When the idea of new gTLDs were introduced, it seemed logical that big brand owners would be the first to adopt.  The cost to own one’s own “dotBrand” is somewhat restrictive because of the application price of $185,000 in addition to the costs to run the new TLD.  Among the Fortune 100 though, one would assume the costs would be seen as minimal in comparison to the advantages of protecting a brand or expanding services and offerings.

From the list of the 1930 applicants released today, DNN has compiled a list of 36 Fortune 100 companies that have applied for new TLDs.  Of those, 20 companies are applying for more than one new gTLD and 16 of them are merely applying for their brand name in a new extension.

Amazon, Google and Microsoft are applying for the most new TLDs from this list, which would make sense based on their respective brand and product positions on the internet.  All of these companies can be considered pioneers of a new way of using brands on the internet.

Several of these corporations are being assisted by legal or brand management agencies such as Fairwinds, CSC and MarkMonitor. This information came from the ICANN filings and we have also noted in the list below.

Click continue to see the list

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The most popular posts on DNN in April of 2012 by web traffic were:

1. XXX Goes Live in the Root Servers (04|15|2011)
2. Joichi Ito Joins Tucows Board (12|15|2008)
3. Frank Schilling’s InternetTraffic.com now powers 1,500,000+ domains (04|19|2012)
4. Will Marchex Sell iPanel.com to Apple? (04|05|2012)
5. First Brannans Domain Auction by Clements brothers yields $34,000 ( 04|09|2012)
6. Google settles Dispute over gmail.de after 8 years (04|16|2012)
7. Internet.bs Corp Responds to KnujOn Accusations (04|09|2012)
8. Keep Playing the Music . . . Really, The Ship’s Not Sinking (02|22|2008)
9. LeadRefs Announcing New Version of Domain Sales Lead Generation Tool (04|16|2012)
10. ICANN Issues additional statement regarding new TLD Application System Bug (04|14|2012)

Apple does usually not care about owning the domain name for new products that are announced and or about to be launched, but in the past has then later acquired some of the names. Now it appears they are planning to launch the iPanel in the fourth quarter of this year – a combined TV Internet device. As luck would have it, Marchex (MCHX), owns ipanel.com, a currently parked domain and optimized for dating, which appears to have been purchased with the original Ultimate Search portfolio back in 2005.

This morning ICANN release the much anticipated version 3 of the applicant guidebook for new TLDs and opened the corresponding Public Comment Forum.The release of the new documents detailing how interested parties can apply for the much discussed new TLDs goes hand in hand with an overhaul of the corresponding website.

In a first review, Jothan Frakes of Minds + Machines notes that Module 2 – 2.1.1.4.1 (p14), rule i alpha 3 codes from ISO 3166-1 could mean that Apple needs to get permission from China before applying for .MAC (due to the similarity to Macao) and .GEO would need permission from Georgia to start up their new TLD.

Image from Wikipedia

Oversee.net announced today that Steve Wozniak will headline the 3rd annual DOMAINfest Global event scheduled for January 28-30, 2009, in Hollywood, California. Wozniak co-founded Apple Computer Inc. along with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne and has been instrumental in shaping the personal computer industry.

“It’s a great honor to have Steve Wozniak join us as keynote speaker at DOMAINfest Global 2009,” said Lawrence Ng, the CEO and co-founder of Oversee.net. “His innovative thinking and pioneering spirit inspires all of us. Guests at DOMAINfest are sure to walk away with a renewed sense of entrepreneurial determination after listening to Steve’s insights and experiences.”

DOMAINfest Global is an annual event for domainers to educate themselves in online advertising, domain publishing, domain monetizing, search-engine optimization, website development, online marketing, affiliate programs, and more.

[via Oversee.net]

MacRumors.com is reporting a rumor that Apple is the new owner of the domain name Me.com. It’s unclear why the company purchased the domain name, but rumors center around it possibly being used as a rebranding of the popular .mac services. The speculation was first started by John Gruber at DaringFireball.net when he noticed that the domain name was using MarkMonitor services. MarkMonitor.com is a company that many large corporations, including Apple, use to manage their domain names. The initial rumor was shortly followed up by a MacRumors reader who pointed out that the Netcraft page lists, Kenneth Eddings, an Apple employee as the DNS administrator.

The domain name was previously being used as a social network site by a company that re-branded in December 2007 under the new name Snappville. The domain name whois records reflects the change in ownership to MarkMonitor around that same time. If Apple purchased the domain, it was likely for a sizeable amount, as a 2 letter dictionary word .com is extremely rare. One would think that the proceeds of the sale would have provided enough funds for the seller to create a better brand name, other than Snappville (which has a ton of likely typos).

“Apple does appear to own Me.com. It was likely purchased sometime in December 2007, and it (along with MobileMe for iPhone) could very well be the rebranding for Apple’s .Mac service. With Apple’s ongoing product expansion outside the Mac platform, it makes sense that they may need to rebrand their services to something more platform neutral.”

Afilias and Godaddy may soon be jumping for joy at this news. The two companies are the current operators of the .Me domain registry. Any future announcements, use and promotions of Me.com by Apple would be a good thing for the .me registry to piggyback on to in order to increase the registrations and use of .me domain names as well. Apple is a heavy-duty advertiser in print and television, but there’s no clear direction on how they will use the domain or promote it. Apple’s use of the domain could also have the reverse effect in making .me a worthless extension. Time will tell.

As this rumor gets churned through the mill though, it should be fun to see just how many *me.com and me*.com and .me domain names get registered today. :)   Domain Name News is also predicting a slew of future blog posts on this topic at the Frogger (sic) Factor.

Thanks to Domain Auction Cleaner for the tip.