Company registers short Nigerian domain name.

Microsoft registered the short URL Bi.ng on February 4 thanks to the liberalization of Nigeria’s .ng domain name to allow limited second level registrations.

Previously you were required to register .ng domain names at the third level, e.g. name.com.ng. However, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) is now selling second level domains through an “auction“.

Companies with trademark rights in a particular domain can get the second level .ng for 3 million Naira, which is approximately $20,000 USD.

The domain name was registered through NIRA-accredited registrar WebDomains.com.ng. The registrar reports a number of other second level registrations including 3m.ng, leadership.ng, google.ng, gmail.ng, youtube.ng, honeywell.ng, and googli.ng.

Bi.ng might be a great URL shortener for Bing, but I have my concerns about basing a web site on country code domains like .ng that can frequently change their policies.