.shop is a generic

top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the ...

(gTLD) launched in September 2016. Nine companies including

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially dat ...

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. I ...

and Famous Four Media filed applications for .shop in the 2012

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespac ...

new gTLD application round. GMO Registry became the registry operator after prevailing in an ICANN public auction in January 2016.

History

The idea of a .shop

generic top-level domain Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is a standards organization that oversees globa ...

was around since at least 1999, when an attempt to register it with IAHC was made. Its proposed usage is similar to current endeavors: to provide a dedicated space for ecommerce on the Internet. In 2000, Commercial Connect, LLC requested to operate a .shop registry from ICANN . Commercial Connect's application from 2000 was well-received, but other domains were prioritized. Japan's GMO Registry also expressed interest in the top level domain name space in late 2009, though Commercial Connect was the most vested candidate that had taken prior steps towards attaining delegation. In 2011, Commercial Connect was reported to have the support of ecommerce companies, with its completed application awaiting final approval as of June 2010. To further this support, Richard E. Last of the National Retail Federation and shop.org joined the board in late 2011. When the next application process was opened in early 2012, Commercial Connect founder Jeffrey Smith described his .shop as a "hybrid between general public and specific use" designed to make a "more secure, stable, and intuitive" Internet. He sees the domain as a way to easily indicate sites that use

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" ...

sales, with the application supported by a community defined by entities that use

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the credit card issuer, card issuer to pay them for the ...

transactions to sell products. In May 2012, nine applicants including

and Famous Four Media applied to ICANN to operate the .shop registry. Commercial Connect was the only applicant who also applied for the .shop string in ICANN's year 2000 new-TLD round. Applications were also received for the extensions ''.shopping'', ''.store'', ''.buy'', and names with similar meanings in non-

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

languages, and ICANN indicated that they would not create extensions that will confuse users. This so-called " string similarity" is an unresolved issue in the new gTLD process, and is to complement dispute resolution. In January 2016, GMO Registry of Japan prevailed with a winning bid of US$41.5 million.

References

External links

ICANN

.shop
on ICANNWiki {{DEFAULTSORT:Shop Generic top-level domains