On March 21, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced its choices for new sTLD applications, among them the .XXX suffix introduced by Jason Hendeles of ICM Registry.
But the sTLD that has anti-spam advocates excited is the .mail suffix that if approved by ICANN, could potentially be used to tide the flow of spam by organizing subsets of email that could be identified as bulk email and distinguished from random spam.
According to supporters of the suffix, which along with eight other sTLDs is currently being reviewed by ICANN, the .mail suffix could be used for companies that typically send unsolicited email straight to users' in-boxes, which in many cases is not considered spam per se but marketing email that many users don't object to receiving because of the direct affiliation to established websites. The sTLD would serve as an extension of that company's URL and be tied directly to 'legitimate' web addresses.
According to analysts, the .mail domain would serve another valuable purpose to bulk email marketing companies by allowing them avoid getting blacklisted by certain marketers, which in many cases are legitimate email senders that get tagged as spam by Internet Service Providers.
However, some critics of the domain name aren't convinced that it could really make a difference and that obtaining a .mail suffix could work against email marketers who have used unfair tactics in the past but are looking for a more legitimate way to present their solicitations to users. The .mail suffix could also interfere with current filtering systems in place that have founded their businesses serving as email screeners for companies and individual users.
"The people who can meet those standards are the ones who aren't having that much trouble delivering the mail anyway," said one critic to the Washington Post. "Squeaky clean emailers who send lots of mail don't see lots of problems with blacklisting."
The sTLDs that recently submitted their applications to ICANN will be reviewed by an independent evaluation panel beginning in May 2004, ICANN announced. In addition to .XXX, applications were submitted for .asia, .cat, .jobs, .mobi, .mail., .travel, and two separate applications for .tel.
