Internet community at the forefront of online collaboration, social issues, advocacy, and social networking reaches significant milestone

.ORG, The Public Interest Registry, the registry behind the global .ORG domain name, announced today that more than 7 million domain names are now registered as .ORG, making it the third largest generic domain (after .com and .net). Since management of the registry was assumed by Public Interest Registry in 2003, .ORG registrations have increased more than 250%.

“This is a significant milestone for .ORG, as it has consistently grown 20% percent year over year since its management by Public Interest Registry,” says Alexa Raad, CEO. “.ORG continues to be the domain of choice for individuals and organizations who seek to brand their efforts under a globally trusted and respected address.”

The growth in .ORG registrations has been driven by internet and societal trends such as social networking, issue awareness, online collaboration and advocacy, all of which have accelerated since 2003. Some notable examples include:

• the increasing number of for-profit organizations who choose .ORG addresses to emphasize their service missions and as Craigslist puts it, their “non-corporate culture;”
• the launch of community sites such as freecycle.org;
• increasing number of wikis for collaborative content, made popular by wikipedia.org;
• the growth in online political organizing;
• empowered bloggers who start their own websites to further their passions or causes such as takebackthefilter.org; and
• the growth of the “green” movement as shown by sites like sustainablog.org.

The individuals and organizations that are precipitating these trends have found a strong sense of community within the .ORG domain. This has fueled the phenomenal growth of not only .org domains, but also the quality content and the sense of trust associated with the “.ORG” brand.

“We can’t imagine Wikipedia as a .com—.ORG is a core part of our identity,” says Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia and member of the Board of Trustees of The Wikimedia Foundation. “.ORG is available to anyone in the world, and it is a great way for an organization to signal an ambition to be inclusive and global.”

To learn more about the .ORG Community, visit http://www.pir.org/orgadvantage.