They said that the Internet would change the world.  Well it certainly changed Tuvalu, a country of 10,000 citizens living on nine tiny islands spread across hundreds of miles of the South Pacific.  Up until recently, the country generated most of its revenues by selling coins and stamps.  But, that has changed.  By pure chance, Tuvula's two digit country internet address just happened to be ".TV", the most recognizable two letter abbreviation in the world.  Recently, Bill Gross, the founder of IdeaLab, known best for starting the eCommerce titan eToys, offered the Tuvaluan government millions of dollars to license its address.  It was an offer they couldn't refuse.

Today Tuvalu is getting new roads, electricity, medical personnel, Internet connections, and international scholarships and education.  The story is reminiscent of the great book/movie "The Mouse That Roared"

With rights in hand, DotTV, the startup funded by IdeaLab, is now selling ".tv" domain names. For $50/year, anyone can license the run-of-the-mill names, and for considerably more money they can purchase the more desirable names.  Here are a few of those:

• MAPS.TV $250,000/yr
• REAL.TV $250,000/yr
• CLICK.TV $12,500/yr

The Coolmaps Components Club registered COOLMAPS.TV for $50/yr.  (And for kicks and giggles we registered NETOBJECTS.TV for the same price).

Check out your domain:
www. .TV

Hit ENTER after you type in your desired domain name.

Keep in mind that DNS works exactly the same for .TV names as it does for .COM, .NET, and .ORG - Hosting services know what to do.