ICANN to vote on new Internet domain names

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is getting ready to vote later this week to open up the Internet naming convention to allow more options.

On Thursday at its meeting in Paris, ICANN, the not-for-profit organization charged with overseeing the Internet's naming scheme, will vote on a proposal that would allow companies to purchase new generic top-level domains ending in almost anything they want. So instead of being limited to .com, .org or .co.uk as the last letters of their Web addresses, companies or organizations could add their company name to the end of their URL. For example, eBay could become .ebay or Intel could be .intel. Even cities could name their Web sites .newyork or .berlin.

But the new names, which could be ready in 2009, won't come cheap. As a result, it's unlikely that individuals will be able to take advantage of the new naming conventions to create more personalized Web sites. The exact price to register these new names isn't yet known, but some experts predict it could cost about $50,000 to register a new domain name.

The high price is also likely to deter cybersquatters. ICANN is expected to give priority to companies or organizations with trademarked names.

The new addressing scheme should alleviate fears that ICANN will run out of addresses. The organization estimated last year that only 17 percent of the original 4 billion network addresses remained available. And it predicted that it would run out of new addresses within the next five years.

Paul Twomey, the CEO of ICANN, told the BBC that allowing the new naming conventions would create new "real estate" on the Internet.

"It's a massive increase in the geography of the real estate of the Internet," he said.

If the proposal is accepted by ICANN's board then almost any extension that is 64 characters or less could be used. My colleague at ZDNet.co.uk points out that this means that the .xxx domain extension, which has been proposed for the adult entertainment industry could be used. ICANN rejected the .xxx application in 2007.

[shahnyboy]

$50k? So now even domain names will become "brand name" in themselves. Image conscious companies and individuals will think twice before registering or going to a...*gasp* a .com website!

[rbergerpa1]

The addresses they are "running out of" are IPV4 addresses (i.e., 32 bit numbers). Increasing the available domain names does nothing to help this.

Why doesn't CNET get someone with a clue how technology works to proofread their articles?

[t8]

I want to buy .internet
Who do I write the cheque out to?

[Rants&Raves]

Agreed; the ICANN's problems of DNS addressing (mapping one or more names to an IP address) have absolutely nothing to do with the problems of the IANA (*not* ICANN) in parceling out those IP addresses under IPv4. The author is waddling way outside of their waters now.

[therealbean]

The 4 billion network addresses for the Internet and the availability of domains have absolutely nothing to do with each other, as rbergerpa1 points out. Nothing. Very frustrating to see this error on CNET.

[infosecguru]

ICANN is "non-profit." Wouldn't a $50K charge make it a for-profit operation? Or will they be donating that money to expand internet access to the underprivileged around the world? Or will it go into that black hole where other monies go when they reach ICANN?!

[reststop]

Um... so how does this change anything? If a company wants to use a different Top Level Domain (TLD) internally, they can do this already by pointing all of their domain servers to their own root server(s). If the official TLD servers are going to handle the resolution of these "new" domain extensions (aka TLDs) then the $50k price tag is getting by on the cheap side of things.

I guess the difference is that ICAAN is voting on whether they will continue to officiate over what TLDs can be made available. I see no reason other than allowing a company to become a registrar for a new TLD that can be seen publicly. This is not so great a leap as it seem, since it probably still costs around $50k to become a certified registrar for any TLD. (I haven't kept up on the cost. It was $50k when they first opened it up to additional registrars.)

[internetfreedom]

I'm actually attending the ICANN meeting this week in Paris. If you care to share your comments please, here's a couple of ways

1. IRC backchannel - irc://chat.icann.org#icann-general-discussion

2. Twitter feed - http://twitter.com/netfreedom

3. At Large (user) advisory committee - http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/alac_atlarge-lists.icann.org

[internetfreedom]

I'm actually attending the ICANN meeting this week in Paris. If you care to share your comments please, here's a couple of ways

1. IRC backchannel - irc://chat.icann.org#icann-general-discussion

2. Twitter feed - http://twitter.com/netfreedom

3. At Large (user) advisory committee - http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/alac_atlarge-lists.icann.org

[umbrae]

Companies will now just have to buy more addresses to keep their brand in tact, and people will have a difficult time trying to remember the name of their favorite site. Like other posters the IP4 addresses are running out: for domain names there are still billions of combinations.