Dan's Domain Site

Structure: New Top Level Domains, Part 3

Starting in June, 2008, news articles started appearing reporting on how a massive addition of new top level domains was imminent, based on what was being discussed by ICANN. By 2009, a fast track plan was approved, which would allow for applications from a wide range of entities for new TLDs. Supposedly, the addition of the new domains could happen as soon as 2010, though the intense politics surrounding this could delay it. Still up in the air is whether corporations can get their brands as TLDs (e.g., ".coke" for Coca-Cola), or whether only more generic things will be accepted. A guidebook has been issued to guide potential applicants. The ICANN site about new gTLDs is here.

Applicants

The official application period has not yet begun as of this writing, so there are no official applicants yet. However, some of the new domains that have been proposed by various prospective future applicants are:

.berlin, for sites related to the city of Berlin. There's no wall in the way of this now! Official site.
.eco, for environment/ecology sites. Nonprofits would get free registration there, and for-profit companies could register for a charge in order to promote their green-friendly initiatives. (Official Site)
.gay, for gay/lesbian-related sites. There are two competing applicants for this, the DotGay Alliance (dotgay.org also redirects to this) and dotgay.com. Although a New York Times article emphasizes the ".org" nature of the first applicant, that domain actually redirects to a ".com", and in fact they are both for-profit ventures, though the first pledges to donate a high percentage of its profits to LGBT organizations.
.green. It's not easy being green, but this domain, run by a nonprofit organization, will try to help. Official site.
.music, for music-related sites. Official site.
.nyc, for sites related to New York City. Will you need to be located there, or just have a New York state of mind? Official site.
.radio. Video killed the radio star, but will the Internet re-invigorate that medium? Official site.
.real, for real-estate-related sites. Get real! Official site.
.sport, for sports-related sites. Official site.
.web, as a generic domain for Web sites. This TLD, and its applicant (Image Online Design), has been around and trying to get into the root through all of the many new-TLD processes since the first pre-ICANN attempt at TLD expansion in 1995, as well as participating in alternate root systems. However, others have also sometimes tried to apply for the same string, though IOD claims to have priority (and possibly intellectual property rights) over any of them.

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