The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) set December 15 as the final day for comments on its plan to launch anywhere from 200 to 800 new domain name extensions (gTLDs) starting next year, reports Network World (US).
This has caused great anger and unease amongst big business.
ICANN claims the new gTLDs will provide more innovation, choice and competition on the internet, especially for non-English language domains. The new domains would be anywhere from three to 63 characters in length and could support Chinese, Arabic and other scripts.
The report says that although the ICANN plan would allow companies to run their own domains - such as .microsoft or .ibm -the idea has been panned by most corporations that have commented on it so far.
The Network World (US) article quoted a letter written to ICANN by Melissa MacGregor, managing director and associate general counsel of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) on December 12; 'The negative consequences of issuing new generic top-level domains will far outweigh any potential benefits. These negative consequences include, but are not limited to, consumer confusion, domain name abuse, threatened internet stability and security, trademark infringement, phishing and an overall devaluation of domains already in existence.'
This one looks like it will run and run.