New top-level domains could arrive by mid-2008, ICANN says
New top-level domains are once again on the horizon.
ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, said on Thursday that it would begin accepting applications for new suffixes early next year.
The problem, though, is that new top-level domains aren't necessarily going to be that useful or interesting.
The venerable .com suffix still remains the Internet's prime real estate, and ones like .info and .biz seem to have become more used by spammers than legitimate businesses. ICANN's final rejection of .xxx this year, even there was no technical or legal reason not to approve it, has severely politicized the process. Instead of using .museum, the world's most famous ones go by louvre.fr, museumoflondon.org.uk, and metmuseum.org. And so on.
Still, ICANN is going ahead. "If the new approval process comes on-line as planned, the global Internet could see new top-level domains added and available between June and August 2008," ICANN president Paul Twomey said in a statement.
Expect more details at ICANN's meeting in June in Puerto Rico.
Declan McCullagh, CNET News' chief political correspondent, chronicles the intersection of politics and technology. He has covered politics, technology, and Washington, D.C., for more than a decade, which has turned him into an iconoclast and a skeptic of anyone who says, "We oughta have a new federal law against this." E-mail Declan. 
"Instead of using .museum, the world's most famous ones go by
louvre.fr, museumoflondon.org.uk, and metmuseum.org."
They may not have changed all their advertising to reflect the
newer domain, but they're all using it.
--------------------
$ dig louvre.museum
; <<>> DiG 9.2.0 <<>> louvre.museum
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 23596
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 5,
ADDITIONAL: 1
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;louvre.museum. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
louvre.museum. 86400 IN A 160.92.103.98
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
museum. 86400 IN NS nic.museum.
museum. 86400 IN NS ns1.getty.edu.
museum. 86400 IN NS ns-ext.vix.com.
museum. 86400 IN NS ns.icann.org.
museum. 86400 IN NS nic.icom.org.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns-ext.vix.com. 126857 IN A 204.152.184.64
;; Query time: 71 msec
;; SERVER: 206.13.29.12#53(206.13.29.12)
;; WHEN: Fri May 11 14:30:47 2007
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 185
$ dig museumoflondon.museum
; <<>> DiG 9.2.0 <<>> museumoflondon.museum
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 24569
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 5,
ADDITIONAL: 1
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;museumoflondon.museum. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
museumoflondon.museum. 180 IN A 195.7.77.20
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
museum. 86335 IN NS nic.icom.org.
museum. 86335 IN NS nic.museum.
museum. 86335 IN NS ns1.getty.edu.
museum. 86335 IN NS ns-ext.vix.com.
museum. 86335 IN NS ns.icann.org.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns.icann.org. 143457 IN A 192.0.34.126
;; Query time: 218 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.12.200#53(192.168.12.200)
;; WHEN: Fri May 11 14:31:53 2007
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 193
$ dig metmuseum.museum
; <<>> DiG 9.2.0 <<>> metmuseum.museum
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 26166
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 5,
ADDITIONAL: 1
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;metmuseum.museum. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
metmuseum.museum. 180 IN A 195.7.77.20
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
museum. 86323 IN NS nic.museum.
museum. 86323 IN NS ns1.getty.edu.
museum. 86323 IN NS ns-ext.vix.com.
museum. 86323 IN NS ns.icann.org.
museum. 86323 IN NS nic.icom.org.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns.icann.org. 143445 IN A 192.0.34.126
;; Query time: 196 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.12.200#53(192.168.12.200)
;; WHEN: Fri May 11 14:32:05 2007
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 188
$
--------------------
As for the .xxx domain comment, it would have ended up being
pretty useless anyway, wouldn't it? You can't *FORCE* all the
'pron' onto that domain, can you? If not, what would have been
the point? "pornsite.com" might likely register "pornsite.xxx" to
'be in the club', but I doubt they would give up the .com domain
for it. Either way, it's doubtful that "shadypornsite.com" would
voluntarily register a .xxx domain because they would realize
that it's easy to filter out an entire domain like .xxx!