The tremendous growth of the internet has resulted in the scarcity of domain names. Every possible word combination under the top-level domain names such as .com .net .org has been utilized and there is an increasing need to create new top-level domains. In Singapore, The Singapore Network Information Centre has catered for this increasing demand by announcing the creation of a new personal domain name category .per .sg recently. The .per.sg suffix stands for personal and reflects the country in which the applicant lives in i.e. Singapore. The registration of per.sg domain names was made available to the public in Singapore on the 1st of May 2000.

Those who were unable to register a domain name under top-level domain names such as .com.sg, .org.sg, .net .sg will now be able to apply for a domain name. The domain name could be as it appears on the applicant’s identity card or it could be a generic term such as flower, television etc.

Since the introduction of this personal form of address for people, there has been an explosion of applications for domain names relating to famous persons, derogatory terms, profanities among others. The Singapore Network Information Centre being the overall regulatory body for domain names has had to reject these applications. However, certain web addresses such as www.sex.per.sg, www.hell.per.sg, www.love.per.sg

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