Al Gore announces support for .eco domain

He may or may not have "invented the internet", but now Al Gore has pledged to try and give it a refresh, throwing his weight behind a campaign to establish a new .eco domain name.

The former vice president and Nobel Prize winner announced his support for a new social venture called Dot Eco LLC, which aims to secure the .eco top level domain later this year.

Founded by Fred Krueger and Clark Landry in 2008, the company aims to apply for control of the domain through the new generic top level domain (gTLD) process that is scheduled to be launched later this year by internet oversight body Icann.

It will then donate the majority of the profits from selling rights to use the .eco domain to environmental charities.

"We fully support Dot Eco LLC in its efforts to secure the .eco top level domain through the ICANN application process and look forward to working with Dot Eco LLC to promote .eco," said Gore, announcing a partnership between the social venture and his campaign group, the Alliance for Climate Protection. " This is a truly exciting opportunity for the environmental movement and for the internet as a whole."

Dot Eco LLC said that if it successful secures the new domain is likely to be used widely by companies seeking to promote their environmental initiatives and for green organisations keen "to maintain their websites in a namespace that is more relevant to their core missions".

"We believe that this initiative represents an example of the type of compelling top level domains made possible by Icann’s new gTLD application process," said Krueger.