A period of growth for the .org generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) has characterised its silver anniversary. Figures released on 17 August by US-based .org operator, the Public Interest Registry (PIR), show that the uptake of entirely new .org addresses is keeping pace with that of market leader, .com, and its second-place rival, .net.

The brand-new additions to the .org population – known in the sector as ‘new creates’ – have combined with an increase in renewals to produce ‘staggering growth’, according to PIR chief executive Alexa Raad. ‘In the first six months of 2010,’ she said, ‘the .org domain grew by 7.6% – more than doubling last year’s first-half gain of 3.2%.

‘This increase in registrations has brought .org’s total number of domains under management to an astounding 8.5 million,’ Raad added. ‘That’s 500,000 more .org communities than six months ago.’ Raad said that the figures offered ‘proof that we’re successfully expanding our influence across a wide array of registered businesses, for-profit companies and special interests while also continuing to serve the greater non-profit community’.

Published in PIR’s bi-annual report The Dashboard, the figures show that between January and June this year, 77% of .org holders renewed their domains for one to three years – an increase of 4% over 2009. In addition:

• .org realised a 16.5% growth rate for new creates, levelling with recent figures posted by .com and .net

• Health and education-related .org gTLDs have seen the most significant growth this year, increasing by 6% and 14% respectively; and

• The US and EU had the most significant levels of .org registration, while China’s market for the gTLD is burgeoning. Its .org growth rate doubled from 2% last year to 4% this year.

It is likely that .org will be further stimulated by its enhanced security measures. On 23 June PIR announced that, following lengthy preparations, it had deployed leading online protection protocol, the Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), across the entire .org landscape. This made .org the first gTLD to fully implement the tool.

‘With DNSSEC,’ The Dashboard reported, ‘registrants will benefit from the ability to thwart the increased predominance of attacks such as pharming [redirecting traffic to bogus websites], cache poisoning [switching websites’ addresses for rogue ones] and domain hijacking – all of which have been used to commit fraud, distribute malware and engage in identity theft.’