Proposed top-level domain

The Domain Name System of the Internet consists of a set of top-level domains which constitute the root domain of the hierarchical name space and database. In the growth of the Internet, it became desirable to expand the set of initially six generic top-level domains in 1984. As a result new top-level domain names have been proposed for implementation by ICANN. Such proposals included a variety of models ranging from adoption of policies for unrestricted gTLDs that could be registered by anyone for any purpose, to chartered gTLDs for specialized uses by specialized organizations. In October 2000, ICANN published a list of proposals for top-level domain strings it had received.

Geographic proposals

Further information: GeoTLD

• .geo - Generic geographical locations.
• .berlin - Berlin.
• .wien - Vienna.
• .london - London.
• .paris - Paris.
• .lat - General category for Latin American websites.
• .africa - General category for African websites.
• .moscow and .москва - Moscow.
• .sydney - Sydney, Australia.
• .ln and .le - Currently being sold by Dennis Hope's "Lunar Embassy Commission" alongside .lunar, .moon, .venus, .mars, .jupiter, .saturn, .uranus, .neptune, .pluto, .space. People who purchase novelty deeds for outer space property from him are also given free domains. None of these TLDs are supported at present by root servers.

Internationalized country code top-level domains

The following ccTLDs (Country code top-level domains) have been requested using a procedure known as Internationalized domain name (or IDN) ccTLD Fast Track Process.

DNS name	IDN ccTLD	Country	Transliteration	Script	ccTLD
xn--90ae	.бг	Bulgaria	bg	Bulgarian Cyrillic	.bg	String rejected
xn--qxam	.ελ	Greece	el	Greek	.gr	String rejected
xn--4dbrk0ce	ישראל.‎	Israel	Israel	Hebrew	.il
xn--d1alf	.мкд	Macedonia	mkd	Macedonian Cyrillic	.mk	proposed
xn--wgv71a	.日本	Japan	Nippon or Nihon	Kanji (both Kyūjitai and Shinjitai)	.jp
xn--vcst06ab2a	.日本国		Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku	Kanji (Shinjitai)
xn--q7ce6a	.ລາວ	Laos	Lao or Laao	Lao	.la
xn--mgbb7fyab	ليبيا.‎	Libya	Lībyā	Arabic	.ly

• ".ελ" was rejected because of its confusing similarity to .EA which is not a TLD but a reserved two letter string in the reserved ISO-3166 list. Much like the case of Bulgaria’s applied-for ".бг" and subsequent denial by the DNS SP, because of similarity to .br, Greece must wait until after the IDN cctld Fast Track Process before it can enjoy its own icctld.

Language and community

These proposals are centered on creating an independent Internet identity for linguistic and cultural communities. They are mostly inspired by the success of the .cat domain created for websites in the Catalan language or about the Catalan culture.

