December 14, 2004, 9:56 AM — If you're looking for an Internet domain name, you'll soon have several new options. Plans are in motion to add at least four new top-level domains (TLDs), including .post, .travel, .jobs and .mobi.
The new domains come from a larger pool of 10 sponsored domain applications under consideration by ICANN, The Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers. ICANN has entered into commercial and technical negotiations with the candidate registries.
ICANN initially reviews applications against three main criteria: technical competence; business and financial sufficiency; and whether the new domain belongs to a sponsored community.
Now that these reviews are complete, ICANN is moving forward to address issues unique to each application. ICANN will negotiate a set of commercial and technical terms to create a contract with each registrar.
The .post TLD is a non-profit domain for the postal community, and will have two major logical sections. The first sub-domain structure will reflect each country's official postal operator, and be named according to country's 3-letter code, for example, usa.post or mex.post. The second will accommodate commercial organizations, brands or trademarks. The .post TLD application was sponsored by the Universal Postal Union.
The .travel TLD is sponsored by Tralliance, a partnership of travel organizations. The .travel TLD will serve the global travel community. The goals for the .travel domain are: increased identity, increased adoption of Internet technology and improved linkages between the industry and its customers.
The .mobi TLD was sponsored by Nokia, Microsoft and Vodafone. It's intended to be a mobile-specific domain name space for:
* Consumers of mobile devices, services and applications
* Mobile content and service providers
* Mobile operators
* Mobile device manufacturers and vendors
* IT technology and software vendors who serve the mobile community
Finally, the .jobs domain is sponsored by The Society for Human Resource Management, and targets the international human resource management community. Domains will be in the form "companyname.jobs", where "companyname" is the legal name under which an employer does business.
ICANN is working with each of these organizations to negotiate terms, and will update the Internet community as progress is made.
RESOURCES
Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers
