New generic Top-Level Domains: a few things I noticed in November 2023

In November 2023, some new generic Top-Level Domains "changed status", here is what I noticed:

• There is an Independent Review Process which is dated 9 June 2019: it is the one about .GCC. The panel was confirmed seven months after it was initiated and as of today: "No hearings are currently scheduled" (more here).
• Five Top-Level Domains (new domain name extensions) were revoked in November and one was transferred. The revoked TLDs are:
• the .VOLKSWAGEN new gTLD
• .ETISALAT
• .اتصالات
• .ROCHER
• .KINDER
• the .PROPERTY Top-Level Domain was transferred.
• Google Registry launches new .MEME top-level domain (more here).
• Funny: the .CFD new gTLD is listed in the Registries' Top 10 with more than a million domain names created (more here). 
• Comments on Preliminary Determination were opened for two Top-Level Domains to be terminated (more here):
• .XFINITY
• .COMCAST
• The TLD Startup information page from the ICANN (that actually very few understand) was updated on seven TLDs (more here):
• the .BOFA Top-Level Domain
• .AEG
• .BLOOMBERG
• .PICTET
• .TATOO
• .FOOD
• .DIY ("do it yourself")

ICANN new gTLDs: a website full of errors

There are things I check once and a while and this page is one of them at the ICANN website: the "TLD STARTUP INFORMATION" page...

I noticed something new today about the .FOOD Registry which was last updated on November the 23rd (today). By the way, .FOOD appears as a .BRAND Top-Level Domain (...). What I misunderstand here is what the update is about? There is nothing more but this date and a link which points to nothing more. Some fields are not even filled in: "Trademark Claims Period: 13 Dec 2017 to..."

The "Detailed information for food" (the orange button to click onto) points to another page where no more information is found but a broken link to a "URL of Registrars" that seems to be down.

Very good too, the Name from Registry information is different from the one advertised on the link the Registry URL points to.

From what I have learnt, it is precisely the same kind of methods spammers and scammers use to hide and I wish the ICANN checked the information before publishing. I trust the ICANN but their website is turning to some kind of giant database where not much is double checked before publication...for new gTLDs at least.

Come on ICANN, you can do better than this.

New gTLDS from Microsoft and Amazon

The ICANN TLD Startup information page was just updated with information from Microsoft and Amazon. Unfortunately, the teal in charge of setting up this page does not mention what the updates are until one is able to dig on the ICANN website to find the information. Apparently, not much is going on for the .BRAND Top-Level Domains listed from Microsoft but two TLDs from Amazon updated their Trademark claims periods.

Microsoft new gTLD updates:

1. .AZURE
2. .BING
3. .HOTMAIL
4. .MICROSOFT
5. .WINDOWS
6. .XBOX

Amazon new gTLD updates:

1. “.書籍” is a TLD in Japanese language characters that mean “book” in English (surprisingly, it is a Chinese language character too).
2. “.ファッション” is a TLD in Japanese language characters that mean “fashion” in English.

The two Trademark claims periods end on 04 February 2025. The strange thing about these two is that they are not even listed on the official Amazon Registry website.

New gTLD: a few things I noticed in October 2023

A fast note about what I noticed in the new gTLD world recently:

• Amendment to .ONE new gTLD.
• Renewal notice for .BERLIN new gTLD.
• Revocation Report for .CITYEATS
• Revocation Report for .FRONTDOOR
• .BOT new gTLD, Trademark Claims Period: 30 October 2023 to 30 January 2024.
• The .DESI new gTLD was transferred to a proposed Emergency Back-End Registry Operator Program - ICANN.
• The .FLICKR new gTLD was granted the status of ".BRAND". If the date does not exactly match, it is because the info was updated laitely.
• The .CEO new gTLD was acquired by a third party.
• The GAP Trademark; just dropped 2 dotBrand new gTLDs:
• the .BANAREPUBLIC Top-Level Domain and,
• the .OLDNAVY Top-Level Domain.
• The .SCA new gTLD was terminated.

The .CEO new gTLD was just acquired, let's keep an eye on this one

As announced in this press release, the .XYZ Registry just acquired another Top-Level Domain, the .CEO new gTLD. 

If this information is of interest for very few, what is interesting here is that .XYZ and its team can be good at developing registries: the .XYZ domain name extension counts 3,678,385 domain names created and it is the new gTLD with the highest volume of domain names created since the first round of the ICANN news gTLD program in 2012.

The .CEO Top-Level domain is a niche TLD dedicated to Chief Executive Officers "only" and counts 3,768 domain names today (Octover the 13th, 2023). Let's have a look at this publication in exactly 6 months to check if the extensions kept developing or not.

Below a screenshot from ntldstats.com with numbers dated October the 13th 2023: 

New gTLD Reports were just updated (September 2023)

Reminder, we recently added two reports for two types of new gTLD applications: Community and Geographic.

In regard to the situation on social network Twitter (now "X") and the strange beahvior of its leader about the russian war against Ukraine and its hardly promoted political opinions, we are (probably) moving our announcements to Bluesky so don't be surprised to click on links pointing to this new social media.

Use this invite code to join Bluesky: bsky-social-3wfer-oxuck (single use only). You will be invited to paste it when you register.