ICANN is preparing for the massive rollout of new gTLDs. There are a ton of new gTLDs to replace the old .com, .net and .org. Some of the popular ones include .app, .home, .inc, .art, .blog, .book, .llc, .shop, .movie, .music, .cloud, .hotel, .news and .eco. These new gTLDs will allow bloggers, entrepreneurs, artists and other web creators to get catchy domain names without trying out hacks like using different spellings, using prefixes and suffixes or using a TLD from a different country. Large corporations will also be getting their own gTLDs like .ibm, .pwc, .cisco and .samsung. This will also help in identification of authentic sites and prevent phishing scams.
Nearly 2000 new gTLDs will be launching later this year, out of which 600 will be open (anyone can register them). These new gTLDs will start becoming available from May of this year. Companies can get priority registration for their domains by registering with ICANN. This will allow them to buy domains that match their trademark, example: Amazon can register their trademark “amazon” and no one will be able to buy this domain with any of the gTLDs for 30 days (known as the “sunrise” period). After the 30 day period, if the company does not register the name, it will be available to the general public. This will prevent domain squatters from getting all the big brand names when they are made available. A trademark can be registered for a fee between $95 and $150 with the TMCH.
The regular public can expect to buy these new domains beginning of summer (May onwards) from popular domain registrars like GoDaddy. Beware that domains with .app and .cloud are most anticipated and will be gone quickly.