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 have happened as early as 2010, though the intense politics surrounding this was likely to delay it. It was intensely debated whether corporations can get their brands as TLDs (e.g., ".coke" for Coca-Cola), or whether only more generic things will be accepted; it looks like the brand domains will in fact be allowed. A guidebook was issued to guide potential applicants. The ICANN site about new gTLDs is here.

It seems like things were finally moving forward in 2013; see this article for more of what was going on in the TLD "March Madness".

By 2014, the floodgates were open, and new domains started streaming in, with various sunrise policies. There's a .kim domain for Kims such as Kardashian and Jong-un, among the many choices of domain address, with more coming live all the time. It still remains to be seen if any will succeed.

Applicants

Over 2000 applications have been received. The applicants weren't publicly revealed at first (it was expected in June 2012, after some ICANN bungling getting their system in place, and now the "Big Reveal Day" was scheduled for June 13), but some of the new domains that have been proposed by various prospective applicants were:

.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.

Some companies tried to "reverse-hijack" TLDs they didn't even apply for, by trying to get a trademark in the name, like with .chicago.

And then there's the weird batching system where they decide which domain applications get processed first based on whether their proponents managed to click on a button closest to a target time. Or maybe they're switching to a single batch timeline?

The Independent Objector's Comments on Controversial Applications

Application status

Dan's Domain Site

Structure: New Top Level Domains, Part 3

Applicants

Other links