ICANN To Allow You To Create Your Own TLD

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I want “.dotdot,” just to mess with people

http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/200 ... eople.html

Posted by John Murrell on June 26th, 2008 at 11:20 am

Anyone who’s ever typed “.org” or “.net” instead of “whitehouse.gov” is well aware of the results of occasional confusion over just which top-level domain a site resides in. Now, under a rule change approved today by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, that occasional confusion is set to blossom into full-fledged dementia as people try to connect the dots in a domain structure that would look at home on the skyline of Babel. The ICANN board voted unanimously to lift the limits on the number of top-level domains, allowing any companies or individuals with upwards of $100,000 to create their own (think “mail.google” instead of “mail.google.com”), subject to ICANN approval and the lack of significant outside objections.

ICANN’s thinking is that this is good because it’s so hard now to get a worthwhile new domain name in the crowded .com space, and because, along with a separate proposal to allow domain names in non-Latin scripts, it will serve to open the Web to more of the world. But given the barriers to entry, it will be a game dominated by big players rushing, at considerable expense, to secure and protect their brands and grab potentially lucrative generic names like .news or .sports. It’s also a system guaranteed to regularly put ICANN in awkward positions as it tries to deal evenhandedly with a string of inevitable political, religious and cultural objections to requested names.

It’s a pretty radical move, especially considering ICANN’s previous glacial pace in messing with the TLDs and the lackluster performance of the few recent additions. “In the past, ICANN slowly added a number of new top-level domains such as .info, .mobi, .travel, .coop, or .asia. None of these gained a lot of mind-share among consumers and can often be bought at a discount because demand for them is so low,” says ReadWriteWeb. “If consumers didn’t adapt to .info, will they adapt to .coke?” The ICANN board is confident it can handle the technical and administrative challenges. I wish I were as confident that we can handle it on our end.

[AYHJA]

Interesting, but I don't think it will make a difference, espeically since only the companies with the big bucks will be playing...When I first read this a few days ago I got excited, thinking forums.ayhja would be popping off soon..! :p