Amazon enters domain name game

E-tail giant Amazon.com is to begin selling internet addresses to individuals and businesses having won approval to do so from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Amazon is not currently offering domains, and the site listed in ICANN's directory for Amazon's registrar is not working. An Amazon representative could not immediately be reached for comment.

Until 1999, the registration business had been a government-approved monopoly.

Since the market became non-exclusive, more than 100 companies have won the right to register domain names.

Amazon has greatly widened its retail business in the past year, expanding its virtual storefront to include third-party retailers such as Toys "R" Us and Circuit City.

Recently, the e-tailer opened an online clothes store that features goods from such 'real-world' outfits as Gap, Eddie Bauer and Foot Locker.

The company also operates marketplace features where small businesses can run their own shops through Amazon.

Margaret kane writes for News.com