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Opening of New gTLD Applications Marks Historic Change in Domain Name System

At one minute past midnight (UTC) on Thursday, 12 January, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) began accepting applications for new generic Top-Level Domains, marking one of the biggest changes in the Internet's evolution.

The new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) program will greatly expand the current number of 22 Top-Level Domains (i.e., .com, .gov, .net, etc.) to include almost any word or name. It also allows, for the first time, non-Latin language scripts, such as Arabic, Chinese and Cyrillic to be used in a gTLD.

The new program was approved by ICANN's Board of Directors in June at the 41st public meeting in Singapore, after six years of careful study, discussion and debate. The program's formation was framed by 45 comment periods encompassing more than 2,400 comments and analyses. There were 55 explanatory memoranda or independent reports and 7 drafts of the gTLD Applicant Guidebook.

The first application window for new gTLDs will close on April 12 and soon afterwards ICANN will post on its web site what domain names have been applied for, and by whom.

For more information on the New gTLD Program

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Program overview [PDF, 1.15 MB]
• Information for rights holders [PDF, 2.09 MB]

News Media Coverage of New gTLD Launch

The opening of the application window for the new generic Top-Level Domain program led to massive global news media coverage. Below is a small sampling of some of the stories that were produced.

• Reuters (international wire service) - "Internet revolution dawns with .yournamehere domains"
• PBS Newshour (USA) - "Domain Names: Debating the Effects of a Dot-Anything World"
• Irish Times (Ireland) - "Net naming changes with additional domains"
• Toronto Star (Canada) - "Registration opens Thursday for new web addresses"
• Associated Press (international wire service) - "Internet Address Expansion Set Despite ".worries."
• BBC (United Kingdom) - "Web domains to get major overhaul with custom names"
• National Public Radio (USA) - "Who - If Anyone - Should Control The Internet?"
• Hindu Business Line (India) - "India Inc in race for own domain name"
• Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) - "A whole new domain for internet addresses"
• Bloomberg Television (USA) - "Icann CEO on Web-Domain Name Expansion"
• Daily Yomiuri (Japan) - "Domains with .tokyo could be available next year"
• Financial Times (United Kingdom) - "Icann to expand domain despite web of protest"

Issues of Interest to Journalists

New gTLDs  |  Internationalised Domain Names  |  Fast-track IDN ccTLD Activities  |  IPv6  |  Affirmation of Commitments

What Is ICANN?

To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer – a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one global Internet.

ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers.

ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.