Hundreds Of New Top-Level Domain Name Applications Revealed

Hundreds Of New Top-Level Domain Name Applications Revealed
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Almost 2,000 requests to register new, top-level domain names have been unveiled.

The new domains will take the place of the current website endings like .com and .info.

Organisations had to pay £118,000 to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) to apply for the domains.

The applied-for names include business addresses (.apple, .windows, .google and .amazon), while some were from the racier end of the Internet, including .porn, .adult and .sex.

There were two applicants for the .sex domain, including Internet Marketing Solutions Limited.

Several domains were hotly contested in the list, including .app which was applied for by 13 different parties, including Amazon. Amazon also applied for the .book domain, along with eight other groups.

In total Amazon applied for 76 top-level domains, including HuffPostUKTech: Amazon has applied for 76 top-level domains at a cost of £56m. Includes .Room, .Pin, .Joy, .News, .Mail, .Map.

Meanwhile Google applied for more than 100 domains.

Nine parties applied for the .art domain. Labrokes applied for the .bet domain, as did three other parties.

Apple applied for only one domain - .apple, as did the BBC (.BBC).

In addition, if two or more organisations have applied for the same domain a resolution process will be launched which could take months.

Icann said there were a total of 1,930 applications, with 884 coming from the United States alone.

Just 40 applications were made from the UK, while 675 were made in Europe, 303 were made in Asia and 17 in Africa.

Icann added that 166 were for domains not in the Latin alphabet - for instance by organisations in China.

Nominet, the non-profit domain name organisation, said more than $350m had been invested in the process overall. The group said it had applied to run new domains including .wales and .cymru.

Lesley Cowley, CEO of Nominet, said: "New top level domains represent a major change in the landscape of the internet, and clearly more now needs to be done to raise awareness of the issues and implications for all internet users across Britain.

"Businesses need not panic if they haven't yet considered them, but they should certainly watch developments, and develop a clear policy before the changes take place in 2013.

"In the meantime, having an established, trusted country code - such as domains ending in .uk - will remain one of the best ways to be found online."

Icann will evaluate the applications in groups of 500, and will charge $25,000 per year to keep the domains.

The first domains will go live in Spring next year.