26, 2001;22 years ago (2001-06-26)
TLD type Generic top-level domain
StatusActive
Registry Afilias
SponsorNone
Intended useInformational websites
Actual useUsed for general purposes
Registration restrictionsNone
StructureRegistrations at second level permitted
Documents ICANN registry agreement
Dispute policies UDRP
Registry website afilias.info

.info is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. The name is derived from information, although registration requirements do not prescribe any particular purpose. [1]

Contents

The TLD info followed ICANN's highly publicized announcement, [2] in late 2000, of a phased release of seven new generic top-level domains. The event was the first addition of major gTLDs since the Domain Name System was developed in the 1980s. The seven new gTLDs, selected from over 180 proposals, were meant in part to take the pressure off the com domain. [3]

History

Domain info has been operated by Afilias since its creation. In 2003, it was the first gTLD domain to support IETF standards-based internationalized domain names. [4] In 2001, Afilias CTO (Ram Mohan) discovered [1] problems with the Universal Acceptance of the domain due to it being the first tld whose length was greater than two or three characters.

The launching of info involved a "Sunrise Period" for trademark owners, followed by a "landrush" open to all, the first time such a process had ever been conducted for a new gTLD. This process received criticism for giving trademarks precedence over words that are generic in other contexts; for instance, the Caterpillar construction equipment company was able to register cat.info before feline enthusiasts were.

Although a large number of fraudulent registrations were initially made by registrants who did not actually own a valid trademark, a challenge procedure later weeded out most of these. [5]

Prior to launch, the names of countries were reserved from registration at the request of ICANN, to the consternation of those who had paid pre-registration fees to attempt to register these names in the landrush. ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee, composed of country representatives from around the world applauded the move, the first by any major domain to protect the national interests of sovereign nations.

Usage

Domain info has been the most successful of the seven new domain names, with over 5.2 million domain names in the registry as of April 2008. After the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York switched to the easier to remember mta.info website to lead users to latest information on schedules and route changes on the area's transportation services. ICANN and Afilias have also sealed an agreement for country names to be reserved by ICANN under resolution 01.92. [6]

Info is an unrestricted domain, meaning that anyone can obtain a second-level domain for any purpose, similar to the domains com, net and org . This is in contrast to TLDs such as edu , or coop . Info is the only top-level domain that was explicitly created and chartered for unrestricted use, although various other TLDs resulted in this situation de facto. Info stands for information in about 37 languages, and is a neutral name.

Afilias, the registry operator of both the info and aero top-level domains, has been aggressive in its marketing of the domain, with significant registrar incentives and outreach events.

Related Research Articles

A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last non empty label of a fully qualified domain name. For example, in the domain name www.example.com, the top-level domain is .com. Responsibility for management of most top-level domains is delegated to specific organizations by the ICANN, an Internet multi-stakeholder community, which operates the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and is in charge of maintaining the DNS root zone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.eu</span> Internet country-code top level domain for the European Union

.eu is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the European Union (EU). Launched on 7 December 2005, the domain is available for any person, company or organization based in the European Union. This was extended to the European Economic Area in 2014, after the regulation was incorporated into the EEA Agreement, and hence is also available for any person, company or organization based in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The TLD is administered by EURid, a consortium originally consisting of the national ccTLD registry operators of Belgium, Sweden, and Italy, joined later by the national registry operator of the Czech Republic. Trademark owners were able to submit registrations through a sunrise period, in an effort to prevent cybersquatting. Full registration started on 7 April 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internationalized domain name</span> Type of Internet domain name

An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that contains at least one label displayed in software applications, in whole or in part, in non-Latin script or alphabet or in the Latin alphabet-based characters with diacritics or ligatures. These writing systems are encoded by computers in multibyte Unicode. Internationalized domain names are stored in the Domain Name System (DNS) as ASCII strings using Punycode transcription.

Domain name speculation, popular as domaining in professional jargon, is the practice of identifying and registering or acquiring generic Internet domain names as an investment with the intent of selling them later for a profit.

Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of every fully qualified domain name. They are called generic for historical reasons; initially, they were contrasted with country-specific TLDs in RFC 920.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.pro</span>

The domain name pro is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from professional, indicating its intended use by certified professionals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.mobi</span> Generic top-level Internet domain

The domain name mobi is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Its name is derived from the adjective mobile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afilias</span> Web domain registration company

Afilias, Inc. was a US corporation that was the registry operator of the .info, .mobi and .pro top-level domain, service provider for registry operators of .org, .ngo, .lgbt, .asia, .aero, and a provider of domain name registry services for countries around the world, including .MN (Mongolia), .AG, .BM (Bermuda), .BZ (Belize), .AC, .GI (Gibraltar), .IO .ME (Montenegro), .PR, .SC, .SH, .VC, and .AU (Australia). Afilias also provided ancillary support to other domains, including .SG (Singapore), .LA (Laos), and .HN (Honduras). It was merged into Identity Digital in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.web</span>

.web is a proposed top-level domain (TLD) that was created and assigned by an auction process to several bidding companies. It was awarded to Nu Dot Co LLC, which is primarily funded by Verisign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.asia</span>

The top-level domain .asia is the officially designated regional domain in the Internet for Asia and the Pacific. It is a sponsored generic top-level-domain (sTLD) operated by the DotAsia Organisation Ltd. The domain is open to companies, individuals and organisations that have a connection to the region. Asia domains can be seen and used by international and Asian businesses; regional conferences and symposiums; as well as Asian artists and celebrities.

The sunrise period of domain name registration is a special period during which trademark holders may preregister names that are the same or similar to their trademarks in order to avoid cybersquatting. This occurs prior to the general launch of the top-level domain (TLD). To register, the group or individual must be able to prove their prior right to the name. The sunrise period serves as a test period, and is followed by the landrush period and/or General Availability.

The Domain Name System of the Internet consists of a set of top-level domains that constitute the root domain of the hierarchical name space and database. In the growth of the Internet, it became desirable to expand the initial set of six generic top-level domains in 1984. As a result, new top-level domain names have been proposed for implementation by ICANN. Such proposals included a variety of models ranging from adoption of policies for unrestricted gTLDs that could be registered by anyone for any purpose, to chartered gTLDs for specialized uses by specialized organizations. In October 2000, ICANN published a list of proposals for top-level domain strings it had received.

A geographic top-level domain is any of an unofficial group of top-level domains in the Domain Name System of the Internet using the name of or invoking an association with a geographical, geopolitical, ethnic, linguistic or cultural community. The IANA does not recognize these domains as their own group within the Root Zone Database, rather classifying them as generic top-level domains.

A landrush period is the time during which domain names are available for registration, usually to a closed group, to entities that do not own a trademark in the name they wish to register, for example generic terms like loan or car, and thus would not qualify for registration during the sunrise period. Orders may or may not be treated on a first-come-first-served basis. This period follows the sunrise period just after the launch of a new top-level domain or second-level domain during which, for example, owners of trademarks may register a domain name containing the owned mark, but a landrush period precedes a period of general availability, when any qualifying entity can register any name on a first come first-served basis.

The domain name Dot Chinese Website (.中文网) is a new generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Dot Chinese Website is among many listed top level domains. Created along with the partner domain name Dot Chinese Online (.在线) by TLD Registry through Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names (ICANN)’s new gTLD program launched in April 28, 2014. TLD Registry was founded in June 2008 in Finland with the mission to create essential new Chinese TLDs - intended mainly towards a Chinese-speaking audience. Because it is displayed in a simplified Chinese character language specific script, Dot Chinese Website is known as an Internationalized Domain Name (IDNs).

.college is a generic-top-level domain (gTLD) used in the domain name system of the Internet. It was delegated to the Root Zone of the DNS on 10 April 2014, completing the successful application for the string. The .college back-end registry operations are provided by CentralNic. Unlike .edu, .college is open for registration to the general public.

.global is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) and was delegated to the DNS root zone on June 6, 2014. The application for the new top-level domain was approved on April 17, 2014, and .global was made available to the general public on September 9, 2014.

.brussels is a generic top-level domain for Brussels, Belgium. Registry DNS Belgium, who are also responsible for .be, got permission to operate this domain and execute these at the end of 2014, together with .vlaanderen.

Universal Acceptance (UA) is a term coined by Ram Mohan to represent the principle that every top-level domain (TLD) should function within all applications regardless of script, number of characters, or how new it is.

References

  1. 1 2 Mohan, Ram (June 2005). "New TLD Domain Launch Perspectives". Afilias Ltd.
  2. "Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)". ICANN . Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  3. Cohen, David (17 November 2000). "Magnificent seven?". Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
  4. INFO internationalized domain names
  5. techlawjournal.com top story
  6. FAQ: What country names are reserved in .INFO?, Afilias Limited