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ARTICLE · 29 JUNE 2011

ICANN Board Approves Dramatic Expansion of Generic Top-Level Domain Names: Moving Beyond ".com"

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At its June 20, 2011, board meeting in Singapore, the directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted to approve the Applicant Guidebook. This decision sets in motion a rapid and unprecedented expansion of the number of generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs).

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Article by Michael D. Adams , Richard M. Assmus and Sarah Byrt

Originally published June 21, 2011

Keywords: ICANN, internet corporation for assigned names and numbers, applicant guidebook, top-level domains, gTLDs

At its June 20, 2011, board meeting in Singapore, the directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted to approve the Applicant Guidebook. This decision sets in motion a rapid and unprecedented expansion of the number of generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs).

Prior to approval of the new program, gTLDs, which are the letter strings following the "dot" in an Internet address (e.g., the "com" in .com), were limited to 21 specific sequences, such as .com, .biz, and .mobi. While registrants were free to register almost any sequence prior to the gTLD, known as a second-level domain, registrants had few options when choosing a gTLD. With ICANN's approval of the new program, the Top-Level Domain Name space has been

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