ICANN to Open Domains, Web Address Extensions
ICANN, the organization responsible for managing and coordinating the Domain Name System (DNS) to ensure that every address is unique and that all users of the Internet can find all valid addresses, announced its continued intent to open up the DNS with new generic top-level domains (TLDs), with one of the categories of top-level domains that would include brand names and other words.
The controversial decision could add more than 1,000 Internet suffixes (.sport, .Microsoft, etc.) each year.
Applications for receiving New gTLDs begin this week, with a deadline of March to begin applications. Although the program has been in development at ICANN for six years and has received support from many major corporations (including Canon) and large cities like Berlin and London, which would pay a $185,000 processing fee for the premium domain branding opportunity, the organization has come under heavy criticism from bodies like the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), which proposed to the ICANN Board a constructive way to address critical concerns associated with ICANN's top-level domain expansion program.
