ICANN makes major announcements that affect much of the domain registrar and registry ecosystem.
I’ve received some long myICANN.org daily briefings since they started but this morning’s email is by far the longest.
Here’s a quick run down of the big ICANN news out today. More analysis will follow.
1. The new Registrar Accreditation Agreement has been approved by the board.
This has major implications for both the new TLD program and registrars who sell existing gTLDs. More analysis to come.
2. Closed generic top level domains are currently on ice.
The Board’s New gTLD Program Committee passed a resolution that puts any contracting with applicants for closed generic TLDs on ice. It’s possible that this won’t amount to much, or even delay these bids. It just means ICANN is agreeing to discuss the issue with the GAC.
3. Plurals are OK.
The New gTLD Program Committee has also determined that it will allow singular and plural versions of the same top level domain, e.g. .car and .cars.
More to come.
Mark says
What exactly is “closed generic”, please?
KD says
Mark…
.blue
.green
.fun
And an applicant does not plan to allow public registrations of these domains. Versus a closed .brand such as .nike or .ibm
Mark says
@KD – so then how can plurals be okay? Plurals of what? Close generic. Right? So it applies for .car and .cars for example, as both are close generic. If I understand it correctly, all plurals are on ice as well.
Andy Hollandbeck says
The Closed part is that they won’t let anyone else use it. It’s like TLD squatting. From just this post, I’m inferring that open generic TLDs will be just fine. So ICANN can create .car and .cars, but individual domains (e.g., Adidas.shoes) will be available to buy.
On the other hand, Microsoft, for example, will have complete control over .microsoft as a closed TLD that isn’t a generic term.