Single Letter Domains Coming Soon ...

[Whois-Search]

(11/28/05 - NEW YORK) - Although Internet domain names may be getting longer or more complex as Web sites creatively squeeze into the crowded ".com" address space, most single-letter names like "a.com" and "b.com" remain unused.

That may soon change as the Internet's key oversight agency considers lifting restrictions on the simplest of names.

In response to requests by companies seeking to extend their brands, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will chart a course for single-letter Web addresses as early as this weekend, when the ICANN board meets in Vancouver, British Columbia. Those names could start to appear next year.

But the transition won't be easy -- and it could lead to six-figure sales of this new online real estate, akin to opening New York's Central Park to development.

"Obviously this is a valuable commodity," said Kurt Pritz, ICANN's vice president for business operations. "How would the name be sold?"

Names are normally released on a first-come, first-served basis for $10 or less, a policy that favors those who have written programs to automatically and frequently check for a name's availability. Auctioning names to the highest bidder is one possibility.

ICANN also must decide whether companies need to seek such names individually if they want them across all suffixes, including ".com," ".info" and ".biz."

Single-letter names under ".com," ".net" and ".org" were set aside in 1993 as engineers grew concerned about their ability to meet the expected explosion in demand for domain names. They weren't sure then whether a single database of names could hold millions -- more than 40 million in the case of ".com" today.

Six single-letter names already claimed at the time -- "q.com," "x.com, "z.com," "i.net," "q.net," and "x.org" -- were allowed to keep their names for the time being.

One idea was to create a mechanism for splitting a single database into 26 -- one corresponding to each letter. So instead of storing the domain name for The Associated Press under ".org," it would go under "a.org." In other words, "ap.org" would become "ap.a.org."

Now, engineers have concluded that won't be necessary. They have seen the address database grow to hold millions of names without trouble, so they are now willing to let go of the single-letter names they had reserved.

(There are no immediate plans to release two-letter combos that have been reserved under some suffixes -- they were set aside not for technical reasons but to avoid confusion with two-letter country-code suffixes such as ".fr" for France.)

Meanwhile, a handful of companies have asked ICANN to free up the single characters. Overstock.com Inc., for instance, prefers a single-letter brand of "o.com" because its newer businesses no longer fit its original mission of providing discounts on excess inventory.

The ICANN board must now decide whether and how to release the names. At its meeting Sunday, it could ask staff to come up with a proposal or refer the matter to an ICANN committee for further study.

Matt Bentley, chief executive of domain name broker Sedo.com LLC, said single-letter ".com" names could fetch six-figure sums, and a few might even command more than $1 million from some of the Internet's biggest companies. Yahoo Inc. applied for a trademark to "y.com" this year.

"Obviously there's nothing more exquisite than names that are in extremely rare supply like that," Bentley said. "They would have a lot of cachet as a brand name. I could see there would be tons of demand."

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?se...ech&id=3674648

[Duncan]

Read all about their money making escapade.


http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/te...-letters_x.htm

[Edder]

And where's the money going to? Straight back to ICANN!

[Dave Zan]

ICANN sucks?

What's new? :-D

[Duncan]

I'm guessing I shouldn't have sold my antiicann.com domain >:(

[xtc]

If it means increased value and exposure for the domain industry as a whole, then why not? We're going to pull up DomainNameJournal someday and see a new leaderboard, that's for sure.

[StockDoctor]

If it means increased value and exposure for the domain industry as a whole, then why not? We're going to pull up DomainNameJournal someday and see a new leaderboard, that's for sure.

It's DNjournal, don't see how it would bring increased value to the industry, and ICANNt sucks on ice, is only interested in bringing in more money to spend on expensive holiday trips and power trips, and I'd like to see the whole thing go back to the DoC.

[Rubber Duck]

This is obviously going to be a difficult issue to resolve to everyones satisfaction.

Yes, the domains should be made available if they are not required to ensure the wellbeing of the DNS system.

Yes, they can potential realise huge amounts of money, and realising that cash seems to the rational thing to do, although there needs to be some public accountability, not just in the US but Internationally on what the windfall will be spent.

My personal belief is that is should either be spent on something that is wider interests of the Internet community or failing that on subsidizing the cost of new registrations.

