Ex-ICANN staffer Kieren McCarthy is reporting that ICANN’s general counsel has spilled the beans on .xxx, saying ICANN will approve the new top level domain name tomorrow during its board meeting.
Make no mistake, this is a monumental moment for ICANN. If it were up to the organization it would have let .xxx die years ago. But an independent review panel found ICANN erred. And, despite having final authority, the board is ready to accept the panel’s finding.
But it also means something for new TLDs. Many new TLD applicants are in favor of .xxx being approved. Not because they give a damn about .xxx, but because it gives them a higher likelihood of being able to eventually introduce their own planned TLDs.
So it’s a victory for process and a victory for new TLD supporters. But what about ICM Registry, which will run .xxx (after jumping through a couple more hoops)? It’s bittersweet at best. It has waited a long time and spent inordinate amounts of money to get to this point. It kind of reminds me of Telnic, which waited nearly a decade to launch .tel. From the time it came up with the idea to when it released the domain name, the world of internet communications changed rapidly thanks to social networking. That all but killed the potential of the domain.
I don’t know much about the online adult world, but The Domains author Michael Berkens does. And he thinks ICM Registry may have missed the boat. The world of adult entertainment has changed drastically since .xxx was first proposed. The economics aren’t nearly as rosy.
John Daly is your source for Premium Domain Names.