In June , ICANNannounced that over 1,400 new generic top - horizontal surface domain names ( in other words , .wedding , .sex , and .lawyer ) were under consideration to bring together the familiar .com and its kin . Weirdness has ensued .

A Brief Technical Lesson

In the world of World Wide Web domains , there are two crucial parts : the Domain Name itself ( like " mentalfloss " ) and the Top Level Domain ( like " .com " ) . Those Top Level Domains ( TLDs ) are fracture up into two broad category : " generic " ( gTLDs ) like .com , .net , .org , .biz , and such ; and then a staggering regalia of " country codes " ( ccTLDs ) like .uk , .jp , .tv ( Tuvalu ) , and on and on . ( I save about the latter inThe Weird World of Country - Specific entanglement Domains . )

When you type a World Wide Web reference into your web browser app , the web browser app look up the web site first by using the TLD ( " .com " ) , then the Domain Name ( " mentalfloss " ) , then connects you to the website . All of this proficient business happens behind the scenes ; what ’s more interesting is the weird domain of a function figure company are choose – and the political job those are cause . We already have.xxx(which carries the tagline " Let ’s Be Adult About It " ) , but it acquire eleven year to make it a world . Now we ’re coming properly out and blab out about .sex .

Just because a new TLD has been proposed does n’t mean it ’ll be granted . An rating process is afoot , and society will have to hold back to discover out whether they ’ll get to have .sex in .madrid .

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Strange Choices

The nonprofit organisation responsible for for managing TLDs ( calledICANN ) allow company around the humans to propose new generic TLDs from January 12 through May 30 this year . The proposals cost $ 185,000 each , and over 1,900 proposal came in , cover around 1,400 unique TLD extensions . Many companies applied for the same TLDs because when proposing a TLD name , you did n’t get to see if anybody else had proposed it ( although atechnical glitchapparently revealed some of the proposal of marriage betimes ) . The resultinglist of proposed TLDsturns up some unusual choices :

.george

Wal - Mart applied for a series of TLDs : .asda ( its British supermarket range ) , .george , .grocery , .samsclub , .walmart , and . ? ? ? . But look , what ’s up with .george ? That ’s for Wal - Mart’s"George " mode line . I am disappoint that they did n’t apply for .thunder to might that titan of brandingDr Thunder(formerly " Southern Lightning " ) .

.dog people

Three companies apply for .dog , including Google . No one apply for .cat . ( Update , from reader Zirta – italready exists , promoting the Catalan lyric . )

.blog versus .book

.blog receive nine applications ( despite beingsolast decade ) , but good one-time .book also earn nine applications – despite beingsolast millennium . Google is going after both , while Amazon is just pursuing .book ( along with .author and .read … and funnily enough , .joy ) .

.earth

In a slightly creepy-crawly move , Google and Interlink ( a Japanese company ) are vying for possession of .earth .

.you

Amazon and Google both want to .talk to .you . Neither is interested in .dating , though Pine Fest , LLC is . Google need your .dad and .mom to get involved .

.sucks

A three - mode slipstream is on for .sucks . One of the competitors is " Dog Bloom LLC , " which , aside from its colourful name and aspiration for sucky glory , appear to have no connection presence . According to CNN , Dog Bloom LLC is one of 307 foot soldier of Donuts Inc. , a knowledge domain enrolment company . Donuts created this series of mini - fellowship using random , computer - generated party public figure – many of which sound like dance band names . CNNlists some of the weirdest :

.wtf

.adult, .sex, and .porn

The caller behind .xxx ( ICM Registry ) also enforce for .adult , .sex , and and .porn . It face challenger in the sex outer space – another company is going after .sex , and a third is looking for .sexy . .porn and .adult were not applied for by any other companies , though . Seven company are compete for .love .

.football invite just two diligence , but .tennis obtain four . .soccer also received four , plus one for .futbol . Even .rugby got three . .basketball got three , and .baseball got two . Take that , American sports ! ( On the other hired man , there was one program program for .nfl – maybe that ’s all we really call for . )

mark : .sport and .sports are also project TLDs .

.app

Thirteen freestanding companies want to own the.appTLD , making it the most popular Modern TLD of the bunch . However , nobody applied for .apps , .appstore , or .program . try out a little originality , sept !

Insurance Companies Love Typing

There is a three - way necktie for the long English - language TLD . These eighteen - fictional character ( ! ) TLDs are all for insurance companies , who clearly see no issue with typing ultra - long epithet : .northlandinsurance , .northwesternmutual , and .travelersinsurance . Keep in thinker that these go at theendof what you typecast in a web browser app , so it could direct to insanely long tie . perchance this explicate the length of the insurance document they send me .

SC Johnson also employ for .afamilycompany ( its longstanding slogan ) , which direct us to the slightly terrifying prospect of a website URL have vastly more characters on the right than on the leftfield : http://scjohnson.afamilycompany .

Saudi Arabia Weighs In

There are a total of 49 objections ( most are not from Saudi Arabia ) to the .baby knowledge base , including a potpourri relate to worry over fry pornography . Yikes . There are 262 remonstration to .sex – and you canmake your own commentif you like !

What Happens Now?

In little , we wait . There are short ton of issues to work out at this stage – not least is how to decide which applicant get those heavily contested TLDs ( like .app , .blog , and .book ) , or what to do with controversial proposed TLDs . ICANN has amassive websitewith resources on the whole summons , including afull list of suggest TLDsand a helpfulguidebookin six languages . Stay tuned for more breaking domain - name news from .mentalfloss . ( Oh shoot , we leave to implement ! We ’ll settle for .smart alternatively . )