Microsoft applies for 11 new domain extensions – but who will win .cloud?

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) published the list of companies who applied for the new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) names. gTLDs are an Internet domain name extensions similar to .com, .net, and .org.

According to ICANN, there were a total of 1,930 applications for new gTLDs. Submissions for new gTLDs were submitted between January 12th and May 30th, 2012, and the cost for each application was $187,000.

After publishing the list, ICANN is now reviewing the applications over the new few months and will decide which companies will have their new gTLDs granted. The decision will be announced sometime at the end of this year or early in 2013.

Some of the top technology companies submitted applications to ICANN.  For example, Google applied for over 101 gTLDs at a cost of around $18.6 million. And Amazon applied for more than 60 extensions. Microsoft applied for 11 names, which are:

.azure
.bing
.docs
.hotmail
.live
.microsoft
.office
.skydrive
.skype
.windows
.xbox

Seven companies applied for .cloud, including Amazon, Google, and Symantec Corporation.  I wonder how ICANN will award that one?