ICANN Eyes May 22 To Re-Open TLD Application Process

Having suffered through technical problems, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) now says it’s planning to re-open the top-level domain (TLD) application system on May 22 and leave it open for five business days.

That would make May 30 the last day for interested parties to apply for their own “dot anything” domain suffix.

The application process is spendy: Each domain requested comes with a $185,000 price tag. Google has already confirmed that it plans to apply for its trademarked names and other new names. CNET reported yesterday that domain registrars like GoDaddy and eNom (via parent company Demand Media) are planning to apply for their own TLDs.

ICANN says that it received more than 2,000 applications and $350 million in fees as of April 12, when the system was taken offline.

ICANN delayed the close of the application process last month after discovering unusual behavior in the operation of its application system software. The problem, ICANN says involved 455 cases where one applicant’s username and file names may have been viewable by other applicants.