I Can Do Without I Cann

Entrepreneur, July, 2001 by Amanda C. Kooser

Tired of waiting for ICANN to get around to adding .inc or .shop to the list of official top-level domain suffixes? For $25 per year, you can go ahead and snag.inc, .shop, .law, .med, .travel, .kids and soon from New.net. The renegade registrar is the most well-backed and well-connected of several companies attempting to trump ICANN by offering their own domain suffixes.

The catch is that the new top-level domains aren't part of the official Web "address book" maintained by ICANN--they can't be accessed without first making some small alterations to Web servers or individual PCs. But major ISPs like Earthlink, Excite@Home and NetZero are currently on board with New.net, and their customers can view the new domain sites without altering settings. Still, New.net faces a steep uphill battle to reach the entire Web community.

Entrepreneurs interested in hedging their bets and protecting their name online might consider registering in some of the new suffixes. But you wouldn't want to use them for your main Web address. Still, if any breakaway registrar can rattle ICANN, it's New.net.