New York City Closer to Top Level Domain Extension

So it appears New York City may receive its own domain extension after all.

Last April, we documented the short-lived grassroots campaign to promote local efforts to make this happen. A number of “gum election” bills pasted to plywood tried to raise awareness and gauge opinion. Now one year later, those plans are finally turning the proverbial corner.

Indeed, City Room is reporting that the City is ready to apply for the seemingly valuable “.nyc” extension in light of a recent decision by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to approve the creation of a large number of new top-level domains (TLD). ICANN is responsible for overseeing the internet address system.

The city is seeking a contract with a Virginia-based company, which would apply for the domain and operate and market it on the city’s behalf. The company would pay the upfront costs, and the city would get a share of revenue; under the five-year contract, it is guaranteed at least $3.6 million.

As one commenter noted last year, this will likely cause plenty of internet squatting. This was the argument:

It essentially creates a new playground for typosquatters to clutter up the Internet, but this time they will be doing it to New York City. It would compel every New York business to buy yet one more domain name, or risk seeing their trademark misused by someone else…We should be eliminating TLDs, not adding them. This is a terrible idea.

So we pose the question again – how do you feel about a .nyc domain?