Are we about to say goodbye to .com and hello to .anythingyoulike?
Just when you thought you’ve got the hang of the Internet and domain names, it’s all about to change!
On the 26th June 2008 the ICANN (International Council for Assigned Names and Numbers) board approved a recommendation that could see vast range of new TLD’s (top level domains) introduced to the Internet’s addressing system.
Under the new rules, companies and organisations will be able to apply to buy their own TLD. So instead of using .com, a company like Microsoft could use .microsoft instead.
Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN commented on the landmark announcement “The Board today accepted a recommendation from its gobal stakeholders that it is possible to implement many new names to the Internet, paving the way for an expansion of domain name choice and opportunity.”
The exact implementation and roll out plan is yet to be decided, as the ICANN board must still approve the final version before the new process is launched.
“The potential here is huge. It represents a whole new way for people to express themselves on the Net” said Dr Twomey. It’s a massive increase in real estate on the Internet.”
Now, you may be thinking “Great…I can register my family name as a top level domain” e.g. .smith or .brown. But buying one of these TLD’s will not come cheap, with prices likely to start from £50,000 and popular names being as much as £500,000. Names such as .shop, .hotel and .fly etc are likely to attract multiple applicants and in this instance will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
When I first heard about ICANN’s proposals, I was somewhat taken back and immediately thought what a bad idea this is. I think in someways there are already too many domain types, you already have TLD’s such as .com, .net, .org., .me, .biz, .info, .eu, .tv, .mobi and and that doesn’t include all the other country level domains such as .co.uk, .us, .de, .es, .it etc. My fear is that with the introduction of so many different domain types, users will be left confused by it all.
There is also a fear that companies will struggle to protect their identity and intellectual property rights. Under the new rules cybersquatters and fraudsters could register many variations on companies names within each new TLD created.
Despite the possible introduction of so many new TLD’s, I believe the brand of TLD’s such as .com and .co.uk are so strong that any potential new TLD’s will never detract from these. I really don’t see the likes of large corporates such as Hilton hotels dropping hilton.com in favour of hilton.hotel or Amazon using amazon.shop instead of amazon.com. They may buy names such as these to protect their brand, but I can only see them redirectly to their main .com site.
So as a customer of LCN, how do I see these changes affecting you?
We will obviously have to wait to see the final approved process to understand exactly what is involved and how it will affect the services we offer. However, I don’t see us offering huge amounts of new TLD’s. We will always investigate the value of any new TLD to our customers and make an informed decision on whether we feel the introduction of a particular TLD makes sense.
If you would like to send us your feedback on this announcement, then please email feedback@LCN.com. We cannot guarantee to respond to feedback received, but can assure you that every email will be read, with your comments taken on board.
