Google wants .lol and a few other new top-level domains

It's now too late to apply to ICANN to create new generic top-level domains (think .com, .net, .org, .gov, .xxx, etc.), but Google evangelist Vint Cerf says the company turned in a bunch of applications, including at least one with some great humor potential.

In a post on Google's blog, Cerf writes that Google applied to create and administer new top-level domains in at least four categories:

• Our trademarks, like .google
  
• Domains related to our core business, like .docs
  
• Domains that will improve user experience, such as .youtube, which can increase the ease with which YouTube channels and genres can be identified
  
• Domains we think have interesting and creative potential, such as .lol
  

The right to run your own top-level domain costs $185,000 plus $25,000 a year, which is why I've given up the dream of managing the potentially awesome world of .mack Web sites and why only big names like Google can apply for bunches of them.

So while I might never register ReturnOfThe.Mack to promote the follow-up album to my best-selling hip-hop/bluegrass fusion debut, perhaps Google will one day allow me to own a domain that sarcastically praises my East Coast rivals like BrooklynBanjoThugz4ever.lol.

ICANN received more than 2,000 applications and will reveal the entire list on June 13. At that point, the fighting over similar or identical names or names with potential trademark issues begins. I'll be interested to see if all the cute cats of the Internet join forces to challenge Google's play for .lol.