The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently opened the doors for yet more new top-level domains (TLDs). TLDs, which are part of the Domain Name System (DNS), such as .com and .net, are the last label of fully qualified domain names. These are used to give human readable addresses to the Internet’s cryptic IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. So far, so good. Now, for no really good reasons, ICANN plans on adding as many as two thousand new TLDs.
At $185,000 per application, ICANN has over 2,000 applications for such proposed new TLDs as .AARP. .AMERICANFAMILY, and .SEX. The delusion, excuse me, idea behind this is that there’s a pent up demand for more TLDs. I don’t think so.