ICANN (the internet domain name people) concluded their meeting in Paris today and decided to kill domain tasting and open up top-level domains.

Domain Tasting
Any time you’ve ended up at a domain name that just appeared to be a bunch of similar search terms and ads, chances are, it’s held by a squatter. Squatters are people who register thousands of domain names just to run those pages and make money on the ad revenue.

Unfortunately, ICANN has up until now allowed users to register a domain name and hold it for the five day grace period that exists on domain registrations. During this period, they can publish their ads and see if it generates any sort of traffic. If it’s viable, they register it. Otherwise, they drop it. They voted to squash the practice today and open up TLD registration. Check the jump for figures on tasting and more on the TLDs.

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