Microsoft, Nokia, others lobby ICANN over Google gTLDs
updated 01:40 pm EDT, Tue March 19, 2013
FairSearch group complains about .search, .fly, .map
Google has come under fire from an anti-Google lobbying body over a number of generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) it has applied for. The FairSearch group, made up of companies including Microsoft, Oracle, Nokia, Expedia and others, has filed objections with ICANN against Google's requests to control .search, .fly, .map as closed registries.
ICANN's guidance for applications requests for gTLDs to either be a closed registry consisting of a brand name, or an open gTLD that uses a generic term but could be offered up for sale. The objections FairSearch provides effectively follows along with the same logic, following a similar way complaints against Amazon's applications for .book, .author, and .read were made by publishers.
FairSearch reasons that if Google intends to use .search as a closed registry, it would mean that only properties owned by Google would have an address ending in .search, something that it deems to be anti-competitive. "The .search application demonstrates that Google intends to exclude all others in the Industry from using common generic industry terms for its business," argues FairSearch in a statement.
It is later argued that the .map and .fly gTLDs, if controlled by Google, would give the search engine the power to choose which mapping or travel-based competitors will have access to the "important new signposts on the Internet," with the warning that Google will give preferential treatment for its own search, mapping and travel services before attending to others.
Amazon, though not part of the FairSearch Group, is also in contention for the .search and .map gTLDs, along with a number of other applicants. Google is the only company to apply for .fly.
