Fergie's Tech Blog

U.S. Commerce Dept. Adds Concerns About New TLDs

Chloe Albanesius writes on PC Magazine:

The Commerce Department on Thursday expressed concern [.pdf] with a plan from the Internet's governing body to expand the number of top-level domain names (TLDs).

In June, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved a plan that would broadly expand the number of TLDs that, for now, have been restricted to a few choice designations.

The plan it two-fold and would allow the use of non-Latin characters, such as Mandarin, to be used as TLDs, as well as any combination up to 64 characters. As a result, Web site owners could create an endless number of domain name combinations like pcmag.zd or intel.inside, instead of the usual ".com,", ".org,", or ".gov" endings.

In October, ICANN opened up the plan for public comment, and Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Thursday questioned whether ICANN would be able to adequately execute the plan.

posted by Fergie @ 12/19/2008 04:34:00 PM