The name of the game is to have own domain

By Jane Larson
Arizona Republic

When David Reich and his partners started a human resources consulting firm, there was no doubt they'd get their name registered and a Web site up on the Internet.

And so Scottsdale, Ariz.-based ClarityHR snagged www.clarityHR.com, and just to fend off competitors and make sure traffic gets to its site, the company registered www.clarityHR.org and www.clarityHR.net for good measure.

"It's just like a logo or a business card," Reich said of Clarity HR's Internet presence. "In this day and age, it's required."

There are more than 63 million domain names registered worldwide, a 21 percent jump from a year ago, registry operator VeriSign Inc. reported in its quarterly Domain Report (www.verisign.com). That's about one domain name for every 100 people on the planet.

Fueling the boom was the registration of more than 4.7 million new domain names in the first quarter, the highest quarterly number in the history of the Internet, VeriSign said. Also contributing were record rates of renewals.

"It used to be that it was a good thing to have a Web site," said Bob Parsons, founder and president of Go Daddy software (www.godaddy.com), which oversees more than 5 million names for more than 1 million customers. Now, he said, business consider it a requirement.

Champ Mitchell, chief executive officer of Network Solutions (www.networksolutions.com), which oversees 7.5 million names for 4.5 million customers, says the industry's dot-com turnaround started in late 2002 and has been accelerating.

Also rising is the share of domain names that actually connect to a Web site or e-mail box, as opposed to names that speculative owners just sat on. More than 72 percent of domain names now connect, up from 55 percent in late 2002, VeriSign said.

There is plenty of room for growth, says Ron Jackson, editor and publisher of Domain Name Journal (www.dnjournal.com), in the newer extensions such as .info, .biz and .us. And the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is considering adding up to 10 more, including .jobs and .travel, by the end of the year.

To stay alive, the registrars are cranking out new products and services targeting small businesses with simple Web sites, tracking tools and other services.

The spread of domain names to the consumer market will happen slowly, experts say.