First new gTLDs delegated (really!)
ICANN has delegated the first new gTLDs to the DNS root.
All four of the first batch of internationalized domain names appear to be present right now in root zone file:
- .xn--ngbc5azd (شبكة.) — means “.web” in Arabic. Operated by dotShabaka Registry.
- .xn--unup4y (.游戏) — means “.games” in Chinese. Operated by Donuts.
- .xn--80aswg (.сайт) — means “.site” in several Cyrillic languages. Operated by CORE Association.
- .xn--80asehdb (.онлайн) — means “.online” in several Cyrillic languages. Also operated by CORE Association.
Infuriatingly, and appropriately given the glitches that have plagued the program for the last 18 months, the news seems to have been announced unexpectedly by ICANN VP Christine Willett during a webinar that most listeners had been kicked out of due to a technical problem.
The race is now one to see which of the four will be the first to go live with a resolving web site.
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As I mentioned over on http://blog.blacknight.com/new-tlds-almost.html , the first one appears to be: http://www.nic.游戏/ though it’s not configured properly yet
http://nic.сайт and http://nic.онлайн are also live.
Core WHOIS for .сайт is broken for me. Captcha fails even when entered correctly.
Just tried and works for me – there is only one domain there – nic.сайт
I’m sure Abril stated there would be no ASCII 2LD’s in .сайт and .онлайн
But yet the first one operational is an ASCII?
You are right. No ASCII second-level domains in our IDN TLDs. But, and this is a big NUT, ICANN on one hand, mandates nic.TLD to be activated. It is not an option (see point 3.1 of Specification 5 in all Agreements). We said we thought it would NOT be active in DINs not allowng Latin-script registrations, but ICANN was not impressed.
Second, due to Name Collision and the new Specification 6 to the Agreemnts, approved last week, ONLY nic.TLD can be activated. Again, we asked ICANN to allow us an additional second-level domain in Cyrillic, as mixing scripts is confusing, useless and misleading.
So we comply witth the Agreemnt we signed, that’s all. And we are frustrated, and even ashamed, to go live with this nic.сайт mess, but we had no other option.
People who only speak one language and reads one alpahbet or script, as it is the case for most people making decision in ICANN (and elsewhee) simply don’t understand why this is a problem ;-(
Sigh. Another case of ICANN not properly thinking things through, and being English/ASCII-centric. :^(
try this: http://donuts.游戏/
The doubters said the same thing about personal computing. This will be HUGE!
Companies like Google, Amazon & Top Level Domain will be the ones who really benefit through revenues in the same way as Microsoft & Appple as first movers in personal computing.
Yahoo will also be entering that space if the takeover rumours doing the rounds in the City are correct. Top Level Domain Holdings are the target being discussed in high level talks.