ICANN seems to be considering allowing 1-2 char domains

[AdoptableDomains]

An ICANN posting today leads one to believe they may be considering releasing the one and two character domains in gTLD's in the future. From the posting, is seems they know there would be a lot of money made in doing so.

http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-16oct07.htm

16 October 2007

As recommended by the GNSO Council, ICANN is commencing a forum on potential allocation methods for single-letter and single-digit domain names at the second level in gTLD registries. Examples include a.com, i.info, 4.mobi, 8.org. Since revenue will result from this allocation, comments regarding the potential uses for this revenue are also requested.

ICANN intends to synthesize responses to the forum and present proposed methods for allocation of single-letter and single-digit domain names at the second level for community consideration.
...

The forum is here:
http://forum.icann.org/lists/allocationmethods/

 

[BrandonG]

Wasn't there already a lot of 1-2 char domains? x.com comes to mind.

 

[mvl]

q.com
x.com
z.com
i.net
q.net
x.org

Are afaik the exisiting gtld single character domains.

 

[Peter]

q.com
x.com
z.com
i.net
q.net
x.org

Are afaik the exisiting gtld single character domains.

That is correct they are in fact mentioned in the press release.

 

[deleted984054565403]

I really, really don't like this suggestion brought up in the forum:

We should be convinced that the single-digit domain name will be as a business as the registries business. In fact who will buy x.com, an entity interested in selling sub-domain under the X.com ( may pron oriented site ). Who will be interested in o.com, e.com , same thing.
So giving possibility to someone to sell subdomain under a one digit domain name is like ccTLD who are selling .com.uk for example. We will have www.mysite.e.net or www.company.c.com and others.
I think that the best is to use the same method to allocate a new gTLD or sTLD licence by giving a license to ONLY one entity that will sell to registrat and to registrar what they want of sub-domain under what ever single-digit and PAY contribution to ICANN for each sub-domain. Maybe this contribution should be less than the one payed for a domain name.

It doesn't really sound accurate if you ask me, anyway.

They'll draw a lot with auctions for the names they'd release.

 

[ssamriga]

I wish I could afford any 1-2 char domain

 

[Ronald Regging]

Especially so with 2 letter .coms, it would be interesting to see the effect on value this would have. Some people who are holding 2 letter .coms may be afraid that flooding the market like this may decrease their value... I'd probably be a bit concerned if I were holding a few.

But at the same time, some nice auction prices and increased interest may be beneficial.

Personally I dont care one way or the other, since I dont have the money I just find it interesting that at every step ICANN is trying to devalue the market for their own gain.

 

[Dave_Z]

And at least one party's busy filing a registration for something that doesn't
yet exist:

Word Mark Y.COM
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 78697698
Filing Date August 22, 2005
Current Filing Basis 1B
Original Filing Basis 1B
Published for Opposition October 24, 2006
Owner (APPLICANT) Yahoo! Inc. CORPORATION DELAWARE 701 First Avenue Sunnyvale CALIFORNIA 94089

It's not approved (don't know if it will be), and I didn't include the goods and
services part 'cause it's too damn long.

 

[wasistdas]

ICANN decided to make a lot of money before the market split.

 

[Peter]

wasistdas I agree 100% that seems exactly what ICANN are doing at the moment. They probably already have a figure on how many million they expect the sale to make.

I wouldn't be surprised if that was in their mind when they pulled them and stopped people being able to register them.

 

[briman1970]

And at least one party's busy filing a registration for something that doesn't
yet exist:

It's not approved (don't know if it will be), and I didn't include the goods and
services part 'cause it's too damn long.

Sneaky!!! I hope this doesn't fly for Yahoo. They have no right to this trademark without owning the domain.

 

[Charley]

Will ICANN follow the auction mode ? Then all these are going to rest in the hands of high networth people.

 

[Ronald Regging]

Will ICANN follow the auction mode ? Then all these are going to rest in the hands of high networth people.

Of course it'll be auction, it's all about the money.

 

[Charley]

Of course it'll be auction, it's all about the money.

Not good news then.

End users & domainers will throw in large amounts of money to register each one of them.