.web

Last updated
.web information
Dotweb.png
IntroducedTBD by ICANN
StatusAssigned
Registry Nu Dot Co, LLC
StructureRegistrations are directly at second level
Documents ICANN official auction schedule
Registry website[TBD]

.web is a proposed top-level domain (TLD) that was created and assigned by an auction process to several bidding companies. It was awarded to Nu Dot Co LLC, which is primarily funded by Verisign.

Contents

Nu Dot Co LLC's acquisition of the .web TLD was not only a major business move but also a strategic acquisition intended to enhance the digital landscape. The introduction of .web is anticipated to offer more choices for businesses and individuals seeking memorable and effective online identities. This aligns with the ongoing expansion of the internet's namespace, which aims to accommodate a wider variety of activities and entities online. Moreover, Verisign's involvement suggests that the .web domain could benefit from robust infrastructure and expertise in domain management, ensuring stability and security for future registrants. The rollout of .web is expected to foster innovation and competition in the domain industry, providing a fresh alternative to traditional TLDs like .com and .net.

Auction

The right to operate the domain .web was won by Nu Dot Co LLC at an auction, which was primarily funded by market-dominant Verisign, for a price of $135 million, equivalent to $171 million in 2023. [1] [2] The ICANN auction of last resort that started on July 27, 2016, completed on July 28, 2016. ICANN will retain all the proceeds from this auction. TLD .web will be added to the official root after ICANN awards the registry contract. [3]

Seven companies were bidding for the right to operate .web: [4]

Delays

Although Nu Dot Co LLC won the rights to operate the .web domain in 2016, the release of the domain has been postponed by a series of events. [5]

The release of gTLD .web was initially postponed due to Ruby Glen, LCC. On August 8, 2016, they filed an amended complaint against ICANN, which began July 22, 2016. [6] The major complaint was that Verisign planned to use Nu Dot Co LLC to acquire the .web domain. [7] [8] The complaint was dismissed on November 28, 2016. [9] However, the dismissal was appealed on December 20, 2016. [10]

The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation concerning antitrust issues with ICANN on February 9, 2017. [11] The investigation closed on January 10, 2018. [12]

On February 23, 2018, applicant Afilias, who was the second highest bidder, requested documents from ICANN. [13]

On May 19, 2022, ICANN's BAMC (Board Accountability Mechanisms Committee) decided to ask the involved parties to rehash what had happened by sending an official letter [14] in the form of an email [15] to all the entities involved in the .web bidding.

Registry

.web was operated as a prospective registry, but never worked in the official root, by Image Online Design 1995. It originated when Jon Postel, then running the top level of the Domain Name System basically single-handedly, proposed the addition of new top-level domains to be run by different registries. Since internet tradition at the time emphasized "rough consensus and running code", Christopher Ambler, who ran Image Online Design, saw this as meaning that his company could get a new TLD into the root by starting up a functional registry for it. After asking and receiving permission from IANA to do so, IOD promoted web, but the TLD never worked on the internet as it failed to get ICANN approval.

IOD's initial excitement was tempered by the regulatory realities of the evolving internet governance, which grew more formalized with ICANN's establishment in 1998. As the internet expanded and stakeholders from various sectors became involved, the path to legitimizing new TLDs became increasingly complex and bureaucratic. Despite these setbacks, the .web registry maintained a significant following and continued to advocate for its inclusion in the official DNS root, reflecting a persistent belief in the potential of this domain.

Since then, IOD has tried and failed to get their domain into the official root through several plans to admit new top-level domains. Several new-TLD plans in the late 1990s, including Postel's original proposal, failed to reach sufficient consensus among the increasingly contentious factions of the Internet to admit any new TLDs, including.web. When ICANN accepted applications for new TLDs in 2000, which resulted in the seven new domains being added soon afterward, IOD's application was not approved; all unapproved applications were rejected. A second round of new TLD assignments was conducted with new applications and only for sponsored domains (generally intended for use by limited communities and run by nonprofit entities). However, the registry for.web remained hopeful that its application would eventually be approved. On May 10, 2007, ICANN announced the opening of public comments towards a new, third round of new gTLDs, a round in which IOD did not participate. One of these new TLD applicants will prevail and operate the web TLD which will resolve on the internet.[ needs update ]

