The .ING new gTLD is a crazy idea

Please see no offence in that Title because this new gTLD could be an innovation.

Reading the newsletter from Corporate Registrar CSC, I noted that the .INC new gTLD is about launch (in January 2019, the 16th). For the note, the .INC Top-Level Domain "the definitive domain ending for business".

Not alone
There are many TLDs for the business and I listed them in the new gTLD report dedicated to Companies, but another interesting thing to me is that the TLD is similar to two others: the .INK (for writers to tattooists, to print shops), and the .ING new gTLDs also exist.The .IN country code Top-Level Domain (for India) is a pretty close one too. I wrote the list of similar Top-Level Domains here for those interested.

The .ING new gTLD is a surprise
First I thought that the .ING was the .BRAND new gTLD from the same Bank: you know..."ING", but it's not. It is an extension created by Google and its description is rather surprising. The application explaining the project says:

The proposed gTLD will provide the marketplace with direct association to the term, ʺing,ʺ a common suffix utilized to denote the gerund form of a verb (singing, sleeping). The mission of this gTLD, .ing, is to provide a dedicated domain space in which registrants can enact second-level domains that provide content related to the registrantsʹ usage of the term ʺing.ʺ Charleston Road Registry expects these uses may include but are not limited to offering content that is centralized around a second-level domain name, such as sail.ing or cook.ing.

What a strange idea to develop a new Top-Level Domain. I admit innovation here and I also see the possibility to shorten domain names more. Now...will that work and catch the attention of the public?

Country & territory name in new gTLDs

To register country and territory names in a new domain name extension, the permission must be asked to ICANN: "as required per Section 4 of Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement, the release of country and territory names from reservation is subject to review by ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) and approval by ICANN".

2 letters domain names

Let's imagine that the .LEXUS new gTLD wants to have the use of www.fr.lexus for a French version of its website, it means that this request has to be "approved": the LEXUS Trademark does not have authority to create the domains that it wants.

Registries are required to reserve such names, and must propose the release of specific country and territory names upon agreement with the relevant governments.

6 requests

Six .BRAND registries just made that request:

1. .PIONEER
2. .FUJITSU
3. .OBI
4. .SHARP
5. .TOYOTA
6. .LEXUS

If this is now a common procedure at ICANN and chances are high that theses requests will be approved, it also means that these specific Trademarks probably have a plan to use these country & territory name in their domain name extension.

Can't wait for www.shapr.fr www.fr.sharp

;-)