On the afilias.info site:.INFO, the Internet's first unrestricted top-level domain
since .COM, is the first of the seven new top-level domains (TLD) to begin live,
real-time processing of domain names. The .INFO registration process is faster than
the .COM registration process. Users can see their domain name in Afilias' .INFO
WHOIS database immediately, and have their new .INFO Web site functioning within
minutes. Typically this process takes about 24 hours for a .COM registration.
OK...
.NET and .ORG went unrestricted later than .COM (all three originally had restrictions,
but Network Solutions dropped the ball on them in the late '90s); .INFO may have
been the first to begin live, real-time processing, but it's also the first to suspend
its live, real-time processing due to technical problems. The .INFO registration
process, so far, has been much slower and less reliable than .COM, you often can't
see your registrations in the database for an indefinite length of time (some landrush
registrations never made it, apparently), and most registrars have yet to get around
to enabling any of the successfully-registered .INFO names so that the registrants
can actually use them. But otherwise, I guess this release is about right...
:)