ICANN relaxes domain name rules

Posted by Rob on 28 Jun 2008 in The Internet | Permalink

ICANN, the internet regulator, has responded to a recommendation to expand the number of top level domain name extensions. Currently there are 21 TLD’s (Top Level Domains), you’ll be familar with most of the like .com, .net, .org etc, but in future there will be a lot more to choose from.

Under the new system, which is due to start in late 2009, there will be many new domain extensions to choose from. Possible examples are:

.ldn (London)
.sco (Scotland)
.cym (Wales)
.brandname
.yournamehere

...and that opens up lots of possibilities!

Mixed blessings

While this is great news for the internet as a whole, if you are concerned about “protecting” your trademark or brand name this new expansion could be expensive. However, the benefits of this decision are clearly aimed at the public and the best interests of the internet, instead of corporate vanity.

The official ICANN annoucement is at http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-4-26jun08-en.htm