5 ms·

How did Google get in charge of this? Why did they get to set the price points for registering these domains? ICANN really sold out for this one.

• eugeniub 8y ago
  A couple years ago ICANN started letting companies buy customized TLDs through an auction process. I'm not sure how much they paid, but for comparison, Google tried buying .blog a while ago but was outbid by Automattic, who paid $19 million. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11686086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11686086
  • OedipusRex 8y ago
    This is privatization of the web.
    • jrockway 8y ago
      It's not. You can make your own DNS server and sell records to anyone you want. You just have to convince users to type in your address instead of 8.8.8.8.
      • vokep 8y ago
        Realistically, how could a project be setup around this? I mean, how do we get everyday normal people to use it? Its been attempted before (namecoin etc)...but maybe some advantage could be given to make it more attractive.
        • i_cant_speel 8y ago
          The current state of things are OK enough that it's not worth it to normal people to make the switch. If that time ever comes, people will do so.
• guessmyname 8y ago
  You can see all the ICANN auction results here [1]: • Google paid $25 million for “.app” [1] • Amazon paid ~$5 million for “.buy” • Amazon paid $2.2 million for “.spot” • Verisign paid $135 million for “.web” • Automattic paid $19 million for “.blog” • ICM paid $3 million for “.sex” [1] https://gtldresult.icann.org/application-result/applicationstatus/auctionresults https://gtldresult.icann.org/application-result/applications... [2] https://www.businessinsider.com/google-just-paid-25-million-to-buy-the-entire-app-web-domain-2015-2 https://www.businessinsider.com/google-just-paid-25-million-...