VeriSign files to provide domain trade-in service

Website developers who get sick of their domain name but have a solid site design may benefit from a new service that could help them stir it up.

VeriSign, an internet infrastructure services provider, is adding domain name changing services for websites that want to alter their address, according to an article in Domain Name Wire. The company filed papers for a so-called domain name exchange with ICANN, the private nonprofit that oversees the internet on behalf of the U.S. government.

The company suggests the domain name change service would allow users with website addresses that are not popular to trade their domain name for a more attractive one.

"By allowing exchanges of domain names, the service will expand consumer and registrar choice by allowing registrars to offer new and innovative services," the company says in its filing. "VeriSign believes this service will have a positive effect on competition by allowing registrars to market a new, innovative service related to domain name registrations, better enabling registrars to differentiate their services and compete more effectively, and give consumers more choices."

At the moment, more than 90,000 domains are registered by VeriSign. It operates two of the world's 13 so-called root nameservers, which assign IP addresses to devices communicating on the internet.