Welcome to the New Internet
Gone are the days of .com, .net and .org being prime internet real estate. As of today the face of the internet has changed forever. The ICANN board have “approved a recommendation that could see a whole range of new names introduced to the Internet’s addressing system” at a meeting in Paris today.
In a nutshell “this proposal allows applicants for new names to self-select their domain name so that choices are most appropriate for their customers or potentially the most marketable. It is expected that applicants will apply for targeted community strings such as (the existing) .travel for the travel industry and .cat for the Catalan community (as well as generic strings like .brandname or .yournamehere). There are already interested consortiums wanting to establish city-based top level domain, like .nyc (for New York City), .berlin and .paris.”
So if I wish, I could submit an application for .danielfelice, which I could use to create blog.danielfelice.com or iam.danielfelice, or whatever I like really. It would most probably be approved providing that it I can prove I have a viable need for it and that it is not a trademark – oh and if I can afford it. It is expected that large organisations and Governments are going to claim their stake on names such as .city, .hotel, .sex, .food. and potentially enter a bidding war for them. Names up to 64 characters will be considered. If I wish I could register .iamdanielfeliceandthisismyblogandihopeyoulikeitthanksforvisiting – a bit too long isn’t it?
So how much will it cost me to register my own ”dot” I can hear you ask? Well it is thought that the names will cost somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000. ICANN will start accepting proposals in the first quarter of 2009.
I have not made up my mind as to whether I agree or not. I quite like it the way it is. The endless possibilities will definitely affect the current domain name market. However it might open an entirely new domain name market – imagine the price of newyork.city? Though with so many possibilities and combinations, surely “premium” domain names will be worth significantly less no matter what they end in.
Or will they?
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