ICANN’s bombshell: fresh TLDs sooner than expected thanks to a lottery

Fresh TLD applicants will likely applaud plan — following they try to massage it to their best interests.

It’s still just a plan open to comment, but ICANN today released big news related to the orderly delegation of fresh top level domains.

First, it plans to go back to a lottery model for deciding which fresh TLDs will be evaluated and ultimately delegated.

Except for internationalized domain names, which will be given a priority:

IDNs will be given a priority. Advance release of IDNs promotes DNS diversity, makes the Internet more accessible, increases avenues of participation and serves the public interest.

I’m shocked that ICANN is considering giving IDNs a priority this late in the game. I’m sure that will raise howls from ASCII applicants who believe their top level domains will have equal benefits to the world.

Second, this fresh approach means fresh top level domains could begin delegation in the middle of 2013, rather than current estimates of early 2014.

The video below is fresh ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé explaining the fresh process.