Web domains expanding
ICANN vote likely will lead to alternatives to ‘.com’
WASHINGTON – Coming soon to the Internet: website addresses that end in “.bank,” “.Vegas” and “.Canon.”
The organization that oversees the Internet address system is preparing to open the floodgates to a nearly limitless selection of new website suffixes, including ones in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts. That could usher in the most sweeping transformation of the Domain Name System since its creation in the 1980s.
More than 300 suffixes are available today, the bulk of them country-code domains, such as “.uk” for the United Kingdom.
Hundreds or even thousands more suffixes could be created, categorized by industry, geography, ethnicity and more.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will meet Monday in Singapore (Sunday evening in the U.S.) to vote on its expansion plan for domain names. If ICANN approves the plan as expected, new domains could start appearing late next year.
The new system could bring innovative branding opportunities and allow all sorts of niche communities to thrive online.
But businesses worry that they’ll have to grab their brand names before others do. New suffixes could also create confusion as consumers navigate a Web with unfamiliar labels.
It’s also possible that the new names won’t make much difference, because many people rely on search engines and mobile applications to find what they are looking for online. Consumers don’t type Web addresses into browsers nearly as much as they did 15 years ago.
“Most people don’t pay a lot of attention to website addresses anyway these days,” said Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Land, a website that covers the search industry.
Organizations that operate new suffixes will be able to collect registration fees from websites that want names. The fees could add up to millions of dollars a year if a website is popular enough.
A group of entrepreneurs in Las Vegas is vying to operate a “.Vegas” suffix. They have the city’s endorsement and consider “.Vegas” a way to unify local merchants, entertainment venues, residents and even businesses beyond Sin City.
Two groups – one backed by the Sierra Club and the other by Greenpeace and other environmental organization – are separately seeking the right to operate a “.eco” suffix.
Big business will stake claims, too. Printer and camera maker Canon Inc. plans to apply for “.Canon”.