Nine bidders chase .book domain

Nine organisations have bid to control a proposed top-level Internet domain of .book. Not one company considers .ebook worthy of registration.
 
ICANN who control how browsers and mail clients route requests for domains began accepting bids for alternatives to long-established web suffixes like .com and co.uk last year. Today it announced 1,930 applications had been received.
 
Companies and groups had to pay $185,000 (£119,000) per proposal. Suffixes could potentially generate millions of dollars a year for winning bidders as they sell names ending in some of the approved names.

Amongst the nine organisations bidding for .book are Amazon and Bowker alongside a number of venture capitalist domain registries. Where more than one bidder wants a top-level domain, Icann encourages competing bidders to work out an agreement but will hold an auction if the parties fail to reach a compromise.

Amazon isn't limiting itself to .book with applications in place for over 70 other domains including .amazon, .author, .kindle, .search .news and .free.

With the full list of applications now online, there are 60 days for any member of the public to comment on the proposals. Someone can claim a trademark violation or argue that a proposed suffix is offensive.

It will take at least a year or two for Icann to approve the first of the new suffixes. It will review each proposal to make sure its financial plan is sound and that contingencies exist in case a company goes out of business. Bidders must also pass criminal background checks.