Currently, non-profit organizations use .org as
their domain extensions when setting up their Internet presence. The
group that manages .org domains is a non-profit, called the Public
Interest Registry (PIR). To give non-profit organizations more options
for domain names as well as options for being more specific with their
domain names, the PIR has applied to the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for two more domain extensions: .ngo
and .ong. According to Mashable,
the application is a part of ICANN's efforts to increase the number of
domain extensions, Internet-wide, by 2013. The .org domain extension is
currently the third most used domain extension in the world, following
.com and .net in first and second place, respectively.
The PIR wants to give non-goovernment organizations more options for
their domain names and since, of course, there are differences between
NGOs and non-profits, the domain extensions, .ngo and .ong should help
them be more specific with their web addresses. .ong is essentially the
same thing as .ngo, used in Spanish, Italian, French and other romance
languages. Since NGO itself is a very well known three letter acronym,
it only makes sense for it to be applied to web addresses.
.org is an open domain extension, which means that anybody can use it
even if they are not a non-profit or an NGO. The PIR is specifying that
the .ngo domain extension be a closed extension, which means that only
non-profits and NGOs will be able to use it. Of course, there will be a
verification process in place for users to register their domains with
.ngo. Furthermore, the .ngo domain extension will not be mandatory for
non-profits and NGOs to use, particularly the ones that currently use
.org. The PIR will facilitate a smooth transition over from .org to .ngo
for NGOs and non-profits, but if the organizations do not want to
switch over, they don't have to.
The PIR is offering NGOs certain incentives to register with .ngo and
.ong for their addresses. For one, the PIR plans to keep an open
directory of organizations using the .ngo and .ong domain extensions, so
they have more visibility and searchability. Furthermore, the PIR is
planning an NGO community program where it will reinvest into the NGO
community all the revenue that is gathered from .ngo and .ong domain
extensions. The PIR will not know for certain when their application
will be accepted or rejected, but they said that the latest they'll know
will be January 2013. In the meanwhile, ICANN is releasing a list of
2100 domain extension applications submitted by the May 30th deadline.
Some of these include .sport and .music.
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