Reveal Day is here. The international organization in charge of top-level domain names on the Internet revealed during a press conference in London this morning that it has received applications for 1,930 new ones.
Of that number, 230 were desired by more than one applicant. For example, 13 applied for .app; 10 for .art; 7 for .news; 8 for .music; 8 for .movie. Both Google and Amazon applied for .you.
Some TLDs will undoubtedly raise a few eyebrows, such as .sucks, .sex and .sexy.
Perhaps the most understated quote of the day so far comes from Kurt Pritz, a senior vp with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, who said, "We expect challenges."
Amazon was particularly aggressive in applying for new TLDs, putting dibs on .book, .buy, .news, .music, .movie, .mobile and .tunes. The company's TLD strategy practically screams the direction of its online retail strategy.
Another active brand in the TLD pool was L'Oréal. It was one of three applicants for .beauty. The cosmetics company also applied for TLDs for each of its product lines, such as .Maybelline, .Loreal, .Lancome and .Redken.
Both Major League Baseball and the National Football League applied to put the MLB and NFL brand to the right of the dot.
Auto manufacturers were also active, applying for brand TLDs: General Motors for .Cadillac, Ford Motor Co. for .Lincoln and Chrysler for .Dodge.
Other brands applying for TLDs included Nike, Microsoft, McDonalds, Hermes, Comcast, Allstate, American Express (for .amex), Mattel and the Weather Channel.
Rod Beckstrom, Icann's president and CEO, called the TLD plan nothing less than "historic" and said that once TLDs pass the review and evaluation process, 1,000 new TLDs could enter the Internet by first quarter of 2013.
The process, Beckstrom promised, "will yield high-quality TLDs from high quality-applicants."
Many brands aren't so sure, being worried about cybersquatters and counterfeiters and general confusion.
"A powerful change is coming," Beckstrom predicted. "The Internet is about to change forever, leading to new jobs, new ways to link communities, more choice and more competition."