tld

Google appears eager to let other organizations use certain top-level domains that it wants to acquire and manage.

Last June, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Named and Numbers (ICANN) revealed which companies and organizations had applied for their own generic top-level domains (gTLDs). The effort is part of a move to foster competition on the Internet by allowing companies to use a greater variety of TLDs beyond just .com.

Google applied for 101 of the 1,900 available gTLDs, looking to score such obvious ones as .google, .chrome, .gmail, .goog, and .youtube. But along with those gTLDs were ones that … Read more

Amazon's effort to control dozens of new generic top-level Internet domain names is drawing fire from a pair of publishing industry groups.

The Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers oppose the Internet retail giant's plan to control so-called generic top-level domains (gTLD) that end in suffixes .book, .author, and .read, arguing that such influence would be anti-competitive.

"Placing such generic domains in private hands is plainly anticompetitive, allowing already dominant, well-capitalized companies to expand and entrench their market power," Authors Guild President Scott Turow wrote to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, … Read more

Here's a cyberfight it seems anyone could have seen coming.

Among the hundreds of new generic top-level domains under consideration by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) -- everything from .Google to .music and .home -- one batch, not surprisingly, has caught the attention of the U.S. federal government: applications for .Airforce, .Navy and .Army.

The company that applied to run those domain extensions is Demand Media, the content farm king behind eHow and the owner of Go Daddy competitor eNom. Demand spent $18 million to apply for 26 so-called domain strings through a subsidiary … Read more

Live and let live. Love and let love. Surf and let surf.

These are just some of the philosophical principles that are not readily accepted everywhere in the world.

Currently, some of the world's heightened sensitivities are on display during the Application Comment period for new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs). There are currently 22 of these, but ICANN wants to broaden the horizons to embrace different cultures and languages.

Running through the objections at ICANN's site is like running through thistle fields in your underwear.

Some of the argumentation would make even a politician think twice. Well, … Read more

Here's another sign that the economic powerhouse of China is a rising power in online matters, too.

The 46th meeting of ICANN, the body tasked with overseeing the administration of the Internet, will take place in Beijing from April 7 to 12 of next year.

"It simply was a strong proposal," ICANN president and CEO Rod Beckstrom said during a press conference in Prague this morning. "A quarter of the Internet's users are in China...it simply makes a lot of sense."

The ICANN committee was especially keen on holding the event in China'… Read more

It's easy to dismiss Google's big play for a slice of the expanding Internet domain universe as just another side project from the Googleplex. Perhaps too easy.

Google, we learned last week, has applied for 101 domains -- or, more precisely, 101 generic top-level domains, or gTLDs -- and the number itself (surely the 101 Dalmatians reference was intentional) doesn't exactly suggest a new strategy on par with, say, Google+ or Android. The $18.7 million in application fees alone would hardly raise a single Larry Page eyebrow.

And yet this is Google, controller of so much … Read more

If Amazon.com gets its way -- and that's still a big "if" -- it will soon control 76 new domain extensions on the Internet. Most observers had expected the company to apply for .amazon and .kindle, but it seems that was just for starters: Amazon's ambitions also include a host of generic terms, including the likes of .free, .like, .game, and .shop.

Amazon is looking to nab a slew of compelling names, and if things unfold the way Amazon hopes, the outcome of this power play could reshape the world of Internet commerce -- at … Read more

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Named and Numbers, or ICANN, said it accidentally published the addresses of top-level domain applicants, but has since taken them down.

ICANN posted a notice yesterday indicating that it temporarily disabled viewing of the application details to remove the postal addresses of some primary and secondary contacts for top-level domain, or TLD applications. The addresses appeared as responses to questions on the application. The viewing was restored on the same day sans the personal information.

"We temporarily disabled viewing of the application details. We removed the unintended information and restored this functionality," ICANN'… Read more

Today we're putting dots on everything!

Expect to see tons of new domain extensions crop up, like .app or .baby. Hundreds of companies, including Google, Amazon and Apple, have applied to oversee new domains. If there's more than one application for a word (Google and Johnson & Johnson are battling for .baby), then the two companies will have to duke it out or it'll go to an auction. There are also some controversial ones, like .sucks. You can really see how .sucks can, well, suck for brands. Hard to see a useful purpose for that domain aside … Read more