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View Full Version : www.whateveryoulike: The Domain Revolution



gmb45
17th June, 2009, 06:52 AM
Joe White, internet entrepreneur
Move over .com, .uk and .net - and welcome .whateveryoulike. From next year, the geography of the internet is set to expand significantly.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the international body that oversees the structure of the internet, will liberalise the market for domain name extensions - the .com or .uk part of a web address.

This means that anyone, in theory, can apply to operate an extension.

Historically, companies have considered their domain to be a critical part of their brand identity.

Some domains have been sold for millions of dollars, such as sex.com which was reportedly sold for $14m.

Multinational companies often register up to 20,000 different variations of their brand in order to try and stop opportunists exploiting it.

However, the vast majority of businesses are unprepared for imminent changes to the internet.

We've been working with the Future Laboratory to develop some insight into the impact liberalisation will have, and what we've found is that a full two-thirds of the businesses we surveyed are not even aware it's happening.

This was surprising given that there are significant possibilities which were instantly recognised by companies once we explained what market liberalisation will mean.

A massive 81% said liberalisation will be innovative, three-quarters stated it will be advantageous, and two-thirds said it will be exciting when launching a campaign online.

Toyota, for example, could register europe.toyota and usa.toyota as well as set up sites for individual brands (highlander.toyota) and use targeted domains for different markets such as customers and suppliers (suppliers.toyota, dealers.toyota, buying.toyota).

Indicators suggest that consumers will embrace this change.

As part of the same research, we interviewed 1,000 consumers and one in five (19%) said an extension such as .nike or .microsoft would be memorable.

Considering only 24% think .com is memorable, this shows the future potential for branded top-level domains.

But before businesses can reap any rewards, the internet industry must address many concerns.

There is real fear that cybersquatters will cash in on liberalisation by registering all the best domain names to drive visitors to advertising sites.

Criminals could also use domain names that resemble trademarks in order to launch phishing attacks or to lure users to illicit sites.

For us, this is an exciting change. But if liberalisation is to bring the benefits it promises, it needs to be handled carefully.

As soon as the billboards, squatters and criminals move in, all the prime properties and interested web visitors will move out.

All stakeholders need to embrace a mature and multi-stakeholder approach to governance of new domain extensions.

This includes registrars and registries whose commercial interests sometimes conflict with the goal of keeping the domain space from being polluted.

ICANN is expected to start taking applications for new top-level domains between January and March 2010 and anticipates between 300-500.

A number of groups have already announced interest for city top-level domains such as .berlin, .paris, .london and .nyc.

Industry or activity-specific names are also expected to get attention, for example for .music, .sport or .movie.

Joe White is chief operating officer of Gandi Group Limited, which provides internet services based on domain names.