At times, IOD has claimed priority rights to the TLD string.web, although any legal basis for such a claim is questionable given that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has stated that top-level domains are not trademarkable in themselves. IOD does, however, have a registered trademark for the term "web.". IOD has objected to proposals for a.web domain not operated by them, and to date, none of these plans have received approval. An application by Afilias to operate a.web domain was turned down in favor of their running .info instead. Vint Cerf, then chair of ICANN, noted that he recognized IOD's pioneering work in.web and felt that.web should be held in reserve for IOD's application in the next round rather than be awarded to Afilias, preferring that they receive.info instead. Afilias is one of the seven applicants who will eventually operate .web.

The IOD web registry has in the past accepted registrations and intended to allow them to continue in force after entering the root, although some commentators feel that ICANN ought to require them to discard existing registrations and proceed with a startup procedure as with other new TLDs, so as not to grant any legitimacy to unofficial registrations. No previous web registrations will have legal claim when the TLD goes live.

On February 7, 2013, the United States District Court for the Central District of California approved a motion to dismiss the complaint from ICANN. [16]

Some movies used .web domains for fictional companies. For example, the film Next Day Air has advertised on one of their trucks the link www.nda.web. [17] Skyfall advertises www.868000.web on the side of a taxi during a pursuit scene. [18] However, as of the current time, none of these domains are operational.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ICANN</span> American nonprofit organization that coordinates several Internet address databases

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet, ensuring the Internet's stable and secure operation. ICANN performs the actual technical maintenance work of the Central Internet Address pools and DNS root zone registries pursuant to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) function contract. The contract regarding the IANA stewardship functions between ICANN and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the United States Department of Commerce ended on October 1, 2016, formally transitioning the functions to the global multistakeholder community.

A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last non-empty label of a fully qualified domain name. For example, in the domain name www.example.com, the top-level domain is .com. Responsibility for management of most top-level domains is delegated to specific organizations by the ICANN, an Internet multi-stakeholder community, which operates the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and is in charge of maintaining the DNS root zone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domain name</span> Identification string in the Internet

In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. Domain names are used in various networking contexts and for application-specific naming and addressing purposes. In general, a domain name identifies a network domain or an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, such as a personal computer used to access the Internet, or a server computer.

The domain com is a top-level domain (TLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Created in the first group of Internet domains at the beginning of 1985, its name is derived from the word commercial, indicating its original intended purpose for subdomains registered by commercial organizations. Later, the domain opened for general purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verisign</span> American Internet company

Verisign Inc. is an American company based in Reston, Virginia, that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the .com, .net, and .name generic top-level domains and the .cc country-code top-level domains, and the back-end systems for the .jobs and .edu sponsored top-level domains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internationalized domain name</span> Type of Internet domain name

An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that contains at least one label displayed in software applications, in whole or in part, in non-Latin script or alphabet or in the Latin alphabet-based characters with diacritics or ligatures. These writing systems are encoded by computers in multibyte Unicode. Internationalized domain names are stored in the Domain Name System (DNS) as ASCII strings using Punycode transcription.

A domain name registrar is a company that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry or a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registry. A registrar operates in accordance with the guidelines of the designated domain name registries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.xxx</span> Sponsored top-level Internet domain

.xxx is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) intended as a voluntary option for pornographic sites on the Internet. The sponsoring organization is the International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR). The registry is operated by ICM Registry LLC. The ICANN Board voted to approve the sTLD on 18 March 2011. It went into operation on 15 April 2011.

A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all two-letter top-level domains are ccTLDs.

Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of every fully qualified domain name. They are called generic for historical reasons; initially, they were contrasted with country-specific TLDs in RFC 920.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.mobi</span> Generic top-level Internet domain

The domain name mobi is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Its name is derived from the adjective mobile.

