It seems that plans to launch the new gTLD's like .food and .sport are not going full steam ahead as planned. ICANN have released the hotly anticipated version 3 of the applicant guidebook that contains information for those wishing to apply for a new top level domain name .

The launch date for the new gTLD's was originally documented by ICANN to commence in the first quarter of 2010 however the guidebook - which was released last week - hinted that the process is likely to start in the “first half of 2010."

So rather than starting in January or February, the application process is likely to kick off in June. And even then can we expect more delays as the average application is expected to last eight months.

Meanwhile, Minds + Machines blogger Jothan Frakes notes that the guidebook suggests .GEO would have to get a letter of non-objection from the government of Georgia.

"A string shall be considered to be a country or territory name if: (i) it is an alpha-3 code listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard..."

It also means that Apple may need to get permission from the Chinese government or relevant authority in Macao to apply for the domain registration of .MAC.

"An applied-for gTLD string that falls into any the above categories is considered to represent a geographical name. In the event of any doubt, it is in the applicant’s interest to consult with relevant governments and public authorities and enlist their support or non-objection prior to submission of the application, in order to preclude possible objections and pre-address any ambiguities concerning the string and applicable requirements."

If you're interested in reading about the new top level domains then take a look at the Version 3 guidebook.