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27 Jun 2008
Businesses will be free to choose any suffix they please for their internet addresses after a decision yesterday to expand the choices beyond current staples such as ".com", ".co" and ".org".
The decision by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) to liberalise the online naming system - allowing the creation of customised domain names - follows a three-year project.
"What we are now considering is a global equivalent of people moving to liberalised telecommunication markets or electricity markets," Paul Twomey, Icann's chief executive, said at the organisation's meeting in Paris.
Icann, a non-profit body that co-ordinates the naming system, plans to accept the first round of applications for new domain names in April or May next year. It expects the cost of registering a new suffix to be at least $100,000 (€64,00, £50,000) - far higher than the current price of a ".com" name, which is as little as $14.
Some analysts worry that the changes could yield more costs for businesses operating online as they try to protect their presence on the web.
The last large-scale domain launch - of ".biz" in 2001 - did not reduce the popularity and dependency on the ".com" suffix. Registrations for ".biz" have lagged far behind ".com", with fewer than 2m names in use compared with more than 77m for ".com". A 2002 Harvard Law School study found that about 30 per cent of ".biz" registrations were made by organisations that already owned the ".com" version of their name.
The new move is unlikely to cause an immediate surge in the number of customised domain names online.
Icann hopes the high cost and a rigorous application process will deter any "domain squatters", who purchase company-related domain names and try to sell them back to the company for a profit.
Any disputes over names would be referred to an independent arbitrator, who would consider existing trademarks and intellectual property rights.
However, Alex Burmaster, an analyst at the internet research company Nielsen Netratings, said fraudsters and "domaineers" - who buy up groups of domain names - were likely to benefit from the changes.
"We could see an exponential rise in dispute cases," he said. "The two biggest losers will be businesses and customers. It will be a big cost for companies, and confusing with all the potential domains."
Jonathan Robinson, chief operating officer of NetNames, a consultancy and registration company, said he feared that the move "would dilute online brands, putting them at risk. I'm not convinced this is being done in the right way".
Ah - So Noble
Ah - So Noble
Domaineering is the web-based marketing business of acquiring and monetizing Internet domain names for their use primarily as an advertising medium rather than as intellectual property investments for resale as in domaining. In essence, the domain names function as virtual Internet billboards with generic domain names being highly valued for their revenue generating potential derived from attracting Internet traffic hits. As with traditional advertising, domaineering is part art and part science. Often to be the most effective as advertising tools, the domain names and their corresponding landing pages must be engineered or optimized to produce maximum revenue which may require considerable skill and good knowledge of search engine optimization ( SEO ) practices, marketing psychology and an understanding of the target market audience. Domaineering generally utilizes a firm offering domain parking services to provide the sponsored "feed" of a word or phrase searched for thus creating a mini-directory populated largely by advertisers paying to promote their products and services under a relevant generic keyword domain. Occasionally content is added to develop a functional mini-website. Domaineers and some of those who advertise online using keywords believe domaineering provides a useful, legal and legitimate Internet marketing service while opponents of domaineering decry the practice as increasing the ubiquitous commercialization of the world wide web. Domaineering is practiced by both large companies who may have registered hundreds or even thousands of domains to individual entrepreneurial minded domaineers who may only own one or a few.