The domain name landscape is changing. Companies, individuals and organisations can now apply for their own domain name extension to use as they see fit and effectively create unlimited numbers of new domain names, and new domain name registrars. 

So who has applied? Which Australian companies are rolling the dice and betting on this new release?

ICANN today revealed all the applications for these new domain names:

ICANN developed the New generic Top-Level Domain Program to increase competition and choice by introducing new gTLDs into the Internet's addressing system. 

What is a gTLD? 

It is an Internet domain name extension such as the familiar .com, .net, or .org. There are 280 ccTLDs but only 22 "generics" in the domain name system right now, but that is all about to change.

Below is a list of all the Australian based organisations who have made applications by the deadline:

  • afl (Australian Football League)
  • auspost (Australia Post)
  • barefoot (Gallo Vineyards)
  • bond (Bond Uni)
  • cancerresearch (Australian Cancer Research Foundation)
  • cba (Commonwealth Bank)
  • commbank (Commonwealth Bank)
  • compare (Iselect)
  • courses (Open University)
  • cpa (CPA Australia)
  • gallo (Gallo Vineyards)
  • Globalx (GlobalX)
  • iinet (iiNet)
  • iselect (iSelect)
  • latrobe (Latrobe University)
  • Melbourne (State of Victoria)
  • nab (National Australia Bank)
  • netbank (Commonwealth Bank)
  • Physio (PhysBiz)
  • rmit (RMIT University)
  • salon (Aesthetics Practitioners Advisory Network)
  • sbs (SBS)
  • seek (Seek)
  • select (iSelect)
  • seven (Seven Network)
  • study (Open University)
  • sydney (State of NSW)
  • tab (Tabcorp)
  • tennis (Tennis Australia)
  • ubank (National Australia Bank)
  • webjet (WebJet)
  • woodside (Woodside Petroleum)
  • yellowpages (Telstra)

Do you think these are all good investments for their respective companies? Or will it just be another ones of those domain names that doesn't quite take off?