ICANN to expand Internet's domain name system

THE Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) yesterday revealed who has applied for generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) names in what is expected to become the largest expansion in the history of the Internet's Domain Name System.A total of 1,930 new gTLD applications were received during the application period of the new generic Top-Level Domain program.According to the President and Chief Executive Officer, Rod Beckstrom, 'We are standing at the cusp of a new era of online innovation. That means new businesses, new marketing tools, new jobs, and new ways to link communities and share information.'Beckstrom made the comments during a London news conference, where it was revealed, which organizations have applied for which specific domain names.Senior Vice President Kurt Pritz noted that the applications would now be subject to a public comment and objection period, and a rigorous, objective and independent evaluation system.'A 60-day comment period begins today, allowing anyone in the world to submit comments on any application, and the evaluation panels will consider them,' said Pritz.'If anyone objects to an application and believes they have the grounds to do so, they can file a formal objection to the application. And they will have seven months to do that.'Of the 1,930 applications received: 66 are geographic name applications and 116 applications are for Internationalized Domain Names, or IDNs, for strings in scripts such as Arabic, Chinese, and Cyrillic.Applications were received from 60 countries and territories, broken down by ICANN's geographic regions; 911 from North America, 675 from Europe, 303 are from Asia-Pacific, 24 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 17 from Africa.Beckstrom noted that the applications from Latin America/Caribbean and Africa would be the first gTLDs ever from those regions.He also pointed out that the new gTLD program is the result of seven years of international consultation and debate among a wide variety of Internet stakeholders.
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