Speculators have already started buying potentially popular domain names hoping to resell them, and companies cannot afford to ignore the new suffixes.

The .biz and .info top-level domains are the first of the seven new domains approved by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers and are designed to take the burden off the existing oversubscribed domains.

But retailers, including HMV and WH Smith, say they will not be registering. 'A plethora of suffixes does not strike me as good news,' said WH Smith's commercial director Ross Beadle. 'It would only become an issue if they become more established.'

HMV ecommerce director Stuart Rowe said that the company had spent a lot of time and money establishing the hmv.co.uk brand, and can see no real merit in .info or .biz unless there is a change in surfing habits.

Rowe admitted that HMV is opening itself up to some risk from speculators by not registering, but is confident that it will gain control of the new suffixes in arbitration.

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