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ICANN Considers Single Letter Domains

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the everybody-wants-to-be-a-vowel dept.

* * Beatles-Beatles writes "...as the Internet's key oversight agency considers lifting restrictions on the simplest of names. In response to requests by companies seeking to extend their brands, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will chart a course for single-letter Web addresses as early as this weekend, when the ICANN board meets in Vancouver, British Columbia. Those names could start to appear next year."

4 of 314 comments (clear)

  1. Re:But they already exist by mysqlrocks · · Score: 4, Informative
    FTA:

    Six single-letter names already claimed at the time _ "q.com," "x.com, "z.com," "i.net," "q.net," and "x.org" _ were allowed to keep their names for the time being.

    --
    Bradley Holt
  2. For those that didn't bother to read the article.. by SecureTheNet · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...this does not open up top level domains, like .a or .b This is a proposal to open up something like a.com or b.com.

    Yes, I realize there are a few out there, www.X.org comes to mind. Most of the single letter domains are registered to:

    [whois.iana.org]

    IANA Whois Service
    Domain: c.com
    Name: IANA_RESERVED

    The article also states that IANA started reserving these in 1993, but the whois record for x.org shows it was created in 1997.

    --
    SecureThe.Net - Practical Resources for Securing Systems
  3. How to Advertise on Slashdot by nagora · · Score: 5, Informative
    Beatles-Beatles, AKA Carl Fogle, is using /. to boost his search-engine jigging company. By hosting gerorge-harrison.info and then getting /. to link to it, and therefore lots of other sites to mirror that link, he is boosting that domain's search ranking (he's up to #10 on Google for "George Harrison"). He can then point his prospective clients to this success when pitching to them for their business.

    TWW

    --
    "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  4. Re:Only 26 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually it's less than you might think....

    gTLDs - .com .edu .gov .int .mil .net and .org

    Of those, only the .com, .net and .org are 'open' for registration so that gives you 3 x 26 = 78

    Then you've got the new TLDs; .biz .info .name .pro .aero .coop and .museum

    Of those 3 are sponsored (.aero .coop and .museum) so the policies regarding registration are at the discretion of the sponsor. That leaves 4 more TLDs under the control of ICANN as far as policies go. We're up to 7 x 26 = 182

    Then there are the ccTLDs; .ac .ad .ae .af .ag. .ai .al .an ......... .za .zm .zw

    But the ccTLDs are under the control of a delegated agent in the country involved and the policies are once again at the discretion of the delegated agent. You've just lost the 240 x 26 which would have really bulked out those numbers.

    Oh, and then you have to take away the 6 existing one letter domain names which leaves us with a grand total of new 'approved by ICANN' one letter domains of;

    (7 x 26) - 6 = 176

    So it's not that many....