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22 Describe proposed measures for protection of geographic names at the second and other levels in the applied-for gTLD

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.fyiCharleston Road Registry Inc.google.comView
As is specified throughout this application, Charleston Road Registry (CRR) plans to operate the top-level domain as a closed registry and shall not permit any party to register or operate any second-level domain names within the TLD. In accordance with ICANN’s recommendations in the January 11, 2012, version of the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook, Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement, and in the spirit of sections 2.2 and 2.7 of the GAC Principles Regarding New gTLDs, CRR shall reserve to ourselves the following:

(1) all of the English country and territory names found in ISO 3166-1 and their specified short form abbreviations;
(2) all the of names found in the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, as found in the Technical Reference Manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III (Names and Countries of the World); and
(3) all of the names of the United Nations member states as prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names in the six official languages of the United Nations.

As noted above, the top-level domain shall not permit the public to register domains at the second-level. The registry shall not use or license the use of any full country name in English, or any other reserved language, as a second-level domain except in accordance with Specification 5 of the New gTLD Agreement. With regard to the abbreviated country and territory names found in ISO 3166-1, CRR plans to reserve current and future country abbreviations for use at the second-level. This follows the spirit and function of the procedures that the .info TLD utilized.

As with the .info TLD, CRR shall ensure that all geographic abbreviation identifiers contained within the ISO 3166-1 list will be reserved to us as the registry operator. Unlike the .info TLD, however, the registry shall not make any of these identifiers publicly available for registration. CRR plans to make these these two letter geographic abbreviation identifiers available to Google to provide localized content via second-level domains. Googleʹs Web Search and other services are customized for a number of countries and regions across the world, and these two letter second level domain names would be used to provide a namespace to which that customization could be applied. For example, bw.Google could provide search results that would be most relevant for users in Botswana. It could allow Google to direct users to the site that can give them the most relevant results.

CRR notes that confusion regarding whether the second-level domain is an official conduit of the affected country should be of minimal concern for governments in the context of a closed registry whose TLD is the trademark of a private entity and where all usage of the domain is directly tied to Google’s brand and offerings. Unlike .info, there should be a minimal possibility of creating geopolitical conflicts in the top-level domain resulting from confusion associated with national government websites. Further, it is not CRR desire to serve TLDs that compete with national ccTLDs, rather to serve Google’s users more localized content in a given region.

Google’s core business functions include facilitating searches for Internet content and communications among Internet users. In connection with these functions, CRR intends to fully utilize the abbreviated country code names to harness the TLD to provide localized content, especially to the developing world. Throughout 2011, several chapters of the Internet Society in developing nations have found that despite growing connectivity in their nations, Internet usage and electronic commerce were not thriving due to a lack of localized content. Google’s localized sites shall help provide a means of rectifying this situation, ensuring that Internet users in developed and developing nations have access to substantive content that is relevant to their lives.

While the development and deployment of specific localized sites will depend upon global and local demand and the technological integration of new gTLDs into the larger Internet fabric, Google’s goal is to continually expand its usage of localized sites in the top-level domain.
gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.calCharleston Road Registry Inc.google.comView
As is specified throughout this application, Charleston Road Registry (CRR) plans to operate the top-level domain as a closed registry and shall not permit any party to register or operate any second-level domain names within the TLD. In accordance with ICANN’s recommendations in the January 11, 2012, version of the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook, Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement, and in the spirit of sections 2.2 and 2.7 of the GAC Principles Regarding New gTLDs, CRR shall reserve to ourselves the following:

(1) all of the English country and territory names found in ISO 3166-1 and their specified short form abbreviations;
(2) all the of names found in the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, as found in the Technical Reference Manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III (Names and Countries of the World); and
(3) all of the names of the United Nations member states as prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names in the six official languages of the United Nations.

As noted above, the top-level domain shall not permit the public to register domains at the second-level. The registry shall not use or license the use of any full country name in English, or any other reserved language, as a second-level domain except in accordance with Specification 5 of the New gTLD Agreement. With regard to the abbreviated country and territory names found in ISO 3166-1, CRR plans to reserve current and future country abbreviations for use at the second-level. This follows the spirit and function of the procedures that the .info TLD utilized.

As with the .info TLD, CRR shall ensure that all geographic abbreviation identifiers contained within the ISO 3166-1 list will be reserved to us as the registry operator. Unlike the .info TLD, however, the registry shall not make any of these identifiers publicly available for registration. CRR plans to make these these two letter geographic abbreviation identifiers available to Google to provide localized content via second-level domains. Googleʹs Web Search and other services are customized for a number of countries and regions across the world, and these two letter second level domain names would be used to provide a namespace to which that customization could be applied. For example, bw.Google could provide search results that would be most relevant for users in Botswana. It could allow Google to direct users to the site that can give them the most relevant results.

CRR notes that confusion regarding whether the second-level domain is an official conduit of the affected country should be of minimal concern for governments in the context of a closed registry whose TLD is the trademark of a private entity and where all usage of the domain is directly tied to Google’s brand and offerings. Unlike .info, there should be a minimal possibility of creating geopolitical conflicts in the top-level domain resulting from confusion associated with national government websites. Further, it is not CRR desire to serve TLDs that compete with national ccTLDs, rather to serve Google’s users more localized content in a given region.

Google’s core business functions include facilitating searches for Internet content and communications among Internet users. In connection with these functions, CRR intends to fully utilize the abbreviated country code names to harness the TLD to provide localized content, especially to the developing world. Throughout 2011, several chapters of the Internet Society in developing nations have found that despite growing connectivity in their nations, Internet usage and electronic commerce were not thriving due to a lack of localized content. Google’s localized sites shall help provide a means of rectifying this situation, ensuring that Internet users in developed and developing nations have access to substantive content that is relevant to their lives.

While the development and deployment of specific localized sites will depend upon global and local demand and the technological integration of new gTLDs into the larger Internet fabric, Google’s goal is to continually expand its usage of localized sites in the top-level domain.