The global agency that assigns Internet addresses, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (or ICANN), loosened its guidelines earlier this week and will now allow domain suffixes to be named after just about anything.
Maybe this news is not quite as science fiction-y as our article title would suggest, but it certainly opens website owners to new possibilities. It’s possibly the biggest change to the Internet system since its start in 1984.
While there are currently 300-plus suffixes worldwide, only a few are available for general use, like the familiar ‘.com’ and ‘.net’. ICANN’s ruling this week would allow hundreds, possibly thousands, of new suffixes in the years ahead. The chairman of ICANN, Peter Dengate Thrush, called it “the start of a whole new phase for the Internet.”
Custom address suffixes will not be cheap - $185,000 to apply and $25,000 a year to maintain. Your usual ‘.com’ address normally costs more or less $10 a year. Even with those hefty fees, ICANN says they will just break even, reporting that it will cost them tens of millions of dollars to write the guidelines for new domains, review applications and settle any disputes.
Despite the big price tag, smaller companies could still benefit from the expansion. Larger companies or investors may buy the rights to a certain suffix, and then sell an individual website (like allinone.usb) to a smaller business at a reasonable rate.
The development of new domain names could allow companies to better promote their brands, or allow for specific markets to join a sort of an Internet community – like delis having theirs sites at .meat, or pharmacies having .rx sites.
In the long run, it may make no difference at all to consumers, as more web surfers find the sites they’re looking for via search engines or apps. Jeremiah Johnston, COO of Sedo, a firm that helps companies resell domain names, told NPR news, "Even though the new extensions come around, [suffixes like .com and .net] are most rooted and most popular in the minds of consumers - their value has only gone up.”
ICANN will begin accepting applications in January, but some companies are ready now. Canon already has designs on .canon, and Apple may be looking at not just .apple, but domain names styled after their products, such as .ipad.
What domain name would you like for your website?
No comments:
Post a Comment