So how does internet keywords work? Well very basically, typing an address in such as "florida car insurance" into your browser used to take you to MSN and display a rather advertising heavy page. Not any more.

With the new Internet Keyword in place you're taken directly to whichever company registered that keyword. Registrations take place in a similar fashion to domain names, paying a yearly fee.

So, how exactly do you register these new internet keywords? Well very easily, visit either the navicode website (just to make things confusing they're also called navicodes, which is actually easier on the tongue!). Prices are $45 per year.

One of the greatest advancements of this internet keyword system over the old one that ceased to function almost a year ago, is that they work everywhere. So if you register the internet keyword "marks garage" it works in the US, Europe or anywhere else on the planet.

The old keyword system required that you register the keyword in each country, meaning that a single internet keyword could set you back thousands of dollars a year!

Is this better than just trying to get people to remember www.cnn.com? Probably not, although now I know the keyword cnn works, Im using it much more frequently. The real strength is that it lets you get to sections of the website straight away. For example, cnn world takes me to the world news section. Great!

So how does the new internet keyword compare to the old one that was promoted by realnames?
Well I'm glad to say it does a fine job. Realnames had a policy of not letting people register the name they wanted, for example if I wanted "johns bookshop" they would take a look at my site and my say that it was a generic keyword. They would then suggest I register "johns bookshop florida". Not only did they charge something like $200 for that, but they could turn me down without making any other suggestions! Glad to say that restrictions gone. Generic keywords are perfectly registratable.

Another wonderful feature thats been enabled is that I can actually sell on my internet keyword to someone else. So if by some quirk I landed myself with a hot name, such as "books", i could sell it on for any price, much like you can do with domains. Realnames banned these kinds of transactions.

The International Keyword has also pursued an agressive partnership program, and new devices are becoming "navicode compliant" all the time. These include PDAs and mobile phones which makes perfect sense.

Is it worth it?
It seems like it could be a good idea depending upon what you're trying to do. If you already have a good and memorable .com name, then buying the RealNames keywords with the same name may not make a lot of sense, and would only be undertaken to protect your brand.

But if your site has different sections, or a domain name that is not generic, then they are definately worth looking into!