Reston, Va. - Some 23 years after its inception, the ".org" Internet domain now includes more than 7 million addresses, making it the third largest generic domain on the Web, after .com and .net, according to the organization that oversees the suffix.

The Public Interest Registry, which took stewardship of the domain in 2003, said that the number of Web addresses ending in .org has risen an average of 20% a year, driven by trends such as social networking, issue awareness, online collaboration and advocacy.

Alexa Raad, the registry's CEO, called the news "a significant milestone" for .org, crediting the growth, in part, to an increasing number of for-profit entities choosing the addresses to emphasize their service missions and non-corporate cultures.

The domain also has been helped by the launch of community sites, such as freecycle.org; an increasing number of wikis for collaborative content, such as wikipedia.org; and the growth of other political, "green" and blogger sites.

Related Links:
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Public-Interest-Registry-892857.html

http://www.pir.org/orgadvantage