Forget Dot-Com: Dot-XXX Websites Approved, Will Aim For Adult Content
The Marina Del Rey-based organization that governs website domains, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), approved a ".xxx" domain suffix for adult-content websites. 
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A Florida-based company called ICM Registry will facilitate registration of sites that want to use the .xxx designation. In a statement the company indicated that such domains could become available as soon as early next year.
"It's been a long time coming, but I'm excited about the fact that .xxx will soon become a reality," said ICM Chairman Stuart Lawley.
He told the New York Times that 100,000 domains have been pre-registered and another 400,000 more were likely to take .xxx names once the suffix goes live in 2011. At least some of those will be corporations and other entities that will bookmark their names in the .xxx domain defensively so that someone else doesn't ("ibm.xxx," would be an example).
The driving idea behind the .xxx suffix is to create an online red-light district that can be blocked wholesale by parents, companies and others who don't want access to that kind of content.
But the San Fernando Valley-based adult entertainment industry is against the suffix, arguing it would marginalize and ghettoize its content. It remains to be seen if porn purveyors will go for .xxx, since, like most others in the media world, they want maximum exposure.
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