Preliminary nod for .post and .travel

Friday, 29 October 2004

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has announced that it has granted preliminary approval to two new internet domain names.
The two new domain names, “.post” and “.travel” could appear online as early as next year.
ICANN, the internet’s key oversight board, said it was still considering eight other proposals including “.asia,” “.jobs,” and “.xxx.”
The applications for postal services and the travel industry were given preliminary approval based on the level of technical and commercial details their sponsors were able to quickly provide. Applicants paid $45,000 apiece to have their proposals considered.
Negotiations will now begin on creating and running the domain names and the process could take months. The Universal Postal Union in Bern, Switzerland, and The Travel Partnership Corp, New York, have sponsored the “.post” and “.travel” suffixes.
In 2000, ICANN approved seven new domain names for global use, including “.biz,” “.info” and “.museum”, the first major additions since the Domain Name System was created in the 1980s.
There are currently about 250 domain names, mostly for specific countries.