The backing of a key online regulator on Monday brought a group of computer professionals closer to control of the ".org" Internet domain, home to millions of nonprofits and community groups.
The Internet Society, a group of 11,000 engineers and other networking experts, won another round in the months-long process to manage the Internet's fifth-largest domain when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers reaffirmed its opinion that the Virginia nonprofit was the best qualified of 11 applicants.
If approved as expected by ICANN's board of directors, the Internet Society will set up a separate group known as the Public Internet Registry to take control of the .org database in January of next year. Longtime domain manager VeriSign Inc agreed to give up control last year as part of a deal that allowed it to retain .com, which at 21.2 million names remains the most popular domain on the Internet.
VeriSign will continue to profit from .org, however, as it owns an interest in the company that would maintain the database of names under the Internet Society's bid.
An Internet society spokeswoman said .org domain users will not experience any disruptions during the transition, and would see an improvement in service.
"For example, users who bought a new .org name would only have to wait two minutes, rather than 12 hours, for it to become available," Williams said.
While the domain will be marketed to nonprofits, others will not be prohibited from registering .org names, said Internet Society spokeswoman Julie Williams.
Critics warned that the stability of the domain could suffer if it is assigned to a group that does not yet exist.
"They have no offices, no phone numbers, no Web site," said Ken Hansen, an official with NeuStar Corp, whose bid was turned down by ICANN.
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