ICANN to create additional top-level domains

A Senate committee has asked ICANN to slow the release of new top-level domains (TLDs). ICANN is a nonprofit organization that handles Internet domain name issues.

A top-level domain is the last part of a domain name, as shown here:

Many TLD's exist now - .com, .gov, .org, .edu, .biz, etc. In the past, these limits have forced some businesses to get less desirable domain names because their desired .com was already taken.

The organization has recently considered loosening restrictions on TLDs, which might open up many new options directed at specific business types (.hotel) or a specific city (.london). Another proposal would allow a company to purchase their own TLD at a cost of $185,000. Adding more TLDs allows a business to find more ways to distinguish itself. For example, if a San Francisco business named "Jim Bob's Burger Shack" wanted the .com, but it was already taken by a New York restaurant, it would be out of luck. But if San Fran got its own TLD, they could get jimbobsburgershack.sf.

One of the many problems with this has shown up with the new .xxx TLD, discussed here in a previous post. Many businesses and other institutions have feared that pornographic websites will show up at a domain related to them. For that reason, many universities have spent thousands of dollars reserving domain names like www.KUnurses.xxx or www.hoosiers.xxx. Click here for recent commentary on the .xxx TLD from Mashable and here for CNN commentary.

Despite these issues and the senators' pleas, the new policies may begin as early as January 2012.