The Guardian's international editions are proliferating, and soon all of its websites will be united under a single domain, theguardian.com.

Currently, The Guardian operates three websites. The primary one isguardian.co.uk. It has a second URL for its U.S. operation, guardiannews.com, which redirects to guardian.co.uk on section and article pages, and a subdomain for mobile, m.guardian.co.uk. Soon, it will unveil a fourth domain for its Australian edition.

The Guardian describes the move as a symbolic one. "As we set out on our mission to become a unified, global [organization], we now have one domain we can rally behind," Guardian U.S. CEO Michael Bloom said in an interview withMashable last week. "[And] it will be much easier for users and partners," he added.

Symbolism and convenience aside, the reason the move is happening now is because the publication just acquired the rights to the domain from the Guardian Life insurance company, which used the URL to redirect to its main domain,guardianlife.com.

The new domain experience, which is slated to launch this fall, won't feel very different for readers. Visitors will still be directed to the right edition based on their IP address (i.e., location).

Bloom said The Guardian's U.S. team now numbers more than 50, up from just five at launch two years ago. He added that The Guardian is also making "key hires" ahead of its debut in Australia later this year.

The Guardian draws more than 80 million unique visitors per month, according toABC figures. Two-thirds of those visitors are based outside the UK.

Note: An earlier version of this story indicated that the new domain would debut before The Guardian's Australian edition. In fact, the Australian edition will launch before the new domain does this fall, a spokesperson for The Guardian said