Can you believe that there are more than 20 million searches for ‘sex’ every month in the UK? That’s almost the same as the number of searches for ‘football’!

Surprising or not, the English are 39% more sex obsessed than the Scottish and 52% more obsessed than the Northern Irish. But the topic has been even more prominent in the online world recently, with the launch of .sx domains.

.sx is the country code top-level domain for the island of Sint Maarten, a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Aware that they were sitting on a potential gold mine, the powers that be on the island made the nation’s domain extension available for anyone to register and use for whatever purpose.

Clearly the intention behind the move is obvious – the extension should appeal to anyone running an adult website. But .sx has also gained the attention of some of the world’s most famous online brands.

Major players including Google have registered their domains under the .sx extension to stop other people getting their hands on them and exploiting their reputations through unscrupulous means. Doing this is known as brand protection, and companies are given a grace period to buy domain names based around their trademarks before any new extension goes on sale to the general public.

But the arrival of .sx domains should, by and large, be viewed as a positive thing. After all, with so many companies online it can be hard get the name you want – the launch of a new extension frees up online real estate.

And although there is an association with adult content, it is important to remember the origin of the .sx extension is entirely innocent. It remains to be seen whether any companies will take the plunge and opt for a .sx domain name despite, rather than because of the connotations it carries.

If they don’t, it would be a shame – .sx, as with any new domain extension, brings with it a whole host of opportunities. A .sx domain is an invaluable tool in a world where a distinctive name can give your business the boost you’ve been waiting for.

Check out this infographic for more about .sx domains.

Don’t forget to leave your feedback via comments below. What do you think of the .sx domain extension? Check out other infographics on our blog.

Written by Will Stevens, part of the 123-reg.co.uk blog team. The company is the UK’s largest accredited provider of domain names.