The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said it is planning to resume the process of taking application for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) on 22 May 2012, after facing technical glitches during earlier process.
It is anticipated that the TLD application system (TAS) would remain open for five business days and close on 30 May, taking into account the May 28 Memorial Day holiday in the US.
The original deadline was 12 April, but ICANN shut down the system just few hours before the appliation was to close after finding the technical loopholes, extending the process.
Last month, ICANN had extended the submission deadline to April 30 and took application system offline following a technical glitch that allowed some users to view some file names of other applicants.
ICANN, however, stated it has seen no indication that any TAS user intentionally did anything wrong in order to be able to see other users’ information or has hacked the system, and a large majority of users were reported unaffected by the glitch.
The organisation said it will review the extensive database of system logs and system traffic, and any new information that emerges from this analysis will be shared with users.
ICANN said, "Even as late as yesterday, 7 May 2012, our packet-level research uncovered a new set of instances (in addition to those previously announced) where another applicant might have viewed a set of system-generated file names."
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"It is possible that further analysis will also show that some of the parties that we have notified were not affected, but notice was provided out of an abundance of caution," the agency said.
ICANN has been inviting applications for new suffixes for domain name to promote competition and innovation in the domain name marketplace while ensuring internet security and stability.
Instead of the traditional .com or .co.uk., ICANN will allow companies to register second-level and, in some cases, third-level domain names.
Under the new plan, about 1,000 domain name suffixes could be added every year after the commencement of the system in 1980s.
The evaluation fee for each application is $185,000 and gTLDs are expected to be delegated within one year of signing a registry agreement with ICANN.
Those who will get the new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) will have to pay $25,000 in costs per year to maintain the addresses.
Presently, there are 22 generic suffixes such as .com and .org, and about 250 country codes are available and the new suffixes will allow companies to operate web addresses ending in their company name.
In addtion, ICANN has also offered to refud to companies and organisations affected due to the delay in taking proposals.
