Over 100 proposals have been publicly announced for when ICANN begins
taking applications for new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) according
to statistics compiled by Adrenaline TLD, themselves likely applicants
for a number of sporting-related gTLDs such as .SKI, .BIKE and .SURF.
The proposals are dominated by geographical and specialty strings and
these make up 87 of the 104 possibilities and do not include
internationalise domain name extensions. There are also duplicates with
more than one applicant at this stage for several gTLDs including .GAY,
.SPORT and .ECO.
According to Adrenaline, there are three proposed applications for brand
names, 14 for community groups, 48 geographical TLDs and 39 specialty
TLDs.
"Domain name extensions are the corner stone of everything that happens
on the internet," said Rob Rozicki, Adrenaline Ltd's New TLD Evangelist.
"All our business, social and cultural experiences online would not have
been possible without the domain name system we have today. The
internet is now at a pivotal point with the introduction of new TLDs to
expand the reach and enrich the internet users experience by being able
to relate the extension directly back to the content like never before.
Some New TLDs will be hugely successful, some will be failures and some
will just hang on but all will be pioneers in the future of the
internet."
The list also includes three brand names that have publicly expressed an
interest in applying for a gTLD - Canon, Deloitte and UNICEF. However
it is expected that many companies are holding their cards close to
their chest and will not reveal their intentions until applications for
new gTLDs are accepted. While others will be waiting to see what their
competitors do and how the introduction of new gTLDs is received.
Of the 104 proposed gTLD applications, these include geographical
applications for .BERLIN, .BCN, .PARIS, .KÖLN, .MADRID, .AFRICA and
.HONGKONG. Proposed specialty applicants include .WEB, .WIKI, .RUGBY,
.POKER, .GMBH and .FILM. There are also proposed gTLDs for communities
such as .GAY, .KURD, .IRISH, .KURD, .GREEN and .ECO.
This article was originally published on the eBrand Services website here. eBrandServices specialise in domain name brand management services.
For more on Rob Rozicki's research into new gTLDs, check out his blog here and in particular his article New TLDs - Its All in the Tea Leaves.
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