It seems whenever we get a naming project or are asked to create a new web presence for a client, one of the most maddening part of the process is securing a unique and memorable URL. Finding a solid '.com' address is becoming evermore elusive. And do you dare go the .net or .tv route? Or sexier yet: .us or .it? To some clients it doesn't matter. To others, it's dot-com or the superhighway.
Now, creative URLs are nothing new using country codes (like .us or .it). And .tv actually is for the country Tuvalu, not television. But a new opportunity to create virtually any domain name you want is virtually upon us. In what's being heralded as a "massive increase in the real estate of the internet," ICANN - the governing body of URL names - has all but given the green light to broadening the list of acceptable URL suffixes to include pretty much any word or non-word you can think of. It's sort of like resetting the domain-name playing field, except you know now what you wish you had known then.
Of course, no one is sounding the death knell for the tried-and-true '.com'; far from it. But it certainly expands the creative possibilities. The new ICANN regulations (deregulations?) will even accept the recognition of Chinese and Arabic characters for the first time. more >>>
The discussion is still going on (it was actually extended a week until December 15th, but they've yet to officially close it), but by their own forecasts, the wider format will go live sometime in Q3 of 2009.
Will some cybersquatter strike it rich by registering cocacola.soda (cocacola.pop for the other half of the population), nike.shoes or corona.calm?
Will local hospitals and banks work themselves into a frenzy buying things like bestindiana.hospital, wearenewyorks.bank or yourmoneyissafe.here? All we know is that the web is about to get a little more tangled.
No comments:
Post a Comment