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It appears the Internet is getting just a tad too crowded forsome. Due to rising conflict over the ownership of certain domainnames and increasing congestion in the .com designation, theInternational Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC), a group of Internet expertsformed to consider issues concerning the rapid growth of theInternet, has developed a plan to add seven new top-level domainsand expand the system that registers Internet names. At press time,these developments were slated to be implemented by as early asOctober.

Standard domains include .com for commercial sites, .gov forgovernment sites, .org for nonprofit group sites, .edu foreducational sites and .mil for military sites. The sevendesignations that will become available are .firm for businesses,.store for companies that sell online, .web for activities relatedto the Web, .arts for cultural and entertainment sites, .rec forrecreational sites, .info for informational sites, and .nom forsites run by individuals or families.

"This will eliminate congestion of [popular] names under.com and allow more descriptive names in the process," saysDonald Heath, chair of IAHC and CEO of the Internet Society.