Afilias Limited, the operator of the .INFO, .MOBI and .PRO top level domains (TLD) announced that it will be the back end provider for 305 new generic TLD applications to ICANN.
“The applications span a range of new TLD ideas, and include 18 Internationalized TLDs (for example, Chinese and Cyrillic), four community domains, four geographic domains and more than 170 “dot Brand” names.”
“The remaining applications represent a wide variety of generic domain strings that are designed to simplify Internet navigation by helping users discover focused, easily identifiable content.”
“Although the list primarily contains the TLDs of its registry services customers, Afilias itself has applied for a range of strings in verticals as diverse as energy and media.”
“Afilias is helping a wide range of global entities apply for their TLD, including the .eco and .hotel teams as announced previously,” said Roland LaPlante, Senior Vice President and CMO, Afilias.
LaPlante added, “In addition to technical support, several of these strings will leverage our complete Managed Registry Service, more fully capitalizing on Afilias’ experience as an ICANN-Designated Registry Operator. We couldn’t be more excited about the growth that all of these new domain names will bring to the Internet in the years ahead. We are looking forward to helping our customers get their TLDs approved and successfully launched, and also to bringing our own new domains to market.”
Today, Afilias provides registry and DNS services for 17 TLDs and more than 20 million registrations, including almost eight million .INFO domains and one million .MOBI domains registered worldwide. In addition, Afilias supports .ORG, .AERO, .ASIA, .PRO, XXX, .AG (Antigua and Barbuda), .BZ (Belize), .GI (Gibraltar), .HN (Honduras), .IN (India), .LC (St. Lucia), .ME (Montenegro), .MN (Mongolia), .SC (the Seychelles), .VC (St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Someone recently said:
“what happened before is in the past by definition”
People may be under-estimating the role the Applicants will SOON be playing in the Internet Industry
People may also be unaware of the changes coming to the DNS. That is the only reason I* and ICANN is allowing more players into the game. They understand their days are numbered.
“what happened before is in the past by definition”
It’s great to see .pro under the afilias label and mentioned here. Don’t know where the extension will be on their priority list when more tld’s are released but it still points to a positive.
Again, any insight that other posters here can provide to discuss the real impact of new extensions would be appreciated. I certainly believe existing extensions have a leg up as they have more established registry base and users while also having placement on registry sites which I believe is difficult to do. Anyway, I have to think that the internet is undergoing a significant change here.
“internet is undergoing a significant change here”
The significant changes are actually happening elsewhere and ICANN is slow to react
It is hard to imagine the ICANN Process will be able to keep up with the chaos that is (intentionally) being unleashed
People are unaware of the nukes staged ready for some .SHOCK and .AWE
.CHAOS will be a good thing – but it will take years for people to understand what happened – they live in the land of denial
Can you be more clear on what significant changes are going on that ICANN doesn’t have control over. I would have thought it was just the release of 1000’s of new extensions that would cause any disruption at all.
Can you provide some actual examples shock and awe?
Pro Domains, unfortunately, I think it’s game over for .pro. The various niche professional extensions will have more appeal to end users. .law, .med, etc. It had it’s chance about a decade ago, but it seems to have flopped and fizzled.
“Can you provide some actual examples shock and awe?”
This would probably not be the place to discuss Weapons of Mass Distraction (WMDs)