Dot Local Domains

[techlists at phpcoderusa.com]

Hi,

For some reason .local popped into my head this morning.  From what I 
read it appears I may be able to create an Intranet that has a private 
domain name such as MyBusiness.local, on a private IP, and I am thinking 
I can run BIND and make a zone file for this Intranet.  In this case, if 
I am in he local net I can bring it up with  MyBusiness.local??  If so 
then I should be able to add subdomains to the local BIND/zone... So 
will this private network work like the public Internet?

This makes me believe I can create a mail server on this private net for 
the users of this private net.  Not that I want to, however it is 
interesting.

I read that MAC is doing something with the .local domain so it was 
recommended to use:

.test
.example
.invalid
.localhost

Would it be possible to create a private network using one of these 
private TLDs and can I use BIND to control this?

How will my browser know to go to my private domain if I use one of 
these private domains - I seem to recall needing to put this  in the 
hosts file on Linux and Windows so it would resolve.  Would BIND 
override this?

Thanks!!
Keith