The tiny Pacific kingdom of Tonga is finding a windfall in its Internet domain suffix. Unlike domain names such as .ie for Ireland, or .nz for New Zealand, Tonga has the very fortunate address of .to. The suffix allows users around the world to come up with catchy addresses such as fly.to, pho.to, talking.to, concer.to and even pota.to.
The new addresses are all being registered through the Tongan Consul in San Francisco, which charges $100 per name. Since it started in June, over 1,000 names have been registered.
The operation involves Crown Prince Tuputo'a and Californian entrepreneur and a passing yachtsman, Eric Gullichsen. Over dinner they discussed the problem of a shortage of .com domain names in the US. Tonga and its .to was seen as a useful alternative, and Gullichsen and partner Eric Lyons set up the Tonga Network Information Centre (www.tonic.to) as an automatic registration site on the Web. Actually it's a computer in the Tongan consulate in San Francisco.
"The .to top level domain is brand new, empty real estate, with most names still available," the homepage says. Other than a list of names it has reserved, "all names are available on a firstcome, first-served basis".
Eoin Licken adds:
Although most obvious names in the Tongo domain, such as go.to, love.to, listen.to, mail.to and blot.to, are already registered, others are still available for anyone wishing to get themselves a quirky name.
Among those still available are listening.to, which would suit many a record company or radio station, and heave.to which would look great on a shipping website. Someone in Rialto might like the address user@rial.to, while mon.to could be used by ballad singers. Unfortunately for the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, in.to is already registered.
Shoe companies are too late get stilet.to (ahem, I couldn't resist), and lot.to has already been claimed, but a courier or food delivery company might try to register pron.to before someone else does.
Classical music fans and companies are spoilt for choice. Among the domain names still available are falset.to and libret.to - and for anyone with a higher voice there's always castra.to.