Web supermarket Amazon's bid to create new top-level domain name .amazon has hit a dead end.

Committee members of internet overlord ICANN - which oversees the world's DNS and other such technical stuff - rejected the e-tailer's application to control and administer .amazon.

Non-profit ICANN is in the middle of flogging new generic top-level-domain names (gTLDs), such as .city or .book, to organisations at $185,000 a pop: the idea is to spark an explosion of new web addresses such as smartphone.news or howmuchdidthatpintcostin.london; whoever bags a gTLD can create and use new domain names featuring the gTLD (such as laptops.amazon) or sell them.

Opposition to Amazon's .gTLD application was spearheaded by representatives of Brazil and Peru, through which the Amazon River flows.

Peru's member on ICANN's Governmental Affairs Committee (GAC) was scathing of Amazon's attempt to own a gTLD that shares the same name as a rather large region of countries and people. Brazil reckoned while it might be possible for companies such as Amazon to negotiate with national governments over some geography-based names, .amazon was not negotiable.

The sticking point is the fact that the word Amazon means more than cheap online deals to the people of South America; thus, Brazil and Peru claimed legal and cultural hold on the name.

Following the committee vote, Amazon is reported to have said it's working with ICANN to reach a "favourable conclusion" on the matter.

You can view the hour-and-16-minute proceedings here.

Australia's GAC representative told the meeting ICANN had to institute special policies and procedures to handle similar geography-based requests in future. That's significant: the ICANN board could still vote in favour of Amazon's application; the online warehouse is also seeking a bunch of new top-domain names, including .kindle, .wow and .shop. ®