Is it Al Gore or maybe Bill Gates?

Drugs.com, the latest high-profile Internet domain name to be put up for sale, has been auctioned off for $823,456 to a soon-to-be-identified ``pioneer' of the World Wide Web, auction broker GreatDomains.com announced Monday. GreatDomains, in a move that appears calculated to stir up further interest following last week_s auction, said it will unveil the name of the buyer Friday at a news conference in San Francisco. GreatDomains said the buyer, who is traveling internationally until Friday, also will appear at the event and unveil his plans for using drugs.com. The name currently exists only as a site address owned by 22-year-old Internet entrepreneur Eric MacIver of Phoenix. MacIver, operator of five-employee Web site designer Sandline Productions, bought the name in May with the goal of opening an online pharmacy. But then he decided to put the name up for sale with a $260,000 asking price. MacIver said Monday that he will use the auction proceeds to triple the size of Sandline over the next three months and open a Web-based bed-and-bath store in the next six months. MacIver and several analysts had predicted the bid for drugs.com which receives more than 4,000 hits per day even though no site actually exists could top $1 million because of the potential for selling prescription and over-the-counter drugs on the Internet. Upstarts such as drugstore.com and PlanetRX.com already have started trying to snag Web-savvy customers seeking discounts and convenience. Additionally, the notion of a million-dollar sale for a Web site is not far-fetched since a similar name with high a recognition factor wallstreet.com sold in May to an online casino for $1.03 million.