In a letter to ICANN today Google laid out its plan on how it plans on operating 4 new gTLD that it applied for as a closed Registry with the most interesting being plans for .Search which is plans on operating “a redirect service on the “dotless” .search domain (http://search/).”
“To further elaborate on our plans to amend these applications, I am including a brief summary of our revised plans for each of the four TLDs below:
- ● .search – Our goal for .search is to provide an easily-identifiable namespace for firms that provide search functionality and to allow Internet users a unique and simple mechanism to access the search functionality of their choice. ”Rather than limiting the proposed TLD for use by Google, we propose a revised registration policy that allows for registration by any search website providing a simple query interface.We also propose a new redirect service at the “dotless” search domain that allows users to specify and easily access the search functionality of their choice.
We believe the combination of the common query interface and redirect service will provide users with a powerful new tool to make use of the search-related services online.”"
If you think you have heard the expression dotless domains your right.
Last year A Report from the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) recommended rejection of Dotless domains concluding that:
“Dotless domains will not be universally reachable and the SSAC recommends strongly against their use.
“As a result, the SSAC also recommends that the use of DNS resource records such as A, AAAA, and MX in the apex of a Top- Level Domain (TLD) be contractually prohibited where appropriate and strongly discouraged in all cases.”"
Here is what Google had to say about their other three new gTLD extensions they are amending the formerly closed registry model for:
- ● .app – We intend for .app to be a TLD dedicated to application developers. The term “app” is used in a variety of contexts, including mobile applications, browser-based applications and even desktop applications. We intend for the .app TLD to be restricted for use by relevant developer communities, but to be inclusive of the full range of application development communities and not to restrict registration to developers on a particular platform. Our amendment for this TLD has been submitted through ICANN’s change request process and is attached to this letter.
- ● .blog – We have two principal goals for the .blog TLD.
