(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Two environmental organizations are currently in a heated battle to gain control of the new .Eco domain aimed at environmental groups.
In effort to gain control of the domain, Dot Eco (www.supportdoteco.com) has published a 17-page analysis of rival group Big Room (doteco.info) that criticizes the Canadian green group’s plan as being “unworkable”, arguing that its operating costs will rob green groups of key funding.
Both organizations are bidding for the right to sell .eco TLD domains.
Dot Eco, which is backed by former US vice president Al Gore and counts both the Sierra Club and the Alliance for Climate Protection as its supporters, is looking to sell domain names to raise funds for green organizations.
The group says it is already in contract negotiations to donate 57 percent of its profits from sales to these eco-friendly organizations.
Big Room, endorsed by WWF International and Green Cross, says it also plans to raise money from the sale of .eco domains to fund “sustainability projects”, but also plans to use .eco as a labelling system to promote green companies.
The organization says it will only grant a .eco address to those companies that meet agreed criteria, including measuring and publishing their carbon footprint.
Big Room also wants companies to start using .eco websites to make available all of their environmental information.
In the analysis, Dot Eco also says that Big Room’s lengthy registration policies will prevent many organizations from registering the domain name and decrease potential funding for green projects.
The .eco domain was made possible after ICANN unanimously voted in favor of introducing new TLD names that would allow any combination of letters.
