ICANN today finally revealed all the generic top level domains that have been applied for – all 1930 of them that ponied up at least $185,000 each plus a commitment to manage them securely for years to come. There are many stories in this full application list, some more hidden than others. And then there are the things that did not happen.
For example, if I ever go back to regular TV I might have to put up with a lot of .comcast domains from Comcast as they also try to snare my internet business. But at least I won’t have to put up with any .att names ad infinitum, at least not in this round.
One of the big bidders was donut.co. As the only applicant for the .company gTLD they can now spell the rest of their company name instead of pretending a Colombia country name really means a US company name.
Someone applied for .vodka, and also there was only one applicant for .beer. But three companies applied for .wine? Will we finally be able to sell and buy wine on ebay.wine without a liquor license in the USA.
Home Depot applied for .homedepot. Why? Have they forgotten what business they are in? Will I have to email manager@sunnyvale.homedepot to get some lumber loaded on my roof rack?
Google made a few strategic moves only. Clearly a great win for them to get .gmail, though it doesn’t really help their Google +/- plans. Of course, any local in Mountain View California knows where Charleston Road runs, so they are not fooled by Google hiding behind Charleston Road Registry Inc who put a bid in on .fyi, .game (one of many), .gbiz, .gle, .gmail, .GMBH (one of many), .goo (there’s a sticky one for you), .goog, .google, .guge (for a lube job?), .hangout (where we play with our Facebook pics), .here (so you know where on the frigging map you are), .home (one of many) .how, .inc (one of many), .ing (to be broiled in financial controversy and bailouts), .live (to compete with Microsoft – oh.. they also applied for it), .llc (along with many others) and my favorite for Google: .LOL!
And FaceBook was obviously too busy doing a face plant with their IPO to worry about the millions of users that they could have so nicely tied together with a .face domain. Heck, FAGE Dairy (from UK) thought they should get .fage
Interestingly enough the biggest (and best) domain registrar GoDaddy only applied for the .godaddy domain. Of course, we know few companies really know how to successfully run and support big domain systems, so many will be running to GoDaddy to actually run the back end, if not the whole business for them.
Apart from some new startups with too much VC money, it looks like only Google and Amazon have really stepped up to the plate. As well they should.. it is a key part of their business offerings.
Finally, despite the stupid protests all the way to Congress by the US Advertising Council, only a few major brands were dumb enough to be sucked into securing all their own gTLD’s to protect their brands. And a big side benefit of all this will be the development of a big new international trademark database by ICANN.
Keep up the good work ICANN. You are showing the world that a international technical consortium can get work done despite worldwide politics – in fact, you have the world’s communications infrastructure keys in your hands.
Join 
Leave a Reply