'ICANN' Buy .XXX Now, But US Brands Spurn Costly New Top-Level Domains

Looking to get fancy with your site’s URL? It’ll cost you $185,000 to do it. 

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the nonprofit group that oversees the Internet’s address system, currently has 22 generic endings, such as .com, .edu, and .org. But it will open the doors to applications on Jan. 12 to let sites buy up whatever tags they’d like at a price of $185,000 per URL. (Earlier this week, ICANN opened up .xxx web addresses to all of you in the adult-entertainment industry who have been waiting so patiently.)

Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports, though, that the program “is failing to win over U.S. brand owners.”Continue reading...