September 8, 2003 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) --The Public Interest Registry (PIR) (pir.org) announced today that .org users will now be able to register and modify existing domain name registrations via their Web browsers in less than five minutes.

The company said the changes are now possible because it has switched the publication of its zone file to Afilias Limited, its backend registry services provider. Modifications previously took up to 12 hours to take effect, the company said.

The PIR made the switch from its previous registry services provider in January.

"Today's announcement is another significant step in PIR's commitment to establish a new level of exemplary registry services for our .org users internationally. We are now the world's largest registry to offer registration/modification-to-resolution in less than five minutes," said Edward G. Viltz, PIR's president and CEO. "While .org is unrestricted, the primary users of .ORG are the members of the non-commercial community. As our customers, the community deserves and will continue to receive leading edge technology and services from PIR."

PIR also announced the implementation of a redemption grace period that gives .ORG domain holders an additional 30 days to recover their domains in the event that they are deleted inadvertently.