Domain name ".health" is a no-go
Despite backing from the World Health Organization, the Internet tag ".health" was rejected by the authority that creates so-called top-level domain names like ".com." But a ".pro" has been created for professionals.
The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers on Nov. 17 added seven top-level domain names to the five -- .com, .org, .gov, .edu and .net -- now in use. They are .info, for general information; .biz, for businesses; .name, for individuals; .pro, for professionals; .museum, for museums; .coop, for business cooperatives; and .aero, for the aviation industry.
ICANN, created by the U.S. government in 1998, expanded the list of domain names mostly because of congestion in the use of .com. More than 20 million .com names have been registered worldwide.
Four days before the ICANN's Marina del Rey, Calif., meeting, WHO proposed .health as a way to make it easier for Internet users to find health-related sites. Geneva-based WHO proposed that it would work with national and international agencies to set up quality standards that would have to be met before a site could use .health.
But ICANN refused to add .health, or any other suffix that implied content regulation, such as .kids for children and .xxx for adults.
For physicians wanting a domain name other than .com, .pro is scheduled to be available through private contractors by the end of the year. Entrepreneurs also have bought rights to Moldova's national domain suffix, .md.
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