How did .agakhan, .ismaili and .imamat get their own TLDs?

Post by sidewndr46 » Fri, Aug 29, 2025, 8:48 PM UTC

827a wrote: post #40

jkaplowitz wrote: post #8

Presumably way the same as .google and all the other special-purpose organization-specific domains. Blame ICANN for allowing any public or private organization who can meet the requirements to buy and operate a gTLD back in 2012: https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/global-support/faqs... And as per another comment in this thread, they’re doing another round of this in 2026: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4…

The fact that private entities can monopolize gTLDs, including words that aren't even made-up or reasonably copy-written (e.g. the MAN group in Europe owns .man) was an embarrassing and dishonorable decision by ICANN. I'm all for having tons of weird, awesome gTLDs, and I'm even for brand-specific gTLDs like .google, but the cost these entities should incur by asking for one to be created is: Anyone can use it. 1. A…

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Fri, Aug 29, 2025, 8:57 PM UTC

maxbond wrote: post #34

mikestorrent wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Vatican is a country, so it gets a ccTLD.

True but I don't think the distinction matters to the overall point that it's perfectly ordinary for religious institutions to operate a TLD, regardless of the mechanism that allows for it.

Post by arcfour » Fri, Aug 29, 2025, 9:09 PM UTC

postquantumfax wrote: post #47

dc396 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what you mean by "DNS allows search" -- by the usual definition of "search", the DNS doesn't: it is a lookup mechanism. I'm also not sure who "we" are in your idea or what you mean by "qualified with an end dot": all domains that get looked up implicitly have a "." (a zero length label that signifies the end of the query name) if it isn't explicit.

resolv.conf-> search If you are not a consumer on an ISP emulating dialup it is quite likely that a popular name in a naming convention I.e. 'mercury' resolves to something for you and something for someone at a different firm (mercury.intranet.[firm].not-so-stupid-tld). A cert is possibly not a fully qualified one so when ICANN gives away mercury you need to append .asshat to everything ICANN names. (Two firms have…

Post by PeterWhittaker » Fri, Aug 29, 2025, 9:10 PM UTC

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #53

maxbond wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True but I don't think the distinction matters to the overall point that it's perfectly ordinary for religious institutions to operate a TLD, regardless of the mechanism that allows for it.

Vatican City is a theocracy, not a religion. You'd technically have to add .uk and many more to the list if you're broadening to all nations with a state religion.

Post by 0x3f » Fri, Aug 29, 2025, 9:17 PM UTC

uz3snolc3t6fnrq wrote: post #39

.george is a pretty funny one. apparently Walmart owns it, so you probably won't be able to register a .george domain any time soon. https://icannwiki.org/.george do companies even use these in the wild or are they buying these TLDs for nothing? ".brother", ".canon", ".nokia", ".panasonic", ".playstation", ".xbox", ".xerox"... there's even ".sandvikcoromant", which is some sort of Swedish metalwork company.