THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION HAS BEGUN!
.US Domain Goes Live; Appeals To Consumers, Businesses and Organizations Alike

.US, "America's Internet Address," opened for business on
April 24, 2002—and today, all individuals, companies, organizations and government entities with an American connection can take part in the Web's newest phenomenon.

Harris Interactive Poll results released on April 24, 2002—the official launch date of .US—indicate that as many as 68 million Americans would choose .US if given a choice between the
all-American domain and the overly cluttered, "catch-all" .COM naming convention. Further poll findings reveal that more than 35 million American adults would be likely to buy a .US Internet address for a family member or friend for holidays such as Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduation, birthday or another special occasion.

Serving Every Sector
.US enables domestic and international firms of every size and classification to protect their trademarks and corporate identities online, and raises the Internet profile of nonprofits, associations and charities. Similarly, consumers have an opportunity to establish a unique and memorable American identity online with .US. Finally, .US "brings government to the people" and makes the Web more citizen-centric by helping federal, state and local government agencies reduce costs and become more accessible.

.US: Then And Now
Before NeuStar took control of .US, the domain was largely underutilized due to a cumbersome "locality-based" hierarchy, operational challenges, limited public awareness, service level issues and infrastructure needs. Realizing the vast potential of the domain, the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) awarded .US to NeuStar with the following mandate:

• manage this important public resource as a neutral third party, providing equal access and service levels to all
  
• transition mission-critical infrastructure services, ensuring support for the existing locality space as well as registrants in the expanded .US domain
  
• implement advanced, reliable, secure and scalable technologies to meet the demands of both the public and private sectors
  
• facilitate policy in an environment of many diverse stakeholders
  
• build a solid domain infrastructure, and sustain it
  long-term

NeuStar assumed responsibility for the .US locality space within six days of the contract award, and expanded that space into a fully operational public offering in less than six months.

Now, it's your chance to become a true American pioneer. Visit www.getmy.us today and stake your claim in the .US domain!

NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENTS
As you may know, NeuStar has a lot more going on than simply administering the .BIZ and .US domains. We've been hard at work developing products and services that are sure to make your online experiences more informative and profitable. Below, you'll find two recent high-profile products that have made (or will soon make) their NeuStar debut:

• PostMinder^SM (USD$49.00/year; free trials available at www.postminder.biz) takes email to an entirely new level, offering dozens of tracking and certification features unavailable anywhere else. It notifies the sender when email is received and viewed, marks emails with timestamps and date stamps, uses digital certificate technology as proof of delivery, and offers high-level features including self-destructing email, virus protection and encryption. (This unique email add-on works even if the recipient of an email is not a PostMinder^SM subscriber!) PostMinder^SM integrates seamlessly with every email address, with no time-consuming downloads or plugins required.
  

• BIZ Promote^SM (available fourth quarter 2002) will enable companies to achieve priority rankings on the Internet's most popular search engines and web directories, including Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Lycos, AltaVista and LookSmart. Over 90% of all website visits are directly related to search engine and directory referrals, making BIZ Promote^SM critical for businesses seeking significant ROI from online sales. Further, the product is "TLD-agnostic," meaning it can be used by businesses in every Web domain (.BIZ, .US, etc.) The product is an extension of NeuStar's infrastructure, and an integral part of our "thick" registry concept.

ANNOUNCING THE USD$2,500 "BEST OF .BIZ" AND "BEST OF .US" CONTESTS!

Successful .BIZ and .US websites that combine great design, usability and bottom-line results can make a fast USD$2,500 in NeuStar's "Best Of .BIZ" and "Best of .US" contests—and you could be a winner!

How To Enter
NeuLevel- and NeuStar-accredited registrars and resellers will send out emails to their customers detailing the contest. Entrants will be asked to send the addresses of their sites to NeuLevel (for .BIZ) or NeuStar (for .US) via their registrars or resellers for review—and lucky winners will be contacted via email!

Prizes
Winners in the following categories will each receive a USD$2,500 prize:

• Best .BIZ Site
• Best .US Site

Winners will be selected on or about October 31, 2002, and will be featured on either www.neulevel.biz or www.neustar.us.

To be eligible for the contest, entries MUST be received at your registrar's or reseller's office by September 30, 2002. Contact your Registrar for official rules.

IN THIS ISSUE. . .

• New Product Announcements
• "Best of .BIZ" and "Best of .US" Contests
• Purposeful Domains
• Make .US Your Name For Life
• .US Factoids
• NeuStar at E-Gov
• Snapshot: The .ORG Domain

PURPOSEFUL DOMAINS
Here's a transcript of an informative article about .BIZ and .US that recently ran in Finance Director Europe:

New domains for a new Internet
While it is clear that the heady days of the dot-com gold rush are over, it is equally clear that the Internet is a valid business channel that can complement, or even replace, existing communications channels. However, even with years of innovation that have radically redefined the parameters of the Internet, the dot-com domain hasn't been upgraded in its 15 years of existence. The time is here for new domains that are built for the modern Internet, helping it to deliver on its potential for years to come.

Narrowcasting the 'Net
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently approved seven new generic Top Level Domains in order to narrowcast the Internet more efficiently. These new domains will assist in categorising sites more effectively, making it easier and more secure for people to find the information they want. Previously, legitimate businesses, personal home pages and everything else all shared the same domain allocation and space on the Internet.

The lack of Internet order makes it difficult for users to verify what type of site they are visiting. The new domains help separate businesses, personal sites and other sites into distinct Internet regions. They include dot-biz, for companies conducting business on the Internet; dot-info, to provide an appropriate area for information; dot-name, for personal names and sites; as well as dot-pro, dot-aero, dot-museum and dot-coop.

Also, the release of the country-specific dot-us domain offers European businesses a means of targeting the American market more appropriately for the first time. All of the new purpose-specific domains are intended to ease the transition from today's undefined, parameter-less Internet into the business, communication and entertainment medium of choice for the future.

Fool's gold domains
With a lack of appropriate domain name options in the late 1990s, a 'land-grab' ensued. Speculators acquired popular dot-com names in the hopes of selling them at vast profits (also known as "cybersquatting"). However, as these registrations have started to expire, and cybersquatting has become less effective, the volume of registered dot-com, dot-net and dot-org domain names has also declined. In fact, State of the Domain, a monthly publication that monitors domain names, reported that these older domains shed 372,140 registrations in March of this year, while dot-biz, dot-info and dot-name grew by 108,519.

A secure place to do business
The introduction of dot-biz and dot-us finally guarantees businesses a more secure, business-oriented space on the Internet. These new domains have expanded security for e-commerce customers with the creation of a 'thick' registry, which includes detailed and searchable information about site owners, as well as a more effective registration process. Companies wanting to register a site need to provide in-depth information about their whereabouts, contact information and more.

This enables the public to precisely track the location or contact details of a site's owner, contributing to a higher level of trust. Currently, the registry that manages the dot-com domain requires only four pieces of information: the IP address, the domain name, the domain's registrar and the expiry date.

These new domains are required to help advance the Internet to its next stage of evolution. They are able to provide a more purposeful identity online, as well as address the concerns that currently hinder the expansion of e-commerce and other Internet-based initiatives. Domains like dot-biz and dot-us are needed if the Internet is truly going to deliver on its promises for the future.