Are ‘.google’ and ‘.lol’ domains in the horizon?

We’re all familiar with “.com”, “.org”, and “.net” as the most widely used domain names suffixes out there. In 2000 and 2004, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN, the organization created to oversee domain names, held two test rounds to determine the viability of adding more domain suffixes to the mix of over 300 that are used today. The domain names “.info” and “.bix” came out of those tests. Today, June 13, the ICANN will be releasing in London a list of new Internet suffix bids. These bids include a bid for .Google and .YouTube by search engine giant Google, which also submitted a bid for the suffix .lol (laughing out loud). Other bids include .nyc for the city of New York, “.doctor”, “.music”, and “.bank.” Each bid costs each participating group $185,000 per bid, and if selected would cost at least $25,000 to maintain. The review is expected to take anywhere between 9-20 months, so the new domains won’t be available until March 2013 at the earliest.  

Read more on USA Today, Washington Post, and Rappler