The sunrise period for .xxx domain name applications closes on Friday, and domain registry ICM Registry is already claiming that the long-awaited top level domain (TLD) has been a roaring success.

The .xxx TLD has had a chequered history. It was all set for the green light in 2005 after approval from Icann, but this decision was reversed in 2007 after Icann was apparently influenced by right wing US groups and the Bush administration.

ICM didn't give up, though, and Icann was subsequently forced into an embarrassing about-turn in 2010 after an independent review panel adjudged that its previous decision to deny .xxx was wrong.

ICM chief executive Stuart Lawley explained that the registry has engaged in a series of marketing initiatives to educate businesses on how to apply for the domain, as well as educating consumers on the benefits of seeking out .xxx as the "clearly signposted home for adult content online".

There has certainly been a spike in interest from businesses. ICM was forced to extend its sunrise period from 30 to 50 days, (7 September until 28 October) after 900,000 expressions of interest during the pre-reservation process.

As with most new TLDs, the general pattern is a huge amount of interest early on in the sunrise period, during which brand holders defensively snap up the relevant domains so that cyber squatters or rivals are unable to use them.

The succeeding period of general availability rarely leads to the avalanche of registrations predicted by the registry and registrars involved.

Given the unusual nature of this particular domain, ICM has given brand holders the chance to pay a one-off exemption fee of $200 to $300 to ensure that their .xxx domain can never be bought by others.

While this is good news for brand holders looking to keep their trademark safe from exploitation by online scammers, ICM will be hoping that the subsequent landrush sees more interest than other launches in recent times including .tel, .eu and .travel.

The world may be teetering on the brink of a double-dip recession, but try telling that to firms involved in the world of domain name buying after several two-letter domains went for eye-watering five-figure sums.

The buyouts came after Nominet gave individuals and businesses the right to purchase one- and two-letter domains, and there has been no shortage of companies willing to throw significant chunks of money around on catchy domains such as d.co.uk and mm.co.uk.

Data on the buyers is being collated by domain seller Exacts.co.uk (six characters long!) which shows that there were one or two notable buyers, including Facebook, which secured fb.co.uk for £19,500.

Facebook's internet rival Google possibly missed out on a short domain it may have been targeting - g.co.uk - after a firm called ANY-Web Limited snapped it up for a whopping £76,000.

ANY-Web clearly has high hopes for the two-letter domain market, after buying 178 short domains, including o.co.uk (£65,000), 8.co.uk (£22,000) and us.co.uk (£11,111).

No doubt the firm will to try to flog these to firms that missed out in the land grab and will be willing to pay over the odds for a short and snappy web site URL to lodge in people's brains.

It's not a bad plan. Two-character domains are pretty popular and memorable. After all, V3.co.uk just rolls off the tongue.