ICANN Announces New Domains For 2009

[IDNer]

ICANN Announces New Domains For 2009

Ed Sutherland June 23, 2008


Paris, France (AHN) - With available Internet addresses expected to be depleted in five years, the organization in charge of approving new online domains announced they will vote to allow proper names and everyday words.

The upcoming vote by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) would allow Paris to have its own domain, eBay to be found at .ebay or a dating site to use a .love address starting in 2009.

However, individuals won't likely be able to trade their .com address for one more personal. The new domains, when they become available, will start at $49,000 - a price tag likely to prevent an avalanche of requests from average Internet users.

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[IDNer]

'.Com' to Get Company If Internet Plan Passes
By BEN WORTHEN June 26, 2008


The organization that oversees Internet addresses is expected Thursday to approve a proposal to create an unlimited number of so-called top-level domains -- the familiar suffixes like ".com" at the end of Web addresses.

Under the plan, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will allow organizations to apply for any top-level domain. Businesses, for example, could use brand names such as ".ibm" or ".ebay" in their Web addresses. Cities could sign up for names like ".nyc" or ".berlin." It will also be possible to apply to use more general terms, such as ".news" or ".sports," to define sites associated with groups or categories of information.

ICANN, a nonprofit group that acts as regulator for the Internet, expects the change to spur the creation of many more Web sites -- and to allow individuals and organizations to express their identities in useful new ways.

"This is the biggest change to the way people find each other on the Internet since its inception," said Paul Twomey, ICANN's president and chief executive officer. Registering a new top-level domain will cost somewhere between $100,000 and $500,000, the group said.

When the current addressing structure for the Internet was first developed in the 1980s, few anticipated that the Web would grow into the global communications and commerce network it is today. At the time, the Internet's overseers believed that a handful of categories -- ".com" for commercial sites, ".edu" for educational intuitions, and ".gov" for government -- were adequate.

Today there are more than 160 million Web sites, about 70 million of which end in ".com." About another 80 million end in country-specific suffixes such as ".uk" or ".cn." These general categories don't reflect the Internet's myriad uses, said Mr. Twoney.

ICANN increased the pool of available top-level domains in 2001 and 2003, but limited the names it made available to a handful of suffixes that include ".aero" and ".mobi." Mr. Twoney said the new expansion is akin to the massive land grants the U.S. government made in the 19th century.

"What we're effectively doing is opening up huge amounts of online real estate," he said.

ICANN is also making it possible to register domains using non-English characters -- such as Chinese or Arabic for example -- which has been a big issue in some parts of the world.

ICANN has spent the last several years preparing for the change and has invested around $10 million in technology to accommodate the new addresses. If the proposal passes, organizations will be able to apply for new top-level domains starting around April 2009. The first Web sites using the new names could be live later that year.

ICANN will review the applications to make sure that a requested name isn't offensive and doesn't infringe on someone else's intellectual property. A company like eBay Inc., for example, can object if another party attempts to register a top-level domain that uses the company's name. Organizations requesting new top-level domains must also prove that they have the technical ability to operate Web sites or reach a deal with a company that does.

Final details will be worked out later this year. One question that will need to be resolved between now and April 2009 is whether owners of the new top-level domains will be required to make Web addresses that end in their suffixes available to the public.

Gordon Cook, who writes an industry newsletter called the Cook Report, said making domains available in non-English languages is a positive development. He added that expanding the number of top-level domains also is a good thing, but probably not necessary to accommodate the Internet's growth.

The move could complicate life for consumers, however, who could be forced to negotiate an ever-expanding list of Web addresses. "I just want to remember Coca-cola.com and not have to wonder whether it's .coke or .cola or .the-real-thing," said Ray Valdes, a research director at Gartner Inc. For that reason, he doesn't expect the new top-level domains to have much of an impact.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121443369987904939.html?mod=googlenews_wsj