Web sites test .info names

Domain names with the .info extension are gaining popularity among corporate customers, who are using them to point Web site visitors to detailed information about particular products or brands.

Among the corporations that recently launched Web sites with the .info extension are automakers Subaru and Jaguar, Australian network firm RedSheriff and the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority. Many of these companies have purchased a .info name for a particular brand - such as Subaru's wrx.info for its WRX model - and that name points to the part of the company's existing Web site with information about that brand.

Afilias, the consortium of 18 domain name registrars running the .info registry, says more than 700,000 .info names have been registered since they became available last July.

"Eighty percent of the top 100 brands have been registered," says Roland LaPlante, chief marketing officer for Afilias. "Now that the registry has been live for three or four months, we're seeing actual Web sites being built. We knew from our research that [companies] would be attracted to .info sites because they feel they're more educational and informational than standard .com names."

The .info names also appear easier for consumers to remember. The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority replaced its original domain name - mta.nyc.ny.us - with the snappier mta.info and traffic to the site ballooned from 200,000 hits a day to 3.5 million hits a day. The new mta.info site went live in October, so the site also benefited from an increased interest in status information about New York City's bridges, roads and subway systems after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"The MTA did a significant advertising program on radio and TV, which they couldn't have done with mta.nyc.ny.us because it was too complicated," LaPlante says. "Now they have a short, memorable name."

Some Web sites are retaining their original .com names as they purchase .info names. RedSheriff split its Web site so product and service information are on redsheriff.info, while other corporate information remains on redsheriff.com.

Other companies are purchasing generic sounding .info names. The New York State Attorney General's Office set up wtcrelief.info as a Web site to compile information about 190 organizations that are accepting charitable contributions to the World Trade Center relief effort.

Overall, domain name sales are falling as speculators who purchased .com names during the height of the Internet craze in late 1999 and early 2000 let their two-year registrations expire. Last fall, the number of .com domain names that were not renewed surpassed the number of new .com names registered for the first time ever. But domain name registrars say the prospects for the new top-level domains introduced last year - including .info, .biz and .name - remain strong.