Biggest Expansion to Internet in Forty Years – ICAAN Approves New Domain Names

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ICAAN announced on 26th June 2008 in Paris, what could be the biggest revolution on the internet cyber world in 40 years! Now you can name your own domain names & you do not have to restrict to the existing 21 approved names like .com, .net, .org & country codes like .uk (UK), .us (USA), .in (India), .cn (China), .de (Germany) etc. (All the approved domain are listed below)

ICAAN would start approving the new top level domain (TLD) names from the first quarter of 2009. Added to that, top level domain names would also appear in many new languages, including Arabic.

However, estimates say, that depending on the top level domain name you choose, it could cost you as much as USD 100,000.

ICAAN will approve top level domains that reflect the user & customer groups more closely. We already have .travel that relates to the travel segment & .name that pertains to an individual. The other domain names not so frequently heard are .museum etc. City organizations are already discussing the possibilities of top level domains for the prominent cities like .nyc & .berlin.

The other key element approved in the ICAAN meeting is that no trade names will be reserved by default. This is a significant announcement & could lead to several infringement lawsuits subsequently. However, ICAAN mentions that “there will be an objection-based mechanism for trademark owners where their arguments for protection will be considered”.

The same holds true for offensive domain names. Such offensive top level domains will be “subject to an objection-based process based on public morality and order by an international arbitrage group”.

You can view all the domain names approved by ICCAN here. There is a tool provided by IANA to find out who owns a top level domain. It is similar to the internet’s WhoIs service. If you want to check who is the registrar for say the CN domain, enter cn in the search box & hit “Lookup”.

[whois.iana.org]

IANA Whois Service
Domain: cn
ID: cn

Sponsoring Organization:
Organization: Chinese Academy of Sciences
The Computer Network Center
Address1: No.4, South 4th Street
Address2: Zhong Guan Cun
City: Beijing
Country: China
Postal Code: 100080
Registration Date: 01-January-1985
Last Updated Date: 01-January-1985

Administrative Contact:
Name: Hualin Qian
Organization: Computer Network Information Center,
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Address1: No.4, South 4th Street
Address2: Zhong Guan Cun
City: Beijing
Country: China
Postal Code: 100080
Phone: +86 10 58812270
Fax: +86 10 58812290
Email: hlqian@cnic.cn
Registration Date: 01-January-1985
Last Updated Date: 08-October-2007

Technical Contact:
Name: Xiaodong LEE
Organization: China Internet Network Information Center
Address1: No.4, South 4th Street
Address2: Zhong Guan Cun
City: Beijing
Country: China
Postal Code: 100080
Phone: +86 10 58813020
Fax: +86 10 58812666 103
Email: lee@cnnic.cn
Registration Date: 08-October-2007
Last Updated Date: 08-October-2007
URL for registration services: http://www.cnnic.cn/
Whois Server (port 43): whois.cnnic.cn

Nameserver Information:
Nameserver: ns.cernet.net.
IP Address: 202.112.0.44
Nameserver: a.dns.cn.
IP Address: 203.119.25.1 2001:dc7:0:0:0:0:0:1
Nameserver: c.dns.cn.
IP Address: 203.119.27.1
Nameserver: b.dns.cn.
IP Address: 203.119.26.1
Nameserver: d.dns.cn.
IP Address: 203.119.28.1 2001:dc7:1000:0:0:0:0:1
Nameserver: e.dns.cn.
IP Address: 203.119.29.1

Registration Date: 28-November-1990
Last Updated Date: 08-October-2007

ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet’s system of unique identifiers like domain names (like .org, .museum and country codes like .uk) and the addresses used in a variety of Internet protocols that help computers reach each other over the Internet. Careful management of these resources is vital to the Internet’s operation, so ICANN’s global stakeholders meet regularly to develop policies that ensure the Internet’s ongoing security and stability. ICANN is an internationally organized, public benefit non-profit company. For more information please visit: www.icann.org.