[Nfbf-l] Fw: [accesscomp] new domains

[Sherri]

Just passing this along. Interesting!!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Bob Acosta
To: Bob Acosta
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 4:03 PM
Subject: [accesscomp] new domains


                We believe this is information worth passing along.
Coming Soon, The Dot Whatever Domains
SINGAPORE - A quarter-century after the creation of ".com," the agency
that assigns
Internet addresses is loosening its rules and allowing suffixes named
after brands,
hobbies, political causes and just about anything else.
Under guidelines approved Monday, Apple could register addresses ending
in ".ipad,"
Citi and Chase could share ".bank" and environmental groups could go
after ".eco."
Japan could have ".com" in Japanese.
It's the biggest change to the system of Internet addresses since it was
created
in 1984.
More than 300 suffixes are available today, but only a handful, such as
the familiar
".net" and ".com," are open for general use worldwide. Hundreds of new
suffixes could
be established by late next year, thousands in years to come.
"This is the start of a whole new phase for the Internet," said Peter
Dengate Thrush,
chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the
California
nonprofit organization in charge of Internet addresses.
The novelty addresses will be costly - $185,000 to apply and $25,000 a
year to maintain
one. A personal address with a common suffix such as ".com" usually
costs less than
$10 a year.
ICANN says it costs tens of millions of dollars to write the guidelines
for suffixes,
review applications and resolve any disputes. Even with the hefty fees,
the organization
says it plans only to break even. It's also setting aside up to $2
million to subsidize
applications from developing countries.
The expansion plan, which runs about 350 pages, took six years to develop.
Before 1998, the United States, which paid for most of the early
Internet, was in
charge of handing out Internet suffixes. ICANN, which has board members
from every
inhabited continent, was a way to take the administrative burden off the
U.S. government.
ICANN was always supposed to expand the number of available Web
suffixes. But the
progress was slow because of concerns that new ones could infringe on
trademarks,
be obscene or give a platform to hate groups. Competing interests
wrestled with ICANN
over guidelines.
ICANN has come up with procedures for any party to object to
applications for trademark,
or other reasons.
Internet addresses, technically known as domain names, tell computers
where to find
a website or send an email message. Without them, people would have to
remember clunky
strings of numbers such as "165.1.59.220" instead of "ap.org."
But the addresses have grown to mean much more. Amazon.com has built its
brand on
one, and bloggers take pride in running sites with their own domain
names, uncluttered
by the names of hosting services.
The address expansion could create new opportunities for companies to
promote their
brands and allow all sorts of niche communities to thrive online. But
they could
create confusion, too.
And they might not make much difference. More and more people online
find what they're
looking for by typing a term into a search engine, not tapping out a
full address.
Or they use an app and don't type anything.
ICANN will start taking applications for new suffixes Jan. 12. Approval
of individual
applications is expected to be quick if there are no challenges for
trademark, morality
or other reasons. Proposals that are challenged would have to undergo
more thorough
reviews, including possible arbitration to decide on the merits of claims.
High-profile entertainment, consumer-goods and financial-services
companies will
likely be among the first to apply for the new suffixes to protect their
brands.
Canon Inc., the camera and printer company, already plans to apply for
".canon."
And Apple could go after not just ".apple," but also ".ipad" and
".iphone." Apple
had no comment Monday.
Groups have already formed to back ".sport" for sporting sites, and two
conservationist
groups separately are seeking the right to operate an ".eco" suffix.
Trade groups
for bankers and financial-services companies are jointly exploring
applications for
".bank," ".insure" and ".invest" for their member companies.
Smaller companies stand to benefit, too. A florist called Apple can't
use "Apple.com"
because the computer company has it. Previously, the shop might have
registered a
longer, clunky address. Now it can just be "Apple.flowers."
Of course, a small florist might not be able to afford an expensive
suffix. But an
entrepreneur or a trade group might, and it could sell individual
addresses ending
in ".flowers" for $10 or $100 a pop. A successful suffix owner could
make millions,
much more than what it pays in application and annual fees.
When two or more groups have a legitimate claim to an address, ICANN
expects them
to work it out on their own. If they can't, the nonprofit will auction
the suffixes.
"Things are going to have to be decided, like 'Who's a better guardian
for .golf?'
The PGA or some global group?" said Jeremiah Johnston, chief operating
officer at
Sedo.com, which helps companies resell domain names.
Sedo brokered the sale of Sex.com late last year for $13 million, a
record for a
domain name. Despite the availability of new suffixes, Johnston doesn't
expect the
value of existing ".com" names to diminish. That's based on the limited
number of
additions to the system since 2000.
"Even though the new extensions come around, the ones that are most
rooted and most
popular in the minds of consumers, their value has only gone up,"
Johnston said.


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Robert Acosta, President
Helping Hands for the Blind
Email: boacosta at pacbell.net
Web Site: www.helpinghands4theblind.org

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