Internet Domain Can Be '.Anything' For $185,000, Says ICANN

Ever wondered if your hotel businesses website could be like xyz.hotel or your brand name could be on the other side of the dot! Well, its possible now. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers(ICANN) is accepting applications for new generic top level domains(gTLD).
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ICANN is the organization which regulates the names and domains of the websites. They have been planning this a long time ago and after a lot of discussions with various organizations and governments, they have finally rolled it out. But its not going to be easy. Each application has a set of 50 questions, which will be reviewed in a time period of 9 to 20 months. The application fee is $185,000. The reason behind this high price and long process is to make sure that big organizations can hold their respective names or object if someone is trying to acquire it. Rock Beckstrom, ICANN chairman, said in a press conference, "We believe this program will do what it's designed to do, which is open up the Internet domain-name system to further innovation”.

Presently, there are 22 generic top level domains and 250 country specific domains. The new plan is going to bring a flood of domain names. Indian Business Group Tata told #-Link-Snipped-# that they are planning to buy .tata domain. So, you might see steel.tata soon! Users can also have domain names in non-Latin languages like Arabic, Hindi etc. The plan is under controversies as according to many organizations it can generate new kind of fraud and cybersquatting.

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