The Internet's name space continues to expand, with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — ICANN, the organisation that manages the Domain Name System — this morning announcing that more than 100 generic top-level domains have been added to the root zone.
"There are now almost five times more generic Top-Level Domains than there were only a few months ago and that translates to greater consumer choice," the president of ICANN's Global Domains Division, Akram Atallah, said in a statement.
Thirty four gTLDs have been delegated so far in January, including .club, .pics, .photo, .rich, .guitars, and .marketing. Australia's Monash University was the first organisation to have a branded gTLD delegated, with .monash added to the root on 18 January.
Following initial evaluation and pre-delegation testing of new TLDs, ICANN hands off to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which liaises with the US Department of Commerce and VeriSign, which runs two of the root name servers for the Internet's Domain Name System.
The first gTLDs were delegated in October last year. The first crop of gTLDs all used non-Latin scripts: شبكة ("web" in Arabic), онлайн ("online" in Russian), сайт ("site") and 游戏 ("game" in Chinese).
In total, the gTLD process will result in expansion of top-level domains from 22 up to 1400.
More than 30 Australian businesses and non-profit organisations have applied for new top-level domains. Australian applicants include banks (.anz for ANZ; .nab and .ubank for the NAB; and .netbank, .commbank and .cba for the Commonwealth Bank); universities, including Bond University, LatTrobe University, Monash and RMIT; SBS; Australia Post; the AFL; and ISP iiNet.
.melbourne and .sydney will also be coming to the Web.
ICANN has been the target of significant amounts of criticism during the gTLD process. The organisation had intended to perform initial processing of the 1930 applications for top-level domain in batches of 500, with batching determined by a method dubbed 'digital archery' (a decision that created a short-lived digital archery industry – the method was based on clicking a button as close as possible to a nominated time).
ICANN subsequently backed down on batching. The length of the process has also been the subject of criticism.
Delegated gTLDs
| Date | String |
|---|---|
| 18 January 2014 | .CLUB |
| 18 January 2014 | .BUILD |
| 18 January 2014 | .PICS |
| 18 January 2014 | .PINK |
| 18 January 2014 | .LUXURY |
| 18 January 2014 | .PHOTO |
| 18 January 2014 | .GIFT |
| 18 January 2014 | .网络 (xn--io0a7i) – Chinese for "network" |
| 18 January 2014 | .公司 (xn--55qx5d) – Chinese for "company" |
| 18 January 2014 | .MONASH |
| 18 January 2014 | .RICH |
| 18 January 2014 | .RED |
| 18 January 2014 | .SHIKSHA |
| 18 January 2014 | .中信 (xn--fiq64b) – Chinese for "CITIC" |
| 18 January 2014 | .LINK |
| 18 January 2014 | .GUITARS |
| 14 January 2014 | .ZONE |
| 14 January 2014 | .CHEAP |
| 14 January 2014 | .MARKETING |
| 14 January 2014 | .DEMOCRAT |
| 14 January 2014 | .SOCIAL |
| 14 January 2014 | .AGENCY |
| 14 January 2014 | .MODA |
| 14 January 2014 | .DANCE |
| 8 January 2014 | .BERLIN |
| 3 January 2014 | 集团 (xn--3bst00m) – Chinese for "group" |
| 3 January 2014 | 我爱你 (xn--6qq986b3xl) – Chinese for "I love you" |
| 3 January 2014 | 中文网 (xn--fiq228c5hs) – Chinese for "Chinese network" |
| 3 January 2014 | .WANG |
| 3 January 2014 | .KIWI |
| 3 January 2014 | .WIEN |
| 2 January 2014 | |
| 2 January 2014 | .IMMOBILIEN |
| 2 January 2014 | .在线 (xn--3ds443g) – Chinese for "online" |
| 28 December 2013 | .INSTITUTE |
| 28 December 2013 | .CEO |
| 28 December 2013 | .SOLAR |
| 28 December 2013 | .FARM |
| 28 December 2013 | .EDUCATION |
| 28 December 2013 | .GLASS |
| 28 December 2013 | .ONL |
| 28 December 2013 | .INTERNATIONAL |
| 28 December 2013 | .CODES |
| 28 December 2013 | .TRAINING |
| 28 December 2013 | .HOUSE |
| 28 December 2013 | .KAUFEN |
| 28 December 2013 | .NINJA |
| 28 December 2013 | .REPAIR |
| 28 December 2013 | .BUILDERS |
| 28 December 2013 | .COFFEE |
| 28 December 2013 | .FLORIST |
| 28 December 2013 | .HOLIDAY |
| 28 December 2013 | .SOLUTIONS |
| 18 December 2013 | .BUZZ |
| 18 December 2013 | .SUPPORT |
| 17 December 2013 | .RECIPES |
| 17 December 2013 | .COMPUTER |
| 17 December 2013 | .ACADEMY |
| 17 December 2013 | .CAREERS |
| 17 December 2013 | .CAB |
| 17 December 2013 | 公益 (xn--55qw42g) – Chinese for "charity" |
| 17 December 2013 | 政务 (xn--zfr164b) – Chinese for "government" |
| 17 December 2013 | .SYSTEMS |
| 17 December 2013 | .DOMAINS |
| 17 December 2013 | .VIAJES |
| 17 December 2013 | .COMPANY |
| 17 December 2013 | .CAMP |
| 17 December 2013 | .LIMO |
| 17 December 2013 | .MANAGEMENT |
| 17 December 2013 | .PHOTOS |
| 17 December 2013 | .SHOES |
| 17 December 2013 | .CENTER |
| 10 December 2013 | .RUHR |
| 30 November 2013 | .MENU |
| 30 November 2013 | .UNO |
| 23 November 2013 | みんな (xn--q9jyb4c) - Japanese for "everyone" |
| 19 November 2013 | .diamonds |
| 19 November 2013 | .tips |
| 19 November 2013 | .photography |
| 19 November 2013 | .directory |
| 19 November 2013 | .enterprises |
| 19 November 2013 | .kitchen |
| 19 November 2013 | .today |
| 14 November 2013 | .plumbing |
| 14 November 2013 | .graphics |
| 14 November 2013 | .contractors |
| 14 November 2013 | .gallery |
| 14 November 2013 | .sexy |
| 14 November 2013 | .construction |
| 14 November 2013 | .tattoo |
| 14 November 2013 | .technology |
| 14 November 2013 | .estate |
| 14 November 2013 | .land |
| 14 November 2013 | .bike |
| 6 November 2013 | .VENTURES |
| 6 November 2013 | .CAMERA |
| 6 November 2013 | .CLOTHING |
| 6 November 2013 | .LIGHTING |
| 6 November 2013 | .SINGLES |
| 6 November 2013 | .VOYAGE |
| 6 November 2013 | .GURU |
| 6 November 2013 | .HOLDINGS |
| 6 November 2013 | .EQUIPMENT |
| 23 October 2013 | شبكة (xn--ngbc5azd) – Arabic for "web/network" |
| 23 October 2013 | онлайн (xn--80asehdb) – Russian for "online" |
| 23 October 2013 | сайт (xn--80aswg) – Russian for "site" |
| 23 October 2013 | 游戏(xn--unup4y) – Chinese for "game(s)" |
Source: ICANN