‘.Whatever’ Top-Level Domain Approved by ICANN

[story via Mashable]

That’s right! .Whatever, the newest Top-Level Domain to be approved by the ICANN, is on its way.

Once .whatever domains are released, this book will need updating.

But that’s not all – plenty of other new TLDs, including .google, .autoinsurance, and .porn are making their debut soon as well.

(via Mashable): The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) says it has received 1,930 requests for new names, 166 of which were not in the Latin alphabet. Those who want to oppose the claims have seven months to register their objections. Sometime after March 2013, ICANN plans to release the new domains in groups of 500.

Even with tons of new Top-Level Domains coming out, they’re not as cheap as they seem. Each application to the ICANN for a new TLD costs $185,000, with an annual fee of $25,000.

Still, some companies think it’s a worthwhile investment. On the other hand, after finally getting 50+ year olds to realize that they have to type in ‘.com’, I don’t expect the transition will be very worthwhile–in the long-term or short-term. If anything, this will push end-users to use search engines even more.

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