Domain Name Trivia - The .info Extension

Published September 2, 2010

The domain name extension .info was launched in 2001. As with .biz, it was introduced to help alleviate the rush on .com names. info was the world's first new, unrestricted top level domain.

In November 2000,  Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) granted Afilias the right to operate .info and the company remains in control of the extension today. Prior to the public registration period commencing in 2001, ICANN requested that country names such as australia.info be registered in ICANN's name. 

While the name suggests its usage should be for information sites, registration requirements allow .info to be used for many purposes, including commercial; with parties who wish to register a .info domain name required to observe the same guidelines as for the registration of a .com domain name.

Afilias announced that .info reached over 1 million registrations in just over a year after the sunrise period ended. Statistics from early 2009 state there were 5.2 million .info domains registered at that point, making the .info name the 4th largest generic top-level domain in the world..

According to statistics from August 2009, the top countries for .info registrations were USA (53%), Germany (9%), and UK (5%).

A .info domain name can be registered by anyone, anywhere in the world.

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