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.com is so 20th century – Welcome to ICANN’s great domain name auction.

December 19, 2012 - 8:40am

By itwire

ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has held its lottery draw for 1,930 new sponsored global top level domains (gTLDs).

Successful bidders will be able to use gTLDs like .christmas and .sport, giving their organisations a significant marketing advantage on Internet search engines. The ICANN “prioritisation draw” was held in an all-day event at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton, complete with a barrel girls and the razzamatazz of a Lotto draw.

The main purpose of the draw was to determine the order in which ICANN will evaluate the applications. Each applicant paid US$185,000 to ICANN, but if there were multiple applications for the same name, then those applicants must try to decide between themselves who will be the candidate. They might draw straws, have a private auction, or set a joint venture to share the domain name.

If they cannot decide, then ICA


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