Slated to be the first major additions since 2000, several new domain's are planned to be added later this year. This comes after 10 organizations paid $45k to apply for the suffixes (.mobi, .xxx, .asia, .cat, .jobs, .mail, .post, .tel, and .travel)
Before they come into play, the process first hears public comment, then is reviewed by an independent panel. Once approved, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) negotiate the terms/conditions with each operator.
Unlike the .COM of today, these new addresses would be available to any/all who comply with the rules set by the sponsoring groups. (.xxx being used for adult web-sites, .mobi for mobile phones, etc.)

cool :) But what would be the use of .cat ?? I can see the first domains registered under that TLD...

kitty.cat
catfood.cat
hates-dogs.cat



The others look quite useful, though I'm afriad .jobs and .travel will have certain restrictions (= only for employment services and travel organisations)

.xxx would be very easy to block adult sites and the virusses and spyware that come with it. Just block every .xxx domain and you're safe :)

Stupid news. Because they are not news.
ICANN sells 1 letter for $45,000. nice...
Are we free here to use any letters we want? Are we?
Stupid registries, it takes them 5 years to deploy new TLD.

Let's hope the TLDs will be realised soon...

But again, what's the use of .cat ?? What will be next, maybe .dog or .bird ?

I'm against this move because this might make are domains drop in value...

i think they will approve .travel and .xxx

enough from stupid TLDs which drops the value for other domains!

imagen hotmail.com gets hot.mail ! , them most *mail.com domains value will drop!

Yeah we will have to wait and see..... I beleve it doesnt matter what url in any way shape or form it is as long as you develope and promote your site in an effective way then it wouldnt make much diffrence on the traffic...

thats totally true

but more gTLDs gives more options for the end user to choose from, especially or domain brokers

Since I was a young boy I have a northpole obsession. If .travel would not be restricted to travel organisations, I'd like to buy arctic.travel

if there are new TLDs coming, my other suggestions would be :

.pc
.computer
.gay
.web
.cash
.sex


Though among them .web would be the only one I'd register domains in for personal use.

.cat, .jobs, .travel, .asia WILL have restriction.
But I think that will apply for the first year or something, until good domains are gone :(
We have 6 months to list all the good domains and prepare for the rush. Good luck :)

what does .cat is really for ? is it C A T or cat as the animal?

CATALAN, a language/country
http://www.icann.org/tlds/stld-apps-19mar04/cat.htm
If they are paying $40000 for an animal domain, they would have choose .pet or .animal, not .cat :D

lol, true :D

but how come calatan doesn't have their own ccTLD ? like .ct for example!

I have no idea what Catalan is, but according to the page above, CATALAN is a "linguistic and cultural community".
So it's like the UK has .uk, but some company may want to sponsor the TLD .eng(lish) ;)

I'm surprised ICANN even considers accepting Catalan domains. There are so many different social/linguistic communities in the world.
Why can Catalunia get an extention and not Wales, Scotland, the different US states, ...

Here in Belgium we have 3 official language communities (Flanders = Dutch speaking, Wallony = French speaking, German speaking part) and 3 official social communities (Flanders, Wallony, Brussels Capital District).
So if Catalunia can get a domain extention, why not also introducing .fla, .wal and .bru domains ?

cat, .jobs, .travel, .asia WILL have restriction.

which restrictions do you have in mind ? You mean the sort of restriction that .aero and .museum use ??

I doubt that .cat will ever be approved. But it's their right to apply to. If you have some tens of thousands spare you can make an application for any TLD of your choice.
About the restrictions, you can read about them in the applications here http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-19mar04.htm
Basically only people in Asian countries can register .asia, only people in travel industry can register .travel, same for .jobs, .cat...

Only people that own a cat can register .cat :D

fat.cat haha :D

What is the point in getting anything other than .com?
Only to fight the Verisign/NSI monopoly?

probably

sorry I am new to most of this but what does verisign do, I thourght it was mainly certificates ?

are we sure .cat doesn't stand for maybe catergory??? Kind of sounds more logical then the animal or a cultrual/linguistic name.
I am just asking..

Greg