What if you could choose between .COM and .BLOG? or .MONEY? or maybe .SEX for your web site’s domain name? Which one will you pick? Hmmm? Interesting right?
Gulfnews have just released a news about ICANN getting ready to offer community-based domains.The article is saying that “The Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is planning to introduce plain language domain names, such as.scouts or.golf. Any organisation with the will – and of course the money ($185,000, Dh679,000) and the ability to handle a generic top-domain name or gTLD – will be able to submit an application starting in 2010.”
The news is in relation to ICANN’s New gTLD Program Updates announcing their plans of expanding the number of gTLDs to allow more innovation, choice and change to a Internet’s addressing system which is presently served by only 21 generic top-level domain names namely “.aero”, “.arpa”, “.asia”, “.biz”, “.cat”, “.com”, “.coop”, “.edu”, “.gov”, “.info”, “.int”, “.jobs”, “.mil”, “.mobi”, “.museum”, “.name”, “.net”, “.org”, “.pro”, “.tel”, and “.travel”. You can learn about gTLD including the intended use of each of these domain names in Wikipedia. This proposed expansion was designed to promote more competition in the domain-name marketplace while ensuring Internet security and stability.
By the end of this year, we can expect a dramatically increased applications for gTLD with institutions registering their company name or a generic word such as “.bank” or “.casino”. In essence, a new gTLD owner will operate its own domain name registry and multiple second-level domains can be registered under it. While this may sound very appealing, there have been a lot of concerns raised including confusion from potentially exponential proliferation of gTLDs, increased opportunities for malicious conduct on the Internet, and overall security and stability of the expanded system. the proposed offering creates new challenges for trademark owners, particularly as to the expense required to obtain each gTLD and the additional outlays required to strongly protect existing brands.
Way back in 2007, ICANN rejected the proposal of a new “.XXX” domain suffix for adult content Websites (Too bad for the “sex scandal” bloggers…lol) simply because the board does not believe that public-policy concerns regarding pornography will not be resolved by implementing such mechanism. As Gulfnews reiterated, “Anyone considering such a venture should keep in mind that those who start a gTLD are actually entering into a contractual business arrangement with ICANN, which includes regulations on how the domain will be managed and how to maintain a registry of users with websites on that domain.”
Overall, whichever domain registry a webmaster or even a simple blogger would prefer to use, each one is responsible in keeping the Internet a safe community to belong to specially for the next generation.
ICANN continues to share with the Internet community their ongoing program developments through draft applicant guidebooks, excerpts, explanatory memos and in-person meetings located in their New gTLD Program page.
