ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is now giving you an opportunity to have your say in the next wave of gTLD (generic top-level domains like .com, .org etc) extensions from mid-2008. ICANN wants public input on its development of a new process for creating, approving, and adding new gTLDs to the Internet.

ICANN

“When ICANN was founded in 1998, only a few TLDs, including .com, were generally available to the public for registration of domain names. Our mission has been to expand the number of TLDs available to users – and we have made great progress,” said Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN. “When the new approval process is complete, Internet users around the globe will have more choice in the TLD market.”

ICANN has overseen two previous extensions of the Internet space: first in 2000 when seven TLDs including .info and .name were added to the domain name system (DNS); the second started in 2004 leading to six more being approved, including .asia.

Letting people to be a part of the new gTLDs development process is a great move by ICANN as it would allow the world’s diverse people, geography and business to be represented in the domain name system.

Currently there are 120 million registered domain names (unique web addresses) in the world. Of these, 80 million are gTLDs (as opposed to country code top-level domains like .de for Germany or .ca for Canada). The most commonly used gTLD is “.com”, with 62 million domains. There are another 15 gTLDs in existence including .aero to .travel.

Check out the FAQ on the creation of new gTLDs (Courtesy: ICANN).

Via: ICANN

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