Category: Domain Industry Disappointments

When ICANN’s new gTLD program was introduced in 2012, it unleashed a flood of possibilities for creating specialized domain extensions tailored to industries, professions, and hobbies. The intention was to diversify the namespace, offer branding opportunities beyond the saturated .com, and create more descriptive addresses that could immediately communicate purpose. Among the hundreds of new…

When the first wave of new generic top-level domains went live in early 2014, one of the breakout stars of the launch was .guru. Unlike many of its peers, which were narrowly tied to industries, geographies, or professions, .guru carried a broad, playful, and aspirational quality. It was short, memorable, and carried an immediate sense…

When ICANN opened its landmark 2012 application round for new gTLDs, one of the most intriguing aspects was the emergence of so-called “dot brand” extensions. For the first time, large corporations could apply to operate their own top-level domain exclusively for their brand. Instead of relying on .com, they could build closed ecosystems where their…

In the long history of the internet, few innovations seemed as necessary and as overdue as Email Address Internationalization, often abbreviated as EAI. At its core, the initiative promised something profoundly simple yet globally transformative: the ability for people to use their own native scripts and languages in email addresses. Instead of being forced into…

When ICANN opened the floodgates to new gTLDs in the 2012 round, it was not just the registries, registrars, and domain investors who took notice. Trademark owners, intellectual property attorneys, and brand protection firms all recognized that the expansion from a few dozen familiar extensions to hundreds of new namespaces would create serious risks of…