WebProNews

Tag: domain registrars

  • Google Might Be Willing To Let You Use That .Fun Domain You Always Wanted

    Early last year, ICANN opened up applications for generic top-level domains. At the end of it all, it was revealed that Google applied for 101 gTLDs. Now more details are starting to emerge on what Google plans to do with them.

    CNET reports that Google sent a letter to ICANN last week about its intentions for the gTLDs it had applied for. Most of the letter is spent dispelling the fear that new gTLDs will stifle competition on the Internet by giving Internet giants like Google a distinct advantage on the Web over smaller startups and competitors. The most interesting part of the letter, however, is this one paragraph:

    After careful analysis, Google has identified four of our current single registrant applications that we will revise: .app, .blog, .cloud and .search. These terms have been identified by governments (via Early Warning) and others within the community as being potentially valuable and useful to industry as a whole. We also believe that for each of these terms we can create a strong set of user experiences and expectations without restricting the string to use with Google products.

    What this means is that Google recognizes some of the gTLDs it applied for would better serve the company if others could use them. In a report from last year, it was presumed that Google would be saving the above gTLDs for its own products, or perhaps leasing them out only to certain partners. This new revelation from Google seems to indicate that the company is willing to open these domains to the public.

    Of course, it should be noted that Google does not own these domains yet. Other companies, like Amazon, has also applied for many of these same gTLDs. That being said, Google is planning to do something with these domains if it can obtain them. The question now is what that something is.

    Most seem to think that Google will use these domains to enter the lucrative domain registrar business. Such a move would put Google in direct competition with Go Daddy and others offering similar services. With domains like .soy and .fun potentially on offer, who wouldn’t want to register through Google?

  • ICANN Has U.N Concerned Over Possibility Of Cybersquatters

    ICANN Has U.N Concerned Over Possibility Of Cybersquatters

    Despite nobody really thinking that the decision by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to expand the variety of top-level domain addresses is a good idea, the plan seems to be chugging right along. Joining the chorus of businesses that oppose ICANN’s plan, the United Nations and 26 other international entities have voiced their concern that making available possible site domains like “.un” and “.imf” could be used maliciously. The cadre of organizations sent a letter to ICANN last month requesting that they refrain from offering such domains for use.

    In a report from Reuters today, however, ICANN President Rod Beckstrom sought to re-assure the organizations that they’re “very sensitive to those concerns” and that they’d be “responding to that letter.” He adds, “If (those who registered the domain) have no rights to that term, then you’re in a very good position. So you don’t need to apply for the term for a top-level domain because you’re concerned that someone who has no rights might apply.”

    Beckstrom might as well have just come out and told the U.N. to keep their shirt on.

    His mildly insouciant rebuttal of the concerns isn’t completely invalid. In the same Reuters article, Beckstrom points out that on top of the likely preventive price tag of $185,000 to register a top-level domain, additional annual fees due to ICANN will inflate the cost of owning the domain name upwards of $400,000 over the first 10 years. Cybersquatting a web domain in order to get paid out a nice ransom from governments or businesses hardly seems like even a little bit of fun when you’ll be bleeding tons of money just to hold on to the top-level domain. Cybersquatters are opportunists that like to register these domain names in order to make profits, not simply cover the astronomical cost of registering the domain in the first place.

    The U.N, IMF, other international organizations and all the businesses freaking out about the possibility of someone registering a site with their likeness really need to get to know they’re neighborhood scam artists a little better. Think more Wile E. Coyote and less Lex Luthor.