ICANN - The internet's governing body.
Do you want the domain name “.pizza” ? Or how about “.mikesbikeshop” ? With this new change from ICANN we now don’t have to depend on the .com, .net, .org. The possibilities are endless in domain registration. This is huge for brand awareness and overall marketing campaigns. ”This may be the dawn of a new age of online innovation in the domain name space….the Internet’s addressing system has just been opened up to the limitless possibilities of human imagination and creativity,” said ICANN Chief Executive Rod Beckstrom at a media briefing Monday.
Singapore | ICANN’s Board of Directors has approved a plan to usher in one of the biggest changes ever to the Internet’s Domain Name System. The Board vote was 13 approving, 1 opposed, and 2 abstaining.
During a special meeting, the Board approved a plan to dramatically increase the number of Internet domain name endings — called generic top-level domains (gTLDs) — from the current 22, which includes such familiar domains as .com, .org and .net.
“ICANN has opened the Internet’s naming system to unleash the global human imagination. Today’s decision respects the rights of groups to create new Top Level Domains in any language or script. We hope this allows the domain name system to better serve all of mankind,” said Rod Beckstrom, President and Chief Executive Officer of ICANN.
New gTLDs will change the way people find information on the Internet and how businesses plan and structure their online presence. Internet address names will be able to end with almost any word in any language, offering organizations around the world the opportunity to market their brand, products, community or cause in new and innovative ways.
“Today’s decision will usher in a new Internet age,” said Peter Dengate Thrush, Chairman of ICANN’s Board of Directors. “We have provided a platform for the next generation of creativity and inspiration.”
The decision to proceed with the gTLD program follows many years of discussion, debate and deliberation with the Internet community, business groups and governments. The Applicant Guidebook, a rulebook explaining how to apply for a new gTLD, went through seven significant revisions to incorporate more than 1,000 comments from the public. Strong efforts were made to address the concerns of all interested parties, and to ensure that the security, stability and resiliency of the Internet are not compromised.
ICANN will soon begin a global campaign to tell the world about this dramatic change in Internet names and to raise awareness of the opportunities afforded by new gTLDs. Applications for new gTLDs will be accepted from 12 January 2012 to 12 April 2012.
A top-level domain name of up to 63 characters of just about any string of letters or numbers can be registered, ICANN said. For instance, someone could turn “asknotwhatyourcountrycandoforyouaskwhatyoucandoforyourcountry” into a domain. But applicants will need to spend US $185,000 upfront just to apply for a domain string.
Applications open January 12, 2012 and close April 12 and the first of the new domains could be online by November next year.
ICANN said the hefty fee is based on the estimated cost of processing the applications including possible litigation and other contingencies although the auction process could potentially generate some sizeable revenues that would go into the group’s reserves.
The winner will be determined by a panel who will decide on the appropriateness of an applicant according to a series of criteria such as how the applicant plans to use the domain and whether the business model is sustainable.
Applicants will be refunded according to how early they withdraw their application ahead of the announcement of the winning applicant.
ICANN said it will reject applicants that look like cashed-up cyber squatters looking to take advantage of brand names or trademarks that clearly don’t belong to them so in theory only one applicant would realistically be eligible to buy a domain such as .cocacola.
Where it gets trickier but potentially more lucrative for ICANN is with more semantically generic domains such as .anything.
If ICANN can’t decide on the single most appropriate candidate out of a group for a particular name, the process moves to an auction, in which case the winner will likely be the one with the deepest pockets.
The organization’s chairman, Peter Dengate Thrush, said at the media briefing he expects most contentions would be settled outside the application process before they reach the auction stage.
“But if they do (go to auction) then that money would go back to the (ICANN) community for good work,” he said, without specifying how ICANN could spend the money.
This is not the first time ICANN has sought to expand the number of generic domain names. Early last decade a handful of generic domain names such as .info, .biz and .museum were introduced to ease demand for the more popular tags though the reception for these new names was generally lukewarm.
-By Sam Holmes, Dow Jones Newswires;
