.link

Status:	Active
Registry Provider:	Internet Services Consortium
Type:	Generic
Category:	Technology
More information:

.link is an active gTLD that was proposed in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The Registry and manager of the TLD is Uniregistry. The proposed application succeeded and was delegated to the Root Zone on 18 January 2014.

Application Details

The following is excerpted from the applicant's response to question #18

"Links are the building blocks of the World Wide Web. If you are reading this text in a browser, a link likely brought you here.

ʺLinksʺ and ʺlinkingʺ have entered the worldwide vocabulary as the way to connect on the Internet. Links make navigation possible.

Uniregistry intends to take this core building block of the web and allow registrants to label their content with the clear and simple word ʺLinkʺ.

The creation of .LINK will create competition in the namespace and allow registrants to shorten their existing website name with a snappy and memorable marketing identity and marketing tool.

Whether providing a source for information or an online portal for sales, .LINK will be a dedicated, neutrally-operated registry platform for registrants worldwide.

For a significant number of registrants, the most important factor in labeling their content is having a semantically valuable second-level domain name, typically a generic single-word or two-word combination. For these registrants, who have seen the names they would find most desirable previously registered in legacy top-level domains such as .COM, .NET and .INFO, the new .LINK will provide a strong and memorable alternative to the right of the dot.

Historically, the power of domains names has been at the second-level. Generic words and phrases are powerful labels when the correspond directly to the information, goods or services described on the associated website. While niche top-level domains with strong semantic meaning will be one important development in the future of naming for Internet-based resources, Uniregistry believes that registrants will continue to benefit from broad, all encompassing namespaces like .LINK.

.LINK will be a specialty gTLD, with a flat pricing structure and fixed renewal costs, with no material price increases for the first five years. This moderately priced namespace is designed to offer registrants an attractive, competitive registration alternative or complement to existing registrations for the purpose of specialized content.

The registry will strive to bring value to both the users seeking information and the registrants who are offering that information by providing directory services, traffic-generation toolkits, and search-related functionality from central registry-operated resources designed to promote the .LINK top-level domain and the companies, organizations, and individuals choosing to register .LINK names.

The registry will implement safeguards to intellectual property interests, while fostering socially and commercially productive growth of its name-space for registrants, stakeholders, and Internet users. .. Uniregistry believes that first-come first-served is the most fair and inexpensive way to allocate registrations to the public. We plan egalitarian, flat-rate pricing made possible by the long-term payback horizon of our lead investor. Uniregistry plans to implement rate limited registration queues made equitable through a randomized, round robin acceptance of orders. This will make land-rush allocation of SLD registrations more balanced for all participants.

Uniregistry plans to improve the registration and ownership experience of registrants. These plans include ongoing post-registration redemption rights for outgoing registrants with a no-charge, 180 day suspension of expiring domain names to permit former registrants a long window to recover their accidentally expiring or forgotten SLD names, and to protect their residual reputation from harm or confusion with successive registrants. After names expire and an extended redemption period has passed, Uniregistry will delete names within a randomized one month window to avoid gaming of the deleted name stream by speculative entities with superior technical skills. Random deletion coupled with a registration query rate limit will permit would-be registrants of all levels of technical ability an opportunity to register their preferred SLD. Uniregistry plans to implement a ʺmust deleteʺ policy to work against such registrar warehousing of the expiring name stream and to give registrants of all levels of sophistication an opportunity to register their expiring name of choice.

Contract Signed

On 14 November 2013, Uniregistry received a Registry Agreement signed by ICANN for .link after passing all the required processes needed to become a Registry Operator for the string.

Delegation and Availability

.link was delegated to the Root Zone of the DNS on January 18, 2014, completing the successful application for the string.

Top-Level Domain

Second Level Domain