News and analysis involving the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the body that oversees domain name policy worldwide.
ICANN is the non-profit that sets the rules for how domain names work at the root of the internet. They decide which top-level domains exist, how disputes are handled, and when new application rounds open. For a UK small business this usually runs in the background, but every so often ICANN makes a decision that reshapes what you can register and what it costs.
These articles cover ICANN's decisions from a UK registrar's perspective: what the new gTLD rounds actually mean for day-to-day domain choice, when policy changes flow through to the names available at checkout, and how to interpret the headlines without getting caught in enterprise-only debates.
ICANN opens its first major new domain extension round in 14 years on 30 April 2026. The USD 227,000 application fee is aimed at global brands, cities, and industry bodies. For UK small businesses, the real action is already in the existing 458-TLD catalogue.
