Google and Microsoft are vying for control of the entire “.docs” domain on the Internet, while Google is competing with Amazon for control of “.apps.” Only Apple wants control of “.apple.”
These are some of the intentions revealed on Wednesday in list of applications for new “.anything” domains published by the The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
Google published its own list of the 101 names it applied for (under the company “Charleston Road Registries, Inc.,” strangely) on its blog, which can be seen below:
ICANN, a nonprofit corporation based in California that provisions out the top-level domains for the global Internet, voted overwhelmingly in June 2011 in favor of opening up Web address endings (or generic top-level domains, GTLDS) beyond the familiar “.com,” “.org,” “.net” and others to nearly any short construction that a company or organization could conceive.
But companies had to apply for the domains they wanted to secure to the tune of a $185,000 applciation fee. If they’re awarded the domain in question, they’ll also have to pay a $25,000 annual fee, which some have criticized as a cash grab.
Companies are then free to use space on those domains essentially how they see fit, including renting it out to others.
Small wonder, then, that Google wants “.plus.” But does it really need “.dad”?
