Domain names 'can be offered as gifts'

Domain names are increasingly being offered as gifts to business owners and other web users, it has been reported.

According to Internet New Zealand, purchasing a web address from a domain name consultancy is an increasingly common present gesture.

Speaking to the National Business Review, Campbell Gardiner, communications and research officer at the firm, said having a domain name is "a good way to express yourself online".

He explained that he had actually acquired a domain on behalf of his brother, who was reportedly "quite chuffed".

Mr Gardiner added: "He could set up a website or a blog and use it to record his activities, or he could use it as a personalised email address."

Last year, the owner of Insure.com sold the domain name for a reported sum of £10.1 million, showing that well-selected addresses may even become valuable business assets.

Written by Debra Hastings-Henry