Start-Up Plays the Free Name Game

Conventional wisdom holds that the price for registering a domain name will drop once Network Solutions faces full competition from the 76 registrars waiting in the wings. Network Solutions charges $35 a year under terms of its government contract, and some industry watchers predict the price could fall by at least half.Would-be registrar IDirections.com plans to do away with the fees altogether. The Los Gatos, Calif.-based start-up is offering domain names for free, and throwing in Web hosting and e-mail service to boot. Like other companies that offer free Internet access and even free computers, IDirections.com plans to recoup the costs of its Namezero service by selling ads next to a tool bar at the bottom of the computer screen. IDirections.com has been accredited by the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, and the company has started preregistering customers for personalized domain names at https://www.namezero.com. Even though the service won’t be available until later this year, IDirections.com already has a fan in Mike Roberts, the interim president of ICANN.

“The speed with which IDirections.com and the other ICANN-accredited registrars have responded with exciting new services and offerings is a testament to the power of competition,” Roberts said.