ICANN Delays Dot-Anything Domain Deadline

ICANN’s plan to open up the Internet’s addressing system “to the limitless possibilities of human imagination and creativity” will have to wait a few days more to usher in the dot-anything era.

The Internet’s governing body said Thursday that a technical issue with its top-level domain (TLD) application system, or TAS, has forced it to extend the deadline for submitting applications for new vanity domain names.

“Recently, we received a report of unusual behavior with the operation of the TAS system,” the agency said in a brief statement. “ICANN is taking the most conservative approach possible to protect all applicants and allow adequate time to resolve the issue.”

I’m told “unusual behavior” is not a euphemism for “attack,” but for some sort of system glitch.

Anyway, as a result, ICANN has extended the application deadline until April 20. Which means the 839 companies that are paying $185,000 a pop to submit vanity domains for the organization’s review have a bit longer to do so. ICANN is expected to publish details of these applications on April 30.

Update: And, indeed, it was a system glitch, one that allowed a limited number of users to view each other’s details.