May 29, 2013 2:00pm by David Farrar

Dot Kiwi approved in principle

Dot Kiwi have announced:

For the first time millions of New Zealanders will have access to new email addresses and websites ending in .kiwi rather than .co.nz, .kiwi.nz or other similar .nz formats following international regulatory approval from Los Angeles over the weekend.

.kiwi is the first New Zealand-based generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) approved by ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) in its new gTLD programme, which ushers in a host of new domains such as .london and .microsoft. …

New Zealand’s new domain name is expected to be available for individuals and organisations to purchase as early as mid-August for trademark holders and October/November for the general public. Interest can be registered at www.dot-kiwi.com .

Speaking for me personally, I think competition is a good thing, and look forward to .kiwi being approved and available for use.

It appears 433 proposed new TLDs have passed their initial evaluation. Some of them are: