Balanced News Blog

According to Techworld.com, single-letter domains may be a possibility in the future. It seems there have been many reports recently that ICANN is going to approve the release of single-letter domains this Sunday. That’s not exactly true.

But the issue is not on the Board’s agenda and several people from ICANN hadn’t even heard about the plan until the press reports started appearing. Ironically, in a classic case of the tail wagging the dog, ICANN has now been pushed into admitting that yes, actually, there is now no real reason why single-letter domains shouldn’t be sold (there were technical issues in the past).

Apparently, the rumor started with Overstock.com. They had a stall at the ICANN conference in Vancouver, where that offered free baseball caps with an “O” on them, and told everyone that they wanted the domain O.com, and somehow got enough media to discuss the possibility until a wish became “news.”

While ICANN admits that there is no reason NOT to release single-letter domain names, they said that the domains would have to be auctioned off, as there are only 26 letters in the alphabet with probably millions of people who would want them. M.com is the domain I want, but could I ever afford it? Auctioning domains has never been done by ICANN, and there could be lawsuits from those who don’t win their bids.

A.com – Z.com is still a possibility, but it would be well into the future and take much planning.