With a DOT-Brand, rather than depending on policies and procedures of one of the current 22 gTLDs, businesses will not only be able to lay claim to a portion of the Internet named for their brand, but also assert control in every way over that Internet territory. For example, Ford Motor Company, instead of using Ford.com, could set up a domain structure whose names all end in the word "Ford" rather than the standard "com" ending.
Called both DOT-Brand and Brand-TLD, this new concept was approved last June by ICANN; in September, ICANN released a guidebook at its website and gave access to the gTLD application system. Though ICANN is placing no limit on the total number of these new extensions for gTLDs, both the processing time for ICANN and their "first-come, first-served" policy are key factors. A $5000 deposit must accompany each application and ICANN estimates the total evaluation fee will be around $185,000.
New gTLD names do not have to be a company or trademark name -- any word is eligible. The question then becomes who will get the rights to and the ownership of domains such as cash, green, vacation, automobile, toys -- the list is, of course, almost endless. Approval for the last set of seven new TLDs was in 2005 and the competition for names within those new domains was fierce then. By the same token, expect an increase in cyber-squatting and unfounded trademark-claims.
On the good side, though, any professional group or affinity association could set up an Internet presence based on the group's mutual interest. Professionals would have an easy-to-find central meeting place. Resellers could set up specialized marketplaces. Websites in the new domain would be protected from phishing attacks and such in ways not possible with dot-com domains.
ICANN has announced that they plan to approve about 500 new DOT-Brand gTLDs per year. With an estimate of a minimum of 4000 applications, it seems it will take ICANN about eight years to catch up on the initial set of applications. ICANN has promised that any proposed application whose approval will not destabilize the Internet or harm Internet security are likely to be approved first. Take that to mean what you will.
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2012-02-22
One of the fears of those who opposed the passage of the SOPA/PIPA Internet anti-piracy legislation in the US Congress last month may have come true. Many in the web hosting industry are concerned over the growi...
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2012-02-16
The importance of keeping customers in the loop and making them feel an integral part of a web hosting provider's business was driven home by the recent hack attack on the Cryptome.org web site. Covering whistle...
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2012-02-15
Yahoo has recently taken a step for interaction with the customer that all web hosting providers may want to think about emulating. Last week, the beta of Yahoo Small Business premiered to the public as a resour...
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2012-02-09
The Internet Society recently set a date, June 6, 2012, as World IPv6 Launch Day, when it is expected that web companies and major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will permanently enable the IPv6 protocol for ...
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2012-02-07
Last month, the United States Congress stopped consideration of two bills, the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) in the US Senate and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) in the US House of Representatives,...
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2012-01-31
Other web host providers may take a lesson from the recent set of problems that have been the experience of DreamHost, a domain name registrar and web hosting provider founded in 1996 and based in Los Angeles, C...
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2012-01-31
With the overwhelming reaction against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), a few members of the United States Congress have put forth an alternative bill. Oregon Democrat Senator Ron...
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2012-01-30
At its simplest, Magento is a robust e-commerce solution built on a foundation of open-source technologies. The blended approach that Magento uses provides the best of both worlds for end-users. On one hand, the...
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2012-01-24
ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, announced last week that the application system for the new gTLDs (Generic Top-Level Domains) of the Internet began on January 19th and is proceedi...
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2012-01-19
Amid Internet site blackouts and public outcries, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has been placed on hold in the Senate while sponsors regroup and reconsider their position on this controversial topic. Along w...
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