X.info will be available soon.
.Info registry Afilias is asking ICANN to approve a plan to offer one and two character .info domain names for registration. As with other newer gTLDs, ICANN originally reserved all one and two character domains from being registered.
Afilias is modeling its plan after Neustar’s launch of one and two character .biz domain names. There will be a three step process:
1. Requests for Proposal, where anyone can submit a proposal for developing a particular name. Afilias will award domains to RFPs that meet its goal of broadening awareness of .info.
2. Auction of any domain not given during the RFP
3. Open registration
During Neustar’s one character auction, the top sale was e.biz for $66,001. Many other one character .biz domains sold for $5,000-$15,000. It is still running two character auctions, with most sales under $1,000. The biggest deal to come out of the RFP process was Overstock.com, which picked up O.biz.
ICANN has opened a comment period about Afilias’ proposal, but I see no reason it would be denied in the wake of the .biz release.
M. Menius says
This is excellent news. Look forward to .info receiving press, and support. This will spur some speculative investment as well as .info development … so good all around.
Steve M says
Will be interesting to see how the sales prices compare to the .biz prices.
Anyone think of any “killers” in 1 or 2 letter .infos like e.biz?