While many people spend a good part of their day working and playing on the Internet, only a few of them ever give any thought to ICANN. Here is some basic information about ICANN, such as what year ICANN was established that every Internet user should know about.

“What is ICANN?” is an excellent place to start. ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The main responsibilities of ICANN have to do with managing the process whereby a number of Internet related functions are performed, including the procedures that are used to assign domain names and IP addresses to the consumer. This huge task is possible due to the utilization of ICANN root servers that track everything that goes on in the way of domain name and IP address assignments.


ICANN has not been around since the early days of the Internet. People who are interested may want to know when ICANN was established, in what year ICANN was founded, who make up the ICANN members, and a little about ICANN organization.

To answer the question “In what year was ICANN established?” the year was 1998. ICANN came into being to oversee the tasks of domain and IP assignments that had previously been handled by IANA. ICANN also helped to establish the ICANN WHOIS directory, a quick and easy way to find out whom current owns what domain name and when the current domain name registration is set to expire.

ICANN is set up as a non-profit organization with a board that is elected by the supporting organizations that make up the roster of ICANN members. The board in turn appoints a president and CEO for the organization. Among the supporting members are such organizations as The Generic Names Supporting Organization, and the Country Code Supporting Organization. In fact there are a total of eight supporting organizations, each of them geared toward some aspect of the Internet process that helps to protect the rights of the consumer.

Along with domain names and IP addresses, ICANN also works with the DNS root servers that handle most of the Internet traffic in the world through an advisory committee. A separate advisory committee helps ICANN stay in touch with representatives from most of the countries around the world, helping with Internet related issues that impact various cultures and places.

While ICANN has always had its detractors, the fact of the matter is that the organization has helped to maintain a strong amount of stability to the Internet by helping to keep procedures universal, bringing up matters before they became big problems, and continuing to encourage public participation, although to a lesser degree than it once did.