New York’s hottest new real estate exists only on the Internet

A vast new stretch of digital real estate opened on Sept 8 in New York City, where several dozen local businesses, non-profits and institutions went live online with enviable new dot-nyc Web sites.

The early settlers include a savvy local photographer (casey.nyc), a beekeeping association (bees.nyc), a renowned jazz club (birdland.nyc), a university (pace.nyc), and the city's current first lady (flo.nyc). The land rush to New York's new generic top-level domain name -- made possible by a massive new expansion beyond the Internet's old dot-com, dot-org suffixes -- underscores how much a physical address in the city still matters in an increasingly digital world. To qualify for one of the new URLs, locals, businesses and organizations must prove they have an actual address within the five boroughs (the .nyc online addresses, according to the city's application Web site, are "reserved exclusively for true New Yorkers").