{"id":874357,"date":"2026-10-07T20:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T20:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/874357\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T20:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T20:58:10","slug":"the-most-exciting-day-on-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/874357\/","title":{"rendered":"The most exciting day on the internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

TL;DR: Soon you may be able to buy domain names that end in .\u200bmeow, .\u200bfart, or .\u200bfurry. Today, the nonprofit that decides who owns which domain string\u2014the part after the last dot in a URL\u2014is releasing a huge list of new options<\/a> after opening applications for the first time in 14 years.<\/p>\n

What happened: Today is Reveal Day\u2014a moment rarer than the US census and plenty of unusual astronomical events. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (thankfully, ICANN for short) is finally disclosing the 1,600-plus new top-level domains (TLDs) that people applied for over the summer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no wonder there was an onslaught of submissions: The last time ICANN accepted new TLD strings was in 2012. Partly because it\u2019s such a rare occurrence, the process of applying for TLDs is competitive and furtive\u2014an event \u201cmassively fueled by FOMO<\/a>,\u201d per Wired. And not all applications will get approved, like if you want a string too similar to another (such as .\u200bcorn, as in the food).<\/p>\n

The big business of TLDs: Another reason for all the excitement, beyond the ability to bless the World Wide Web with yourname.\u200bmeow domain names, is that possessing a popular TLD can make you a multimillionaire. Each domain string application costs an eye-watering $227,000, but you can then charge money for every domain using that string. Verisign, the company that owns .\u200bcom, rakes in about $1.5 billion a year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What even is ICANN?: The idea that there\u2019s a single body deciding who owns what domain string might seem strange\u2014especially since ICANN isn\u2019t a government organization and has no legal power. Instead, it\u2019s more like a giant coordinator and maintainer that ensures people aren\u2019t tripping over each other to claim that they, in fact, own .\u200bhorse (a real TLD that already exists). The group rules by consensus, with a staff of about 450 people in over 33 countries and a 16-member board\u2014and this multi-stakeholder setup might be one reason why the org tends to be slow.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: It could take a while to see the new slate of silly, weird, head-scratching domain strings online. After Reveal Day comes a public comment period when people can object to someone\u2019s TLD application (including for moral reasons)\u2014and final approval could take another few years. \u2014WK<\/p>\n

Tech news that makes sense of your fast-moving world.<\/p>\n

Tech Brew breaks down the biggest tech news, emerging innovations, workplace tools, and cultural trends so you can understand what’s new and why it matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TL;DR: Soon you may be able to buy domain names that end in .\u200bmeow, .\u200bfart, or .\u200bfurry. Today,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[174,74],"class_list":["post-874357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-internet","tag-internet","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}