Takashi Murakami at Gagosian Gallery (Image courtesy of http://hypebeast.com/)
Who wants a .WANG?
It’s just one of the the latest batch of 122 new generic top-level domains that’s being rolled out by ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), in its plan to expand the Internet from 22 domain strings to a possible 1,400. You can now look forward to domains including .SHIKSA, .DIAMONDS, .COOL, .SEXY, .GURU, .CHEAP, and .EXPERT. They’ll also introduce a wider tier system to internet real estate; .LUXURY will cost you $800 per year, whereas .LIMO costs you $70.
When we last wrote about ICANN’s expansion in June 2012, ten companies including e-flux and Deviant Art had just applied to run the registry for .ART (search applicants here), but as of yet, none have been awarded the domain. They’re the two community-based applicants against domain name registry companies like Donuts (which is also the sole applicant for .GALLERY), and .Art Registry, Inc, a company based in the Cayman Islands.
If allowed to run .ART, e-flux had promised to give 10% of the profits back to the community in grants. (According to Anton Vidokle, e-flux wouldn’t be curating the domains, just making sure that sites are sold to the actual people they’re named after. You can read their application here). E-flux did not pass the initial evaluation, according to an August 30th, 2013 article on domaininsight.com, but is eligible for extended evaluation, meaning they can make their case directly to ICANN. UPDATE: According to ICANN, e-flux passed their extended evaluation. ICANN intends to announce its final decisions in August.
But for the rest of the Internet, it probably just means a lot more parody names. May there be a Gagosian.bargains for every Gagosian.luxury. Scope your sites now, and preregister soon.
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