The most exciting day on the internet

TL;DR: Soon you may be able to buy domain names that end in .​meow, .​fart, or .​furry. Today, the nonprofit that decides who owns which domain string—the part after the last dot in a URL—is releasing a huge list of new options after opening applications for the first time in 14 years.

What happened: Today is Reveal Day—a moment rarer than the US census and plenty of unusual astronomical events. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (thankfully, ICANN for short) is finally disclosing the 1,600-plus new top-level domains (TLDs) that people applied for over the summer.

It’s no wonder there was an onslaught of submissions: The last time ICANN accepted new TLD strings was in 2012. Partly because it’s such a rare occurrence, the process of applying for TLDs is competitive and furtive—an event “massively fueled by FOMO,” per Wired. And not all applications will get approved, like if you want a string too similar to another (such as .​corn, as in the food).

The big business of TLDs: Another reason for all the excitement, beyond the ability to bless the World Wide Web with yourname.​meow domain names, is that possessing a popular TLD can make you a multimillionaire. Each domain string application costs an eye-watering $227,000, but you can then charge money for every domain using that string. Verisign, the company that owns .​com, rakes in about $1.5 billion a year.

What even is ICANN?: The idea that there’s a single body deciding who owns what domain string might seem strange—especially since ICANN isn’t a government organization and has no legal power. Instead, it’s more like a giant coordinator and maintainer that ensures people aren’t tripping over each other to claim that they, in fact, own .​horse (a real TLD that already exists). The group rules by consensus, with a staff of about 450 people in over 33 countries and a 16-member board—and this multi-stakeholder setup might be one reason why the org tends to be slow.

Bottom line: It could take a while to see the new slate of silly, weird, head-scratching domain strings online. After Reveal Day comes a public comment period when people can object to someone’s TLD application (including for moral reasons)—and final approval could take another few years. —WK