The Domain Name System of the Internet consists of a set of top-level domains that constitute the root domain of the hierarchical name space and database. In the growth of the Internet, it became desirable to expand the initial set of six generic top-level domains in 1984. As a result, new top-level domain names have been proposed for implementation by ICANN. Such proposals included a variety of models ranging from adoption of policies for unrestricted gTLDs that could be registered by anyone for any purpose, to chartered gTLDs for specialized uses by specialized organizations. In October 2000, ICANN published a list of proposals for top-level domain strings it had received.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.shop</span>

.shop is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) launched in September 2016. Nine companies including Google, Amazon and Famous Four Media filed applications for .shop in the 2012 ICANN new gTLD application round. GMO Registry became the registry operator after prevailing in an ICANN public auction in January 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.africa</span> Internet TLD for the African Union

.africa is the officially designated top-level domain (TLD) for the African and Pan African communities and users wherever they reside. It is a sponsored generic top-level domain (gTLD) operated by the Registry Africa. The .africa namespace is open to individuals, businesses and organizations around the world. The .africa domains are intended to showcase their brand and commitment to the African continent, establishing a home for Africa-specific products and services, expanding a brand's regional influence and acquiring online real-estate.

.music is a community-based top-level domain name (TLD) operated for the benefit of the global music community. It was one of the most highly contested new gTLDs, with eight applicants in contention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.au Domain Administration</span> Manager of the .au domain

.au Domain Administration (auDA) is the policy authority and industry self-regulatory body for the .au domain, which is the country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Australia. It was formed in 1999 to manage the .au ccTLD with the endorsement of the Australian Government and the authority of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). It is a not-for-profit membership organisation that promotes and protects the .au domain space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public Interest Registry</span>

Public Interest Registry is a not-for-profit based in Reston, Virginia, created by the Internet Society in 2002 to manage the .ORG top-level domain. It took over operation of .ORG in January 2003 and launched the .NGO and .ONG top-level domains in March 2015.

The domain name Dot Chinese Website (.中文网) is a new generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Dot Chinese Website is among many listed top level domains. Created along with the partner domain name Dot Chinese Online (.在线) by TLD Registry through Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names (ICANN)’s new gTLD program launched in April 28, 2014. TLD Registry was founded in June 2008 in Finland with the mission to create essential new Chinese TLDs - intended mainly towards a Chinese-speaking audience. Because it is displayed in a simplified Chinese character language specific script, Dot Chinese Website is known as an Internationalized Domain Name (IDNs).

.global is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) and was delegated to the DNS root zone on June 6, 2014. The application for the new top-level domain was approved on April 17, 2014, and .global was made available to the general public on September 9, 2014.

References

  1. ↑ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–" . Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  2. ↑ "ICANN New gTLD Auction results". ICANN.org. Archived from the original on 2015-06-29. Retrieved 2016-07-29.
  3. ↑ "Verisign Statement Regarding .Web Auction Results". Verisign (Press release). August 1, 2016. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  4. ↑ ".web". ICANNWiki.org. Retrieved 2016-01-06.
  5. ↑ ".WEB Delay History". DomainMondo.com. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  6. ↑ "Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN". ICANN.org. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  7. ↑ Allemann, Andrew (9 August 2016). "Donuts demands $22.5 million for .Web domain name". Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  8. ↑ "Amended Complaint" (PDF). ICANN.org. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  9. ↑ "Judgment" (PDF). ICANN.org. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  10. ↑ "Plaintiff's Notice of Appeal Regarding Dismissal" (PDF). ICANN.org. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  11. ↑ "U.S. Antitrust Division investigating Verisign running .Web". DomainNameWire.com. 10 February 2017. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  12. ↑ "DOJ Closes Probe of VeriSign Over .Web Domain". BNA.com. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  13. ↑ "Request for Update on ICANN's Investigation of .WEB Contention Set and Request for Documents under ICANN's Documentary Information Disclosure Policy" (PDF). ICANN.org. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  14. ↑ "ICANN Board asks .web parties to rehash arguments". May 20, 2022.
  15. ↑ ICANN official website
  16. ↑ "Image Online Design, Inc. v ICANN". ICANN.org. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  17. ↑ "Hosting Checker - Who is Hosting This Website?". amazingalgorithms.com. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  18. ↑ "2000 Shanghai-Volkswagen Passat [Typ 3B] in "Skyfall, 2012"". IMCDb.org. Retrieved 2014-09-17.
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