Are you tired of .com, .net, .org and only having 22 generic Top-Level Domains? But are you ready for .lol, .wtf, or .cashbackbonus?
The web you know may all change soon. ICANN held a “Reveal Day” today to unveil the strings that were applied for – paying a $185,000 application fee.
You can see what domains were applied for and who applied for them from the Reveal Day list.
You’ll see a lot of:
- company names like .BESTBUY, .BING (Microsoft), .AOL, .YOUTUBE
- Generic things like .APARTMENTS, .AGENCY, .ACCOUNTANT, .BLOG, .BOOK
- Oddities like .SUCKS(3 different companies), .CASHBACKBONUS (Discover), .WTF, .LOL
- the next Adult sectors of the web like .ADULT, .PORN, .SEX, .SEXY
- Non-english characters
Google came out a few weeks ago announcing the top-level domains they applied for. They applied for odd things like .lol, .love, .fyi, .dog, and .fun and products like .android, .google, .youtube, and .zip. If you search for Google, you won’t find them on the list though. Charleston Road Registry Inc. is a company that will be handling Google’s TLDs with an email address at google.com.
Google and Microsoft both applied for .DOCS. Many other popular lists also have multiple companies applying for the same TLD like .SUCKS has three companies vying for control.
What’s next in the process? The gTLDs are up for a round of review. They will be going through in batches to be approved or rejected. Anybody can comment on a applied-for gTLD to raise an objection to its approval. A valid complaint might be that you hold a trademark over the term somebody else is trying to register. You can find out more and watch the status at http://newgtlds.icann.org/en