Domain name showdown to kick off down under

New.net this week trumped the official organisation, launching 20 new top-level domain names (TLDs) just days after Icann admitted the seven new domains it is planning to release will be delayed by months.

"It just shows how excruciatingly long their process is," said Steve Chadima, chief marketing officer at New.net. "They couldn't have handed us a better present."

Icann has so far remained tight-lipped about its unexpected rivals, and Chadima is unsure whether Icann chairman Vint Cerf will welcome him with open arms - or chase him out of Melbourne.

"There is a natural tendency for [Icann] to react negatively, but we are doing this in a manner which matches everything they stand for," claimed Chadima. "This is a system everyone can use - there are no alternative routes, we're just using the existing DNS infrastructure."

Icann works on a voluntary basis and has no legal power, relying on cooperation from the industry to give it the authority to select and manage top-level domains. Chadima is quick to point out that he doesn't want a fight with the organisation. "We'd like to come to a truce with those guys. There's a million potential TLDs out there and we don't want to step on their toes."

Icann rejected many of New.net's domains during its TLD application round last year. The organisation came under fire for shying away from obvious domains such as dot-shop and dot-sport because they'd be difficult to manage.

New.net claims its selection process differs significantly by being based on the amount of interest it receives from users. That interest has already been considerable, overwhelming the company's server and crashing its website for a period on Tuesday morning.

The domains are available immediately, but unless service providers - or individual users - update their DNS registries, web pages based on the new names will be invisible.

New.net is concentrating on registering US service providers to its new domains and has yet to complete any deals with European ISPs. But the company has already been approached by a number of European companies and domain registrars and claims European users can expect full access to names such as dot-mp3, dot-shop and dot-xxx by the end of the year.