All Things ICANN - CNN

This week in tech news: Tired of typing in dot com, dot org, dot net, dot biz? Well, what if you could purchase your own custom extension? The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers, better known as ICANN, announced in January a little revamp of the web allowing anyone to apply for their own extension of choice. We discussed this on CNN Sunday evening. 

Currently, there are 22 generic top level domains- from dot com to dot gov and, an additional 258 for country codes like .us or .uk. But now, get ready to potentially key in .google, .ninja or .lol. Since January, nearly 1,930 applications were submitted for custom domain names that were revealed this week.

Some of the names that were applied for: 
Apple - .Apple
Amazon - .app, .book, .music
Google - .Android, .Baby, .Dad
Microsoft - .azure, .bing, .hotmail
Sony - .playstation, .sony
Facebook, Twitter - No application

The most to apply were companies.
Google applied for101 domains ranging from obvious like android and .youtube to others like .game; .mail and lol.  Amazon applied for 76 names- everything from .kindle to .kids to .movie.

Surprisingly, Twitter and Facebook did not register.

There were also 230 names that were applied for by at least two entities. 
.App (13 applications)
.Home (11 applications)
.Inc (11)
.Art (10 applications)
.Shop (9)
.Blog (9)
.Book (9)
.LLC (9)
.Design (8)
.Movie (8)
.Music (8)

And last, this could get fun too – here are some of the most unique names applied for: 
.Yoga
.LOL
.Ninja
.WTF
.Pizza

Custom applications come with a price, however. Each application comes with a pricetag of $185k at 1,930 applications. (That’s a total $357 million dollars) It also comes with a $25k renewal fee that can add up over time, so forget it for small businesses. Also, let’s remember 231 companies are competing for the same domain names. Amazon and Google are competing against each other in 21 applications. It’s in the best interest of companies competing against each other to try to negotiate first, and last resort, go to an auction (bidding war).

You can imagine the pressure to secure your name. But not all companies are on-board with the idea. 102 associations and 79 businesses have petitioned against ICANN's new top level domains brands that include but are not limited to Adidas, American Express, GE and Coke. Many oppose for several reasons, citing excessive fees, to security issues.

But if ICANN has its way and all goes as planned, applications go through an evaluation process that begin next month and go through December. Anyone can file for an objection.