Internetnews.com reports that domain name registrations are hotter than ever, with VeriSign showing 5.1 new domain names registered in the last quarter, almost half a million more than any previous quarter. Verisign attributed a lot of the growth to the increased use of pay-per-click advertising, which may have brought more brands and marketers online as well as inspired existing ones to segment their offerings to appear more relevant.

The second most registered domain behind the ubiquitous .com was Germany's .de, with 12 percent of registered domains. The .com domains still represent about half of all registrations. Domain renewal remained at a relatively high 72 percent.