.web
 |
|
| Introduced | TBD by ICANN |
|---|---|
| Status | Assigned |
| Registry | Nu Dot Co, LLC |
| Actual use | For websites of all sorts |
| Structure | Registrations are directly at second level |
| Documents | ICANN official auction schedule |
| Website | [TBD] |
.web is a proposed top-level domain. The right to operate the .web gTLD was won at auction by Nu Dot Co LLC which was chiefly funded by market dominant Verisign for a price of $135 million.
A number of companies were bidding for the right to operate the .web gTLD. The .web TLD will be added to the official root after ICANN awards the registry contract. There were seven applicants for the gTLD which are listed below. The ICANN auction of last resort that started on July 27, 2016, completed on July 28, 2016.
ICANN will keep the $135 million proceeds from this auction.
.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.
Since then IOD 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 added soon afterward, IOD's application was not approved; all unapproved applications were rejected. A second round of new TLDs, however, was done entirely with new applications, and only for sponsored domains (generally intended for use by limited communities and run by nonprofit entities). The .web registry remained hopeful, however, that their application will 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.
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 in the term "web". When, at various times, proposals were made to add a .web domain not operated by IOD, they have objected, and to date, no such plans have been approved; 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
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Wikipedia