APRIL 11, 2005

ICANN OKs New Domains for Jobs, Travel

By Matthew Hicks

Travel and employment Web sites are a step closer to getting their own Internet domains.

Both are sponsored domain names, meaning that they are designated for specific purposes rather than general use, and have the backing of industry groups.

The board of directors of ICANN, the main overseer of the domain names service, approved the domains during its meeting last week in Mar del Plata, Argentina. Both are expected to be available for public registrations late this year.

The .jobs domain is targeted to recruiters and companies engaged in hiring.

Employ Media LLC, a Cleveland, Ohio-based company, was approved as the registry to manage the domain, and it is contracting with VeriSign Inc. for registry services.

The Society for Human Resource Management, a nonprofit professional organization, is acting as the domain's sponsor.

Tralliance Corp., of New York, was confirmed as the registry for .travel, which is aimed at travel suppliers and sellers.

The domain's sponsor is an industry group called the Travel Partnership Corp., which includes more than 100 international travel trade associations.

"We anticipate enormous interest and participation by both the global travel and tourism industry and consumers in .travel," said Tralliance President and CEO Ronald Andruff, in a statement.

The .jobs and .travel domain were among 10 sponsored top-level domain names proposed to ICANN in March.

The Marina del Rey, Calif.-based oversight body has entered into negotiations with potential registries for the .cat, .post and .mobi domains, while discussions continue about .asia, .mail, .xxx and two applicants for the .tel domain, ICANN said.