• CNET, Friday, June 22, 2012 12:53 PM

Gluttony is the least attractive of all sins. But that isn’t keeping Amazon from trying to hog a horde of new domain extensions. If the ecommerce and networking giant gets its way, it will soon control 76 new extensions. “Most observers had expected the company to apply for .amazon and .kindle, but it seems that was just for starters,” CNet reports.

“Amazon's ambitions also include a host of generic terms, including the likes of .free, .like, .game, and .shop.” Indeed, “Amazon is looking to nab a slew of compelling names, and if things unfold the way Amazon hopes, the outcome of this power play could reshape the world of Internet commerce -- at least as it relates to the behemoth that is Amazon.”

Amazon is one among several Web giants participating in the massive effort by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to vastly expand the domain name system. ICANN has let anyone with the money and technical expertise bid for the right to run a so-called generic top-level domain, or gTLD. Last week, it revealed which companies and institution are going for which gTLDs, also known as "strings."

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