Dot-word sensation: Google forks out $25m for a fist of .app-y pills

Google has spunked $25m on the rights to sell domains ending in ".app", beating off competition from 12 other bidders, including Amazon and almost every large internet registry. The new generic top-level domain (gTLD) was notable for being the most hotly contested extension amid more than 1,000 others that vary from brand …

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that in addtion to the $183k they had to put up originally? If so, how much will be refunded to the losing bidders?

[Mark 85]

I thought that only applied to the so-called "private auctions"? For the "public ones", ICANN gets all the dosh. Hmm.... bigger bonuses this year for the directors.

[I ain't Spartacus]

theodore,

If I remember rightly the original fee to register a request for a new domain was non-refundable. So if several pepole went for the same one, ICANN got to keep everyone's money, and run an auction for the winner to pay extra.

Similarly if your request got rejected, and no-one was allowed to use that new gTLD, then tough luck. ICANN still kept the money.

You understand they've got lawyers to feed. There's wear-and-tear on chairs, swamp insurance, dog biscuits massive quantities of cocaine and Crystal champagne, all sorts of things...

[Chairo]

.app?

Oh no, Google bought the wrong domain. It should have been .apk...

[Anonymous Coward]

"... vague about their plans."

You seriously think ICANN has ever had a plan? Prove it.

[ratfox]

That's not so much

Maybe I'm jaded, but if the hottest competition between Google and Apple only yields $25M, then they probably don't believe all that much in the new TLDs either.

[mike2R]

Re: That's not so much

That's the really sad thing. If they're going to do something as selfish and irreversibly stupid as creating over a thousand unnecessary gTLDs for personal gain, I'd have at least have hoped they'd have done it for truly big bucks.

How much individually are the people who made the decision going to get for this sell out, once it trickles down into their bonuses and benefits? A million each? Less?

Its the pettiness of the whole thing that really irritates me. I mean I'd screw up the internet for a $100 million USD like a shot, but not for a moderately comfortable pension pot.

[Yes Me]

A sad day

Ludicrous. Don't be evil??? Don't be stupid!