(credit: ICANN)
Internet surfer, be prepared to be assault by a variety web suffixes come next year when the system kicks off. the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has voted in favor to replace ‘.com’ with private companies own brand (example sports.nike) in a landmark meeting in Singapore today. it is touted as the “biggest change to domain names since the creation of ‘.com’ 26 years ago.” after more than two decades of ‘.com’, ‘.org, ‘.net’ and among the lesser known suffixes, i wonder how we, surfer, will take the changes and will we be confused to some extend?
although this new web suffixes will only come into play next year, companies interested can act now to secure their ideal domains before it is gone. however, to prevent abuse, these new web suffixes has a barrier of ownership – meaning that it is expensive ($185,000 to be exact) to own, and individuals and sole proprietor businesses will not qualify to apply. ICANN said this is to help to recoup some cost that goes into the changes, as well as to prevent squatters and undesirable individuals profiting from the system. those who been through the ‘.com’ phrase when it started rolling out will know exactly how it played out.
regardless of whether the new custom web suffixes will do any good in terms of branding, we imagine that big players will no doubt jump in and grab in a frenzy. damn, i can’t even get use to ‘.us’ and ‘.org’, so i guess custom domain such as creditcards.citibank won’t do any good to me. or may be that just me.
via Straits Times
