Snap-Shot Service, which monitors changes to domain name registration records and provides weekly status reports but doesn't include automatic repurchases or back ordering.

CNN: New service back-orders domain names

While the announcement sounds the start of competition in this market, it raises a serious question for users: If ISPs offer domain name registration as an add-on to Web services, then who owns the domain?

CNN: New domain name system creates confusion over ownership

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) last week announced that five companies, including America Online, will participate in a test bed for a new domain name registration system designed to end Network Solutions, Inc.

CNN: New domain name system creates confusion over ownership

Until last fall, Network Solutions had been the exclusive provider of domain-name registration services under a contract it had with the U.S. Commerce Department.

CNN: New domain names approved

While the new regime ends NSI's monopoly over the award of top-level domain names, the Commission is concerned that highly restrictive provisions in its licensing agreements with companies wanting to enter the market for domain-name registration will discourage competition.

CNN: European Commission probes NSI

The company collects a fixed fee each time individuals or businesses register a new .com or .net domain name, or renew the registration of an existing domain name.

FORBES: VeriSign Has $44 In Sight If Domain Name Renewal Stays Strong

All that said, how many more domain-registration companies can you name without a Google search?

CNN: Breaking down the Super Bowl tech ads

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the registration of the first .com domain name, the official beginning of the commercial Internet.

FORBES: Verisign: Cyber Attacks Will Grow 1000-Fold This Decade

For example, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), which manages the dot-ca domain, should pass one million domain name registrations by early 2008, yet implementation of French language characters is only likely to take place in the next few years.

BBC: ICANN logo