A new e-mail and web site directory - for Bermuda - has been launched by Bermuda Marketing.

Publisher Ian Coles said the publication - which is being called dot.bm, and is the first local publication of its kind - was prompted by need.

Mr. Coles said: "There was not a single source for e-mail addresses," adding that the company pulled the publication, which includes several hundred e-mail addresses, together in about three months.

According to Mr. Coles, the publication set out to answer two frequently asked questions: "What is your e-mail address? " and "Does your company have a Web site?"

To that end, dot.bm, includes a list of 100 "Top Web sites" - although Mr. Coles said the listed web sites were sold as advertising spaces, and does not imply that these sites are better than others.

The publication also provides advice on the basics of how to get started online through to creating your own web site, much of it written by Mid-Ocean News Internet columnist Chris Gibbons.

Mr. Coles said the company plans to do an annual distribution of dot.bm, although he said there has been such positive reaction to the first edition, that a second edition will come out within a few months' time.

About 25,000 copies of dot.bm have been printed, and are being distributed - free of charge - to every household.

Bermuda Marketing also publishes Who's Who in Bermuda, the New Resident Guide, Bermuda Business Visitor, amongst others.