Many of you will be familiar with the new generic top-level domain (TLD) application process being undertaken by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
The corporation has decided to open up TLDs to anyone who can afford the $200,000 price tag. This would mean that the current limitations of dot-com, dot-net, dot-info, etc., will be removed.
New TLDs like dot-news, dot-radio, dot-cats, or maybe even dot-muffins, could be popping up as soon as the applications, some of which are currently being reviewed, go through.
There are currently only 21 generic TLDs available for use. But in an update posted on the official ICANN blog last month, the Corporation is expecting a further 500 within the next two years.
Due to the lengthy process and extensive amount of paperwork, ICANN has put together an Applicant Guidebook, to help ease the confusion.
Some big decisions are about to be made: in just two days’ time, ICANN will hold an international public meeting in Sydney, Australia. At this meeting, ICANN plans to focus on ‘overarching issues’, with a focus on areas of concern expressed by the internet community.
Among these issues are trademark protection, security and stability, malicious conduct, as well as demand and economic analysis.
These truly are overarching issues – perhaps a bit too broad to truly understand the depth of the concerns. The blog further explains that the most discussed concern has been trademark protection. With new access to all kinds of trademarked names, companies are worried about cybersquatters.
Cybersquatters are those who make use of a domain associated with a trademark, and then attempt to sell it to the company that owns the trademark at an inflated price.
The companies are imploring ICANN to put some regulations in place to counter these potential trademark violations, which could be given an extra boost from the expansion of TLDs.
However, smaller companies are worried that the big name companies are going to be allowed too many controls over everything associated with their names, and revoke the free, innovative spirit of the internet.
ICANN claims, therefore, to be seeking to find some sort of happy medium.
The plan after some kind of solution is found in Sydney, is to hold four more meetings in July and August, in New York, London, Abu-Dhabi, and Hong Kong. The corporation hopes that by holding these meetings in various international locales, it will give the public a chance to get their voices heard about problems or issues they may have with the new regulations.
It’s not only generic TLDs that are being opened up, but geographical TLDs as well. Through the same process, people will now be able to apply for country or city-level TLDs.
Kaila Krayewski is a freelance journalist with a passion for all things internet. Having worked for nearly two years as the public relations manager for an internation search engine optimization company, and publishing hundreds of articles (how-to, informational, and otherwise) on SEO, she knows a thing or two about the field. Furthermore, having just started up her own website blondetraveler.com, she is doing her best to keep one step ahead of the search engines in order to keep the traffic flowing.
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