<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><br><div> <h3 class="storyTitle" id="post-706">ICANN U-turn over outdated domains</h3><div class="meta"><span class="storyAuthor"><a href="http://www.multilingual-search.com/author/nick-wilsdon/" title="Posts by Nick Wilsdon">Nick Wilsdon</a></span> <br></div><div class="storyContent"><p>According to <a href="http://www.cnews.ru/news/top/index.shtml?2007/02/07/234517">Cnews</a>, plans by ICANN to delete some of the more ‘outdated’ domain extensions in their index have been derailed. They had opened a <a href="http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-2-05dec06.htm">public discussion</a>
in San Paulo with a view to removing these extensions, which ended last
month. Top of their list of their list for deletion was the Russian .su
(Soviet Union) extension and the former Yogoslav Republic’s .yu.</p><p>However
the public proceedings have been dogged by protests and threats of
legal action from domain owners, less than happy at the prospect of
loosing their domain, marketing and branding expenses. ICANN finally
agreed to leave the extensions alone.</p><p>This is not the first time
ICANN have deleted an extension, Great Britain’s .gb, was replaced by
.uk, East Germany’s .dd and Zaire’s .zr after the country became the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. However supporters of the .yu and .su
domains have pointed out that these extensions are far from obsolete,
they have a healthy number of subscribers. There are currently 7′000
.su domains in circulation, with an additional 250 being sold each
month.</p><p>The .su domain has remained popular in Russia, despite
it’s higher cost, because so many valuable one-word phrases and brands
remain available. This news will certainly breath new life into these
extensions and their continued growth will make it even harder, if not
impossible for ICANN to close them in the future.</p></div></div>Rebecca Wanjiku,<br>journalist,<br>p.o box 33515, <br>Nairobi.00600<br>Kenya.<br><br>Tel. 254 720 318 925<br><br><span>blog:<a target="_blank" href="http://beckyit.blogspot.com/">http://beckyit.blogspot.com/</a></span><div><br></div></div><br>
<hr size=1>It's here! Your new message!<br>Get
<a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=49938/*http://tools.search.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/"> new email alerts</a> with the free <a href="
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=49938/*http://tools.search.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/">Yahoo! Toolbar.</a></body></html>