RESTON, Virginia, March 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- .ORG, The Public Interest Registry (http://www.pir.org/) (PIR) is pleased to announce that .ORG is now home to over 9 million domain name registrations. With a growth of 10.3 percent in 2010 - the domain continues to be trusted and embraced, making it the world's third largest generic Top Level Domain (gTLD). .ORG has significantly increased its domains under management (DUM) in the last five years; up from just 3.9 million in 2005 according to the organization's recently published bi-annual "Dashboard" (http://www.pir.org/news) report.

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"Hitting the 9 million registration mark is a testament to both .ORG's reputation and its impact within the Internet community," said Brian Cute, CEO of .ORG, The Public Interest Registry. ".ORG remains a community-driven platform and has become the domain of choice for organizations, individuals, and companies to channel their passion toward a shared purpose with their community."

This unparalleled growth is due in large part to key accomplishments achieved since .ORG's inception in 1985. In the decades following the first .ORG registration - mitre.org, the domain has become the trusted domain of choice for a vast range of non-profits, associations, international corporations involved in cause marketing, open source software developers, and arts communities. As one of the original top-level domains, .ORG's true power lies in its ability to generate interaction and conveys trust. For the past 25 years, .ORG has reshaped the online world by advancing knowledge, creating opportunities, driving conversations, and most importantly, building online communities.