Expansion of Domain Name Suffixes

ICANN reviews applications for new Internet names

Changes are coming to the Internet that will expand its territory through custom domain name suffixes. Last week in San Francisco, investors, entrepreneurs, and business and organization leaders met for the first .nxt conference, which featured seminars on the guidelines for applying for the custom names. Applications are reviewed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) from those businesses and organizations who want to own those suffixes, such as .eco, .gay, .health, .love, .music and many more.

“This massive expansion to the Internet's domain name system will either make the Web more intuitive or create more cluttered, maddening experiences,” according to The Washington Post. It’s hard to say yet what the effect will be. Even with a $185,000 price tag for the application alone, the competition is fierce for a couple of choice names, especially .gay, .music and .eco. Those that end up purchasing the suffixes will be able to sell custom names within the domain suffixes to other businesses and organizations. The first of the new domain names won’t go live until early 2012.

The Obama administration is proposing that national governments around the world have some kind of power to review and veto the proposed domain names. This ICANN advisory panel would seek to ensure that any government can object to and reject a proposed name, which raises issues of rights of expression and how much power governments can have over something like the Internet.

Here’s more:

Let the Domain Dash Begin (Portfolio.com)

Rush is on for custom domain name suffixes (The Washington Post)

U.S. seeks veto powers over new domain names (CNET News)

-compiled by Katie Ostrowka

Posted By: Digital Trends Team