Here Come the New gTLDs
On March 13, the deadline for filing objections to applications in ICANN's initial rollout phase of new gTLD's passed. Currently, there are 22 generic top-level domains, such as .com or .net, and 280 ccTLD's, or country code top level-domain names like .uk, in the top-level namespace. Now any entity with the money and demonstrated technical expertise can apply for .anything-you-want. As of today, 1,410 new TLDs strings have been applied for by 1,930 applicants ( data ). Some have been withdrawn . They've come in for everything from .blog to .book, so get ready for url's like "http://www.indianajones.movie". Since its announcement, the new gTLD program has raised speech-related concerns for governments, competition claims by book publishers and both phantom and real nightmares for trademark owners, among others. The objection and dispute resolution procedures for challenging the introduction of new gTLDs can be found here . ICANN " intends to ...