It's about to get easier to visit Web sites hosted in Costa Rica. Starting soon, Costa Rican Web sites will be able to end with a “.cr” domain. At the moment, sites must use a “.co.cr” domain or some variation thereof, such as “.go.cr” or “.or.cr.”

Network Information Center-Costa Rica – a Costa Rican entity empowered by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority to administer the “.cr” domain – will make the domain available first to Web sites owning “.co.cr” real estate.

For instance, someone owning www.test.co.cr will have 90 days to register www.test.cr, after which that domain will be first come, first served.

The annual fee for registering a “.cr” domain will be $100, according to government newspaper La Gaceta. For more details, see NIC-Costa Rica's Web site, www.nic.cr.