ICANN Board Approves Wide Expansion of TLDs

penciling_in writes "The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved the relaxation of the rules for the introduction of new Top-Level Domains — a move that could drastically change the Internet. 'We are opening up a new world and I think this cannot be underestimated,' said Roberto Gaetano, an ICANN board member. The future outcome of this decision was discussed on Slashdot a few days ago. It also seems, based on this post on CircleID from last month, that ICANN was already in preparation mode of mass TLD introductions. The new decision will allow companies to register their brands as generic top-level domain names (TLDs). For instance, Microsoft could apply to have a TLD such as '.msn', Apple apply for '.mac', and Google for '.goog'... The decision was taken unanimously on Thursday, June 26, 2008 at the 32nd ICANN Meeting in Paris."

Comments

There will be some good from this.

[Gewalt]

We are long overdue for a .sucks domain. It will be nice to finally have it.

Re:There will be some good from this.

[lastchance_000]

You'll have to talk to Hoover to register domains under it, though.

Re:There will be some good from this.

[ShieldW0lf]

Talk about printing your own money.

This is like paying the city to give your driveway a name, so you can brag about what a blue blood you are for having your own street.

Re:There will be some good from this.

[Gewalt]

100K$ - 500K$... Not to mention you have to provide a "business model" and um... show technical capacity to run a TLD. Which makes this more of a money grab before the rest of the world wrests control of the net from ICANN.

Re:There will be some good from this.

[tverbeek]

ICANN has .cheezburger?

first.post

[Anonymous Coward]

fuck.icann

The end of ctrl+enter days?

[pwnies]

I sincerely hope that this doesn't become too commonplace, and that .com, .net, and .org don't just get thrown out the window. Call me lazy, but I love being able to ctrl+enter, shift+enter, and ctrl+shift+enter to auto-complete .com/.net/.org respectively. Typing "www.search.google" is just more tedious than typing, "google [ctrl][enter]"

Re:The end of ctrl+enter days?

[BungaDunga]

Couldn't there be www.google? ie, domain "www" TLD "google".

Re:The end of ctrl+enter days?

[olyar]

Not at work. Just checked. You were wise not to go there...

Re:The end of ctrl+enter days?

[prod-you]

You obviously haven't used Firefox 3 yet.

Slashdot can finally be what it wants

[aster_ken]

http://slashdot.dot/

Woohoo!

Re:Slashdot can finally be what it wants

[Eudial]

http://slashdot.dot/

Woohoo!

H t t p colon slash slash slash dot dot dot...?

Hm. You could develop this into some sort of morse code.

So, since geek.com is already registered, we can register --. . . -.-, or

http://dotdotdotslash.slash/

Followed by

2. ???

And

3. Profit!

So wait....

[porcupine8]

Let's say Apple registers .apple or .ipod. Do they automatically get ALL of the possible domains within that TLD? If not, who controls the TLD? If .apple is a TLD, can I go to GoDaddy and register porcupine.apple? If they do control it, do they have to pay to register domains within their own TLD? Or does this deal come with free unlimited domains?

Re:So wait....

[gclef]

Close. They will become the registRY. The registRAR must be one of the ICANN-approved ones (you can't require a non-ICANN registrar). It isn't clear from what I've read whether you can refuse to work with any registrar and make it a closed TLD. I would assume you can, though.

Why not just languages?

[fintler]

I'd be happy with a TLD system based on language. Why do we need the com/net/org thing anyway. Lets just have something like

http://google.en/
http://google.it/
http://.name.language/

Re:Why not just languages?

[tppublic]

"Lets just have something like http://google.en/"

I think you mean: http://google.en_us/

Re:Interesting reversal

[pitchpipe]

I say make 'em type in the ip address. That'll get rid of that hodge-podge lickety split. Now get off my lawn!

Re:Interesting reversal

[jandrese]

No, it was just the creation of a .xxx domain, there was never any realistic talk about forcing all pornographic material on there (defining what is pornographic for the entire world would be impossible anyway). It was going to be completely self selected. The reason they didn't want to make it is because they didn't want to create a "red light" district on the internet, an idea I still find baffling given the current nature of the internet.

So if McDonald's wanted a TLD...

[oodaloop]

...then ICANN has .chzbrgr?

I'm sorry, I'll show myself out now.

in many ways, this is good

[eobanb]

If you read TFA you'll see that the TLDs will cost upwards of $100,000 and are subject to ICANN approval. That cost and/or approval might be a one time thing, or it might turn out to be annual. Yes, there will be a few idiotic TLDs, but this is probably how it should've been from the beginning. I work for a university IT department and we regularly get calls from users trying to access university sites (most of which use the .edu TLD of course), except that they are trying to use .com instead. Some universities have registered .com domains to redirect to the real site to try and accommodate these people. Our department refuses to do this, and I'm glad. Many people still have the mindset that website == ends in .com and it reinforces that notion. Arbitrary TLDs will slowly change the mindset from thinking that a URL is anything.usually-com to anything.anything. This is probably how DNS should have been from the beginning.

Re:I can think of many companies

[legoman666]

.kaaahhhnnnnn ?

Re:more cyber-squatting?

[digitally404]

For now it shant be a problem especially if the new names are expected to cost over $100,000.

Re:Abuse of TLDs

[Amouth]

persontal i want to try and get .local

just so i can fuck with all the small biz NT/AD domain installs out there that doen't use a fully qualified name

as soon as .local is resolvable soooo many people are going to have a bad day

This is stupid - here is the solution:*

[I Want to be Anonymo]

A meeting of the minds between Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft resulting in an agreement to not index these idiotic domains could kill this quick before it gets out of hand.

*Will it happen - doubtful.
  Can you or I do anything about it - probably not.
  But I can dream.

The rich take all?

[Excelcia]

The problem I have is with the dispute resolution system. According to Paul Twomey of ICANN (as quoted by the BBC), "[i]f there is a dispute, we will try and get the parties together to work it out. But if that fails there will be an auction and the domain will go to the highest bidder."

So, I pick a name, and McDeepPockets comes along and thinks, hey, that's a great idea - I'll just take that, thank-you. They "dispute" it, and ICANN's response is... well, if you really can't settle your differences, high bidder gets it. Wow... that's going to make for a pretty mercenary internet.

Re:Problems

[Just some bastard]

And it can be even worse; for example, in France, gosses means "children", whereas in Québec, it means "testicles".

Won't somebody think of the testicles?