Google has come under fire from an anti-Google lobbying body over a number of generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) it has applied for. The FairSearch group, made up of companies including Microsoft, Oracle, Nokia, Expedia and others, has filed objections with ICANN against Google's requests to control .search, .fly, .map as closed registries.
Amazon has received criticism over its attempts to register new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), in complaints sent to ICANN. The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers, and competitor Barnes & Noble have all objected to applications for the suffixes .book, .author, and .read, citing the potential abuse of Amazon's market position in using the new domain endings.
ICANN has released a list of applications for generic top-level domains (gTLDs), along with their position in a raffle. The randomly-drawn list sets the order for ICANN to evaluate and process the applications for domain suffixes, with the first gTLD to be issued expected to be the word "catholic" in Chinese, as requested by the Catholic Church.
Objections have been made to a number of generic top-level domain (gTLD) applications. The ICANN Government Advisory Committee, consisting of 50 countries, has posted an initial list of 250 objections where member countries claim there to be an issue with the gTLDs being registered. Rejected applications will receive 80-percent of their $185,000 application fee.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has raised objections to certain gTLD applications. The Saudi Communication and Information Technology Commission has filed complaints with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) over some top-level domain proposals on various taste, decency and health-related grounds in the last few days, according to The Register.
ICANN has revealed the full list of new generic top-level domain (gTLD) submissions. Some 1,930 requests have been made, with some major parties aiming for multiple suffixes, while others are notably absent. In many instances the Internet-based land-grab involves companies trying to secure brand names and trademarks, though others are competing for generic terms, or some not-so-serious names.
Google has applied for various domain name suffixes, including .google, .docs, .youtube, and .lol. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) process has seen nearly 2000 applications for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), including companies seeking to secure their own trademarks as well as potentially valuable domain endings that could be in high demand in some markets.
