The new ".name" Internet suffix went live today, allowing individuals to set up personal Web and e-mail addresses outside of established domains like ".com" and ".org."
Unlike domains such as .com, .biz and .info, .name is aimed squarely at individuals. Customers who pay an annual fee of roughly $30 get a three-tiered Web-site address, such as www.elvis.presley.name, and an e-mail address such as elvis@presley.name that can be forwarded to another account.
Global Name Registry, the company responsible for running the new domain, said .name addresses could eventually be used for cell phones and privacy-enhancing encryption codes, as well.
The London-based firm said it had signed up 60,000 users so far.
The new domain was one of seven chosen in November 2000 by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, to relieve overcrowding in established domains like .com, .net and .org.
Two of the domains - .biz for businesses and .info, which carries no restrictions - ran into trouble when they were rolled out last summer.
Registrants sued .biz manager NeuLevel for its method of handing out desirable names, which they said constituted an illegal lottery.
Afilias, the company that's managing the .info domain, has struggled to purge its .info domain of registrants who used bogus trademark claims to snatch up hot names like finance.info.
Two more domains have started up since, with no notable problems: .museum, reserved for museums, and .coop, for co-operative organizations.
Scheduled to go live this year are .aero for the airline industry and .pro, reserved for doctors, lawyers, accountants and other professionals.