Personally, I believe that the money should be used to ensure the development of the Internet in the developing world. I think some of this money should be used to speed the roll out of IDN domains and getting internationalization or more accurately localisation of domain extensions implemented. It could be used to help provide more DNS servers in areas where they will be needed, but the commercial imperative for providing those servers is weak. Educational programmes to help online awareness in some of these countries should also be considered. There are places like Bangladesh taking one at Random, whose economies would benefit enourmously from a much greater online presence, and this in turn would help world trade, so every one would benefit.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

[ctc]

Single-letter names like "a.com" and "b.com" remain unused. That may soon change as the Internet's key oversight agency considers lifting restrictions on the simplest of names. read article

Well, my prediction is that the following heavy companies (that can afford it, cause ICANN is hungry ) will get these single letter domains:

y.com = yahoo
m.com = microsoft
e.com = ebay
g.com = google
i.com = intel
s.com = sun or sony
k.com = kodak
b.com = british airways

what other companies do you think might take other single letter domains?

[Shobhit]

These single letter domain names are already registered:

q.com [q.com] is Qwest Communications
x.com [x.com] is PayPal.com
z.com [z.com] is Nissan Motors
i.net [i.net] is a registrar
q.net ("Q Networks") is registered to "Bradley Allen"
x.org [x.org] is an organisation of The Open Group

[biggedon]

Hi

Already posted in "Domain News"

Mod please delete or merge.

Thanks

[dodo1]

Three threads merged.

[Steen]

Single-letter names like "a.com" and "b.com" remain unused. That may soon change as the Internet's key oversight agency considers lifting restrictions on the simplest of names. read article

Well, my prediction is that the following heavy companies (that can afford it, cause ICANN is hungry ) will get these single letter domains:

y.com = yahoo
m.com = microsoft
e.com = ebay
g.com = google
i.com = intel
s.com = sun or sony
k.com = kodak
b.com = british airways

what other companies do you think might take other single letter domains?

With the exception of Yahoo!, I don't think any of these are of a great use to the above noted corporations.

[StockDoctor]

I can see some of the NYSE listed companies using their (1 letter) stock symbol like:

Citigroup Inc. (C)
Ford Motor Co. (F)
Kellogg Co. (K)

[Rubber Duck]

Agreed, I think that is quite likely.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

[RareIQ]

Well, my prediction is that the following heavy companies (that can afford it, cause ICANN is hungry ) will get these single letter domains:

y.com = yahoo
m.com = microsoft
e.com = ebay
g.com = google
i.com = intel
s.com = sun or sony
k.com = kodak
b.com = british airways

what other companies do you think might take other single letter domains?

Maybe the DnForum will get the letter "D" if we all help out & continue to bring new members on board.....:-D

[Focus]

the single letter domains should be open to anyone worldwide and everyone should pay a sum to be in the lottery for them and allowed to win (1) each max...if they released all remaining single letter domains in .com,.net,.org then maybe this would be 70+ domains...the demand and interest is quite heavy on these domains and it would bring hundreds of thousands of entries, and since the big companies want them so bad then they could buy an unlimited amount of tickets and take their chances with everyone else or just buy the domain from the winner if it was possible, this would be the only fair and just way to ration out these domains, otherwise it's just another big business transaction we are getting left out of by an industry monopoly. Why should they be able to buy a domain at a set price when previously domains in .com,.net,.org are all first come first serve basis? In fact..f*ck it, just release them for open registration at some random date and time and let the chips fall where they may!

[basscaster]

Corps shouldn't be given preferential treatment, as the above news story suggests. There should be an open auction, or better yet, an open lottery with an entry limit of one per company or individual.

[droplister]

I always thought this would happen. I even planned down the road, if i had a nice chunk of change to offer, icann xxx,xxx to give me a.com lol, I can DrEaM. I dont doubt ICANN has been approached by corporations in that past.

[Nova]

An auction simply means the deepest pockets take home the whole pie. An ordinary release into the wild favors those with access to the best catching resources, and then perhaps the deepest pockets after that if an auction results.

I like the idea of something where everyone has the same opportunity to win. Moreover, that might generate a lot of good publicity and interest for the industry. Domains like these could change a person's or a family's life, and that's also an interesting news story.