Note: The Skinny blog is written by Rick Smith, editor and co-founder of WRAL Tech Wire and business editor of WRAL.com.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – “XXX – Come and get it,” proclaimed the domain name web site.

On Wednesday, more than 50,000 people and companies did just that as XXX Internet domain names went on sale from ICM Registry, a Florida-based company.

Domain Name News, a website covering the Internet industry, reported that as of noon Thursday more than 55,000 new domain names were registered with XXX.

Ahead of the official launch, more than 104,000 names had been reserved. (The XXX domain was approved in March by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which governs such things.)

However, the total doesn’t necessarily mean that many companies will be doing business as XXX adult entertainment.

“Many of these domains won’t resolve, of course — they were registered by non adult companies wishing to block their brands from becoming porn sites,” Domain News said.

At its website, ICM Registery noted that names were available on a “first come, first served basis.”

“The new .XXX domain functions as a responsible alternative for sites that offer adult entertainment content and related services,” the company says. “All .XXX sites are appropriately labeled and McAfee Malware scanned. This means Internet users have a clear indication in advance of a site’s content and can surf the Internet with more confidence.”

According to ICM, the XXX rollout is “the most successful launch of any new sponsored top level domain.”

Do you have any doubts as to why?

“While adult entertainment is enjoyable to many adults, it is not appropriate for all audiences,” said Stuart Lawley, the firm’s CEO. “We created .XXX to address the unique needs of the online adult entertainment industry. The public response has been overwhelming as consumers and the adult entertainment providers are excited about the benefits and infinite possibilities of .XXX.”

And do you need ask what the benefits are?

ICM says more than 250 million web pages have been “labeled” as adult oriented.

Plus, its own related website for purchasing domains – www.buy.xxx – is getting nearly 1 million visitors a day.

Are you surprised?

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