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.

To browse premium quality .info domain names, visit: PremiumDomains.US

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Oracle Corporation is the 18th largest company in America with a $122 billion market cap and 105,000 employees. Oracle specialize in database software. Their products fuel many of the world’s most successful enterprises.

Ron Jackson of DNJournal publishes a weekly domain name sales report, and I noticed that the last entry on his report was the sale of Oracle.info. Naturally, I wondered if perhaps Oracle Corp. had acquired the domain name. They did indeed purchase Oracle.info for a mere $1377. Quite a nice pick-up for the company who had also previously acquired “Oracle” in the .BIZ web address and also in the official .mobi (mobile) extension. In fact, the company have a fully developed .mobi complaint site in operation. Their .biz and .info versions are currently forwarding to the Oracle.com primary website.

As .INFO is one of the world’s leading web addresses based on sheer registration numbers (nearly 7 million), it is certainly logical that Oracle Corporation would obtain Oracle.info at such an affordable price. This rounds out their company domain portfolio quite well.

It should be noted that Oracle is a generic word typically meaning “a person or thing which acts as an agent of divine communication”. Consequently, Oracle Corporation would have no automatic trademark right to the word “oracle”. It’s good to see a company of their size using a legitimate avenue (aftermarket purchase) to acquire Oracle.info as opposed to misusing the UDRP in a reverse domain name hijacking attempt.

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Recently, I wrote about the Charlotte, NC Bank of America financial center using a .info web address as their primary business & information portal. Today, it became evident that general real estate firms are also turning to the .INFO space to market their services and properties for sale.

Menius Enterprises, Inc. recently acquired the premium domain, www.Condos.info. In researching general condo sites online, I discovered a pretty keen concentration of realty professionals across the USA using the dotINFO web address for major real estate portals.

The first site I noticed was quite impressive in its incredible depth of content, SouthBeachCondos.info, which is a perfect geo-targeted domain name for the South Beach Miami area.

Another Florida-focused .info realty site is BeauSoleilCondos.info which focuses on Winter Park, Florida. Contemporary condo designs and urban living are hallmark features of the Beau Soleil residences which range in size from 952 sq. ft. to 1768 sq. ft. Again, a logical & marketable domain name being utilized.

Even Canadian realtors are embracing .info as evidenced by Christine Louw’s CoalHarbourCondos.info which is a luxury condo site for Vancouver’s premier waterfront location, Coal Harbour. Located in British Columbia, Canada.

For the curious, condo sales have been on the rise for several months now in favored markets such as Manhattan, Florida, and metro cities along the west coast.

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I was researching the Bank of America building in Charlotte, North Carolina and discovered that it is managed by Lincoln Harris. They are a full service commercial real estate firm in Charlotte who oversee the BOA Corporate Center which happens to be the tallest skyscraper (at 871 feet) between Philadelphia and Atlanta.

Of interest to domainers is their use of the .info web address as the portal to the Bank of America Corporate Center at 100 N. Tryon Street. The official website address is TheCorporateCenter.info and it contains essential facts and “information” about the facility.

The Corporate Center is a landmark in Charlotte standing above every other skyscraper and visible for many miles as one approaches North Carolina’s Queen city. The building weighs 300 million pounds. It was completed in 1992 and took the combined efforts of several architectural firms to finalize its ultimate design and plan of construction.

Bank of America is the largest bank in the United States. With its headquarters now in Charlotte, Charlotte is regarded as the second largest financial center in the USA behind only New York City.

The .info web address is ideal for business purposes as well as a good general purpose domain for city & state websites, specific subjects, and the hotel & travel industry. .INFO is an unrestricted domain and may be registered by anyone in the world. .INFO currently enjoys 6,817,548 global registrations making it one of the leading domain name extensions in the world. .INFO is managed by the Afilias Registry.

* Visit PremiumDomains.US to browse premium quality .info domain names.

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Poker.org was just purchased for $1 million by PokerCompany.com (source DNJournal). Sedo is reported to have brokered the deal. Pure poker, casino, and gambling domain names are high interest keywords, and generally have sold for substantial amounts in recent years. Poker.org is the highest ever “publicized” .org domain name sale.

Also of special interest is a post at DomainNameWire regarding Afilias. The entry reports that Afilias has requested approval from ICANN to release 1 and 2 character .info domain names from their reserved list. The Neustar Registry did something similar several months ago with the .BIZ web address resulting in a number of 5-figure sales for 1 character .biz domain names.

Lastly, consider this a public service announcement -> Avoid automated domain name appraisals. Like the ones you find advertised & sold on domain name registration websites. Sadly, I have noticed a new wave of people selling (pushing) automated domain appraisals, quoting them in domain forums, and referencing them in email inquiries.

Quality domain names in particular cannot be properly appraised using the simple metrics that automated appraisals employ. Those who sell automated domain appraisals are looking to cash in on the gullibility of new domain investors and buyers. An experienced domain professional will never make reference to automated domain appraisals as they are uniformly understood to be nothing more than a gimmick or toy.

There may come a day when automated appraisal algorithms are sophisticated enough to tap into real value and produce a defensible price range for premium domain names. At the current time, nothing comes close to doing this. All automated appraisals have enormous margins of error such that they consistently fail tests for validity and reliability.

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Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest defense contractor famous for manufacturing fighter jets, rockets, radar systems, and a wealth of high technology products in use around the globe.

The company is operating off of websites at Lockheed.info and Lockheed.com. Actually, the .com site is LockheedMartin.com and Lockheed.com forwards to that whereas Lockheed.info is a self-standing site on its own. Some of the links there track back to the LockheedMartin.com site particularly in regard to the jobs availability page.

The .info and .com sites appear to mirror each other. Lockheed Martin have also registered variations on their name in the .US, .biz, and .mobi extensions. Most likely to prevent trademark infringement by cybersquatters.

However, it is nice to see a multi-billion dollar global corporation actually using the .info version of their company name. Afilias.info are the official registry and overseer of the .info web address which currently totals 5,595,978 domain name registrations worldwide.

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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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