The single best indicator of a top level domain’s growth is the sheer number of domain registrations and the conversion of those registered domain names into developed websites. After widespread proliferation of the com/net/org domain extensions in the 1990′s came the market introduction of dotINFO, dotBIZ, and dotUS in the early 2000′s.

These were labeled the “new domains” to connote their relative newness to the well-established com/net/org trio that rose to prominence with the internet’s global adoption. Afilias, who manage the .info web address, just released their annual dotINFO report for 2010.

The report highlights very substantial growth for the .info web address for year 2010. The domain space grew 30% in 2010 pushing total registrations for .info to over 6.8 million. DomainTools‘ report of current internet domain registration numbers puts .info at over 7.3 million as of 12/7/2010.

The Afilias annual study announced that dotINFO currently ranks # 7 among 270 top level domains available worldwide. dotINFO has over 1.3 million live, active websites available to internet users at the present time. 

Also continuing along the same path as .info are the .biz (business) and .US (United States) web addresses each of which have continued to increase their global registration numbers and be readily adopted by local, regional, national and global companies.

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Afilias have released their 2009 report outlining the growth of the .info web address since its introduction in 2001. Currently, there are 5,497,143 .info domain names registered around the world.

Over the years, Afilias have occasionally used several promotions to boost .info registrations such as free first year registration and the 2009 .INFO Website Awards contest.

North America presently accounts for 61% of all .info domain registrations and European countries comprise 23%. The United States and Germany are # 1 and # 2, respectively, for registration numbers by country. Rounding out positions 3, 4, and 5 are the U.K., France, and Canada which demonstrate broad international appeal and global support of the .info web address.

A beautiful .info geo domain profiled here earlier in the year was Spain.info. There are many interesting and well developed .info sites across the internet such as PropertySlides.info, MutualFunds.info (owned by Time Inc./CNN), and Encompass.info.

Since .info represents “information“, the domain works extremely well for a wide variety of applications including many general topics, health & science, business & industry, and city or state websites. 

Having become the 7th most registered domain in the world, .info has established itself as a very significant player on the internet world stage.

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The Afilias Registry, who administer the .INFO web address, recently held a contest and awarded cash prizes for the top three developed .INFO websites. Ron Jackson wrote on DNJournal.com that Afilias received over 50 entries from 18 different countries.

$7,500 was awarded for first place to Thueringen.info (a travel site serving Germany). Second place, with a prize of $5,000, was awarded to GPS-Tour.info (a website where individuals can share and download outdoor GPS tours). In third place was Turkel.info, a travel & tourism marketing site, taking $3,000 for their efforts.

There are currently 5,428,453 .info domain names registered around the world. Fully developed sites and services are being launched on a daily basis due to the gradual adoption and popularity of the .info web space.

For those of you who are interested in the .info domain name, check out Spain.info. It’s a beautifully designed website & portal for the country of Spain that exemplifies the logic behind the .info domain name extension.

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Facts.info is currently available to the highest bidder in an ongoing Sedo auction. The current bid is $3000 EUR which is $3956 U.S. dollars, and the reserve has been met. I was the original registrant of Facts.info in 2002 and had previously sold this domain at auction in April 2007 for $2550.

It is an excellent fit for the .info (information) domain extension since facts & information are at the very core of what makes the internet so powerful. Mr. Harald Ebert of Barcelona, Spain is the present owner and looks to make a nice return on his investment.

Facts.info would make a logical brand & online identity for a wikipedia type website, online encyclopedia, news aggregator, or research center for a major university. Online education and degrees are big business being so well suited to live streaming over the internet. I’ll be interested to see if this nice name is possibly acquired by a known educational institution, or is purchased by a domain name investor.

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