Domain name	intended use	sponsor	year of proposal	comments
.bzh	Breton language and Brittany	dot bzh	2006	A campaign has been organized in Brittany to support the request of creation of the .bzh domain. The campaign's website gives little information about the status of the proposal and the organization behind and mostly holds a petition for the creation of the domain. As of January 2012 there are over 20,000 signatories.
.cym	Welsh language and Wales	dotCYM Cyf	2006	It was proposed by dotCYM for Welsh language and Wales, but the ICANN reserved for eventual assignment to the Cayman Islands. See also .cymru below.
.cymru	Welsh language and Wales	dotCYM Cyf	2010	Following a decision by ICANN in 2010 .cym the dotCYM Cyf bid organisers made an appeal for supporters of the former dotCYM bid to suggest a new domain name for the Welsh linguistic and cultural community. The overwhelming choice of the community was for dotCYMRU. Since November 2010 dotCYMRU is the new domain name for the Welsh linguistic and cultural domain.
	Wales	Nominet UK	2012	In 2012, Nominet UK applied to ICANN for both .cymru and .wales.
.eng	England	DotEng	2008	The DotEng.org website was set up by John Sewell of Maidenhead in Berkshire. Mentioned in PC Pro Online: Campaign begins for .eng domain, Stuart Turton, 23 April 2008
.eus	Basque language	PuntuEus association	2009	University professors, scientifics, several companies and institutions are involved in this campaign, including the Basque government (Eusko Jaurlaritza), the Basque Language Academy Euskaltzaindia and the University of the Basque Country.
.gal	Galician language and Galicia	PuntoGal	2006	Several companies and institutions are involved in this campaign, including the autonomous government, Xunta de Galicia. Approved by ICANN June, 14th 2013.
.ker	Cornish language and Cornwall (Kernow) in general	Cornish World Magazine	2008
.lli	Leonese language and Leonese culture	puntuLLI	2007	Several companies, associations, organisations and institutions are involved in this campaign.
.quebec	Quebec	Pointquebec	2008	.quebec came to life following .cat success. As an incorporated NPO, PointQuebec's mission is to promote, broadcast and manage a new identity on the Internet, affirming the specificity and Quebec Culture.
.sco	Scotland	dotSCO	2005	dotSCO began in late 2005 and has been campaigning to build support for a new TLD from among the Scots community around the world. The campaign now appears to be defunct, effectively replaced by .scot (q.v.)
.scot	Scotland, The Scots Community of Interest online, Scottish culture and Scotland's languages	Dot Scot Registry	2009	A not-for-profit company, created to apply for and operate .scot, "an online identity for the worldwide family of Scots." "Will give people, organisations and businesses the opportunity to clearly identify themselves as Scottish."
.sic	Székely Land	Pontsic Foundation	2009	pontSIC began in late 2008 and has been campaigning to build support for a new TLD from among the Székely community around the world. The campaign was started by the Szekler National Council, and now are involved several companies and institutions. As of September 2009 there are over 33,200 signatories.
.nai	Native, Aboriginal, and Indigenous peoples of the Americas	nai	1999	The original proposal for a Native American managed TLD predates ICANN, and its form was adopted by ICANN as the "sponsored" type of application and eventual contract in the 2001 new gTLD round. .nai's mission is to implement a top-level name space with an indigenous policy, provide an alternative to the several thousand indigenous public administrations, and the larger numbers of indigenous non-governmental, linguistic and cultural institutional, public and private economic enterprises, bands and individuals in the Western Hemisphere currently using name spaces operated under for-profit or colonial policies, and promote the economic development of Indian Country.
.vlaanderen	Flanders (Vlaanderen)		2011
.wales	Wales	Nominet UK	2012	In 2012, Nominet UK applied to ICANN for both .cymru and .wales.

• Note: The dotCYMRU, dotEUS, dotSCOT and dotBZH have formed the ECLID[1], the European Cultural and Linguistic Internet Domains umbrella group to lobby for the successful and speedy application for the bids.

Domains for children

A top-level domain named kids has been proposed by several entities. As of 2009, none of these proposals have been implemented.

Applications for a kids domain have included:

• Blueberry Hill Communications, Inc., a domain name registration and hosting company in California, submitted a proposal Registry services would be subcontracted to Neustar and Melbourne IT. Registrars are selected under same criteria and process currently imposed by ICANN. This proposal would not rely on objective criteria for categorizing content.
• DotKids, established in 2000 in Rosemont, Illinois intends to utilize SARAF Software Solutions Inc. for software development of a kids registry. DotKids would deal only with ICANN accredited registrars; content rating information is to be retained in the registry and is to describe ratings for an entire site.
• ICM Registry, Inc. request the kids TLD as an integrated solution for improving child safety on the Internet by implicitly attempting to restrict content across both TLDs and targeting a narrow registrant group.
• .KIDS Domains, Inc. is a California for-profit corporation; the proposed registry operator is Toronto-based domain name registrar Tucows Inc. Kids would be a restricted TLD. .KIDS Domains therefore does not intend to allow other registrars to register domain names.

The European Parliament has also proposed kid for websites designed for children. It would be monitored by an independent authority.

In US a sub-domain for children had established since 2003 based on "Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002, PL 107-317".(us) exists a second-level domain kids.us. However, on 27 July 2012 NTIA decided to suspend it.

Technical domain name themes

• .mail – A domain for e-mail networks, proposed to facilitate fighting e-mail spam.
• .web – A domain for general use on the world wide web.

Specialized and professional topics

• Donuts Inc. has invested $57 million in more than 300 applications. whilst Famous Four Media has applied for 61 applications.
• .med – medical practitioners and organizations
• .eco – environmental causes
• .shop – electronic commerce sites
• .sport – sport sites
• .wine – wine sites

See also

• List of Internet top-level domains
• Generic top-level domain – New top-level domains