Google, Amazon, Apple Among Companies Seeking New Domain Suffixes from ICANN

Approximately 1,930 new Web suffix applications, including ".pizza" and ".sex," were revealed Wednesday by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit organization in charge of regulating domain names

USA Today reports that ICANN announced last year that it would accept applications for new domain names in hopes of increasing growth and competition online. ICANN will start to make decisions and issue domains in the first quarter of 2013.

Amazon, Apple, and Google were among the most notable companies seeking new domain names that would extend the current .com, .gov, and .org suffixes.

Google applied for over 100 names of such domain names including .youtube, .music, .android, .boo, .and, .dad, and .new, .cpa, .esq, .phd, .prof, .baby, .kids, .mom, .dad, and .pet among others. According to the Washington post, the costs surpassed $18 million dollars. Amazon also applied for 76 names that included .amazon, .app, .author, .book, .buy, .news, .cloud, .dev and .music.  Amazon and Google both went after .game, .movie, and .wow.

Apple Corp. only applied for one: .apple.

Other applications from major companies include .abc, .yahoo, and .bmw.

According to the Washington Post, any company that owns a domain name also has control over the traffic to that particular domain. An example that is cited by the Post is Amazon and its desire to control the ".book" and ".movie" names. Anyone else who sells a movie or book would have to obtain the permission of Amazon to list the product in that particular domain.

The Los Angeles Times reports that each application cost $185,000 and applicants were heavily concentrated in North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Africa also applied for 17 applications. Beginning Wednesday, a 60-day period will begin in which anyone can submit comments and objections. Anyone that objects will have seven months to file complaints.

Notable companies that made no application include Facebook, Groupon, Twitter and Zynga.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, other domains applied for include .beer, .bingo, .catholic, .christmas, .coffee, .gay, .party, .pizza, .porn, .sex, .shiksa, .yoga.