The Internet Corporation for Assigned Named and Numbers (ICANN) yesterday revealed the generic top-level- domains (TLDs) applied for by companies and organizations, a major step in the 6-year long process aimed at expanding the domain name system to condition for more competitions in a world dominated by dot-com names.
To the consumers, it could shake up how they enter Web addresses implying a new way of typing in URL, moving beyond the standard .com or .url addresses to .Google, .book, .music to .lol and .wow.
Commenting on the move, ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom said it marked a historic day for the Internet as the Internet is about to “change forever.”
Brands can now have their own TLDs, also known as ‘strings,’ for the first time.
The Brands that have since secured their own domain extensions include Google, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, and Dell.
Others are Sony, Nokia, Netflix, Oracle, Cisco, Yahoo, and AOL.
Other brands are however not campaigning to have their own names but to land the contract to run the .TLD, the same way Verisign runs .com.
CNET News earlier reported Google’s interest in applying for TLDs. In addition to .Google, the giant search engine also applied to nab .android, .chrome, .cloud, .lol, .vip, and .wow.
Amazon also made more than one applications beyond its name: .book, .fire., .music, and .free.
Microsoft applied to cover a range of its brands including .azure, .hotmail, .skydrive, and .skype. Others like Symantec applied for .cloud, alongside .protection and .antivirus.
Other domains such as .home, .free, and .movie made the list of the names with multiple applicants.
ICANN urged different parties to work together and partner on domain names, saying it would give priority to community-based TLD applications.
A couple of eyebrow-raising TLDs include .sex, .porn, and .sucks, reported CNET News.
ICANN assured the brands and companies saying it had taken measures to protect them from exploitation under these domains.
ICANN further stated that it reserved the right to repossess the TLDs once a party is proved to be abusing the domain.
Teach companies are only among the ones gunning for the TLDs. Consumer brands such as American Express, Johnson & Johnson, Wal-Mart, and AllState, which have also applied for multiple domains.
Headquartered in headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, United States, ICANN coordinates the global Internet’s systems of unique identifiers and, in particular, ensuring its stable and secure operation.
This includes coordination of the Internet Protocol address spaces (IPv4 and IPv6). It also assigns address blocks to regional Internet registries. Much of its work however includes DNS policy development for internationalization of the DNS system and introduction of new generic top-level domains (TLDs).
