Ten Years of .INFO

In 1984, when the Internet was officially formed, a set of general-purpose top-level domains(TLDs) were defined: .com, .edu, .gov, .mil, .org and .net.

As the Internet exploded in use over the years, the need for more Internet control and for more TLDs became apparent.

In September 1998, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) began the management domain names. And on November 16, 2000, ICANN announced seven new TLDs: .aero, .biz, .coop, .museum, .name, .pro and .info.

Of those seven domains, .info was the first one approved by ICANN, the first entered into the root zone and the first one launched.

Today, with almost 7.5 million names registered, .info remains the fourth most popular generic TLD in use (just behind .com, .net and .org).

And among the seven domains announced in 2000, .info represents 44% of and more than double the size of any other new TLD on the market.

  History of Growth 

Since its introduction in 2001, .info growth has had a continuous upwards pattern in growth. In 2010 for example, approximately 1.3 million additional domains were registered for a total of almost 7.5 million .info domains under management.

Comparing market data compiled by Zooknic.com through June 2010, the total domains under management across the domain name industry grew by approximately 7 percent from June 2009 to June 2010. During that same period, .info grew by 25 percent.

This show that .info remains a strong, growing domain choice.