In a press release this afternoon ICANN proudly announced that the “Initial Evaluation (IE) phase of the new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) program is concluded.”
“This is an extraordinary landmark which demonstrates the progress in this program,” said Akram Atallah, President of ICANN’s Generic Domains Division. “We are looking forward to the innovations that these new introductions will enable on the Internet.”
“Out of the 1,930 new gTLD applications submitted, a total of 1,745 applications passed Initial Evaluation, 32 have gone into Extended Evaluation, and 121 were withdrawn from the program. ”
The only problem is there are still 29 new gTLD applications showing as still being in Initial Evaluation on ICANN’s website. These 29 applications are not withdrawn, have not passed IE, have no failed and have not been made eligible for extended evaluation.
The fate of those 29 applications is still unknown and there are some “big” applications still in the Initial Evaluation status including Google’s much talked about application for .Search; the American Broadcasting Company’s application for .ABC; and The Better Business Bureau’s application for .bbb; the city of Rome’s application .Roma; the global accounting firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu application for .Deloitte; the only other applicant for .Sex filed by Internet Marketing Solutions Limited, other than ICM Registry’s, the operator of .XXX; Rogers Communications application for .Rogers and another application that has gotten some mainstream press, .Kosher.
Here are the 29 applications that are still in IE:
but, will domains with TLDs like BOSTIK, TOTAL, BOEHRINGER, PWC, DELOITTE, etc. be allowed for their registration, to EVERYBODY who want?
some of these are closed and not available to be registered to everyone