ICANN opens a Digital Wild West

Chris Tompkins — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:46:40 -0400

ICANN’s opening of top-level domains could be the modern-day Louisiana Purchase, spawning a wild electronic west for Internet entrepreneurs and established dot-coms. Now anyone can register a .anything to their hearts content (or pocketbooks’ depth, it won’t be cheap). The Industry Standard's own Jordan Golson seems to think this is just a scam to get companies to purchase more domains in order to protect their copyrights -- .ebay, .amazon, .whatever could theoretically be purchased by anyone willing to cough up the cash.

I, on the other hand, find the flexible TLDs an exciting new frontier for the Internet. Unlike the gimmicky .biz’s and .info’s of the past, the new domains have the ability to settle into normal Internet surfing habits. To be sure, the initial rollout in 2009 will cause copyright issues resulting in legal battles, and some initial confusion. But it will also free Internet businesses from the .com mentality that has existed for the last 15 years, helping them in their marketing efforts and helping their users explore the Web more quickly and easily.

Custom top-level domains have the potential to throw the URL game wide open, reinventing the way surfers navigate the Web. If properly implemented, a new URL and navigational grammar could develop, much like current sites use of sub-domains as shortcuts to content. News.standard, bets.standard, and opinion.standard all could allow users to directly access partitions of the site faster and easier. Better yet, imagine if Amazon.com combined a catch-all URL with a search feature. Who needs Google when all you need to do is type in Stephen-king.amazon, ipods.amazon, or any other search string placed before the .amazon domain? (Continued)

New domains will cause a stir in the world of big business deals too. Dot-coms have gone for as much as $12 million dollars, due to their perceived exclusivity. With a completely open naming system, valuations of some fairly large companies could change. For example, in the CNET/CBS buyout, CBS valued CNET’s domains, including news.com, in the hundreds of millions. Now, when the .news top level domain could be bought for a few thousand dollars, will news.com lose a little bit of its luster? Dot-com might finally lose its exclusive place as the only way to have a “respectable” domain.

In 2009, expect another domain land grab, as major companies fight to protect their copyright from squatters. But then watch for the .com-only world start to melt away, as the modern-day “Lewis and Clarks” of the Web expand the ways in which they get content in front of you.

More news, commentary, and predictions from The Industry Standard:

Special Feature: Where are they now? The Industry Standard tracks down 10 dot-coms from the Web bubble of the late 1990s
News: ICANN approves new domain naming rules, new profits for them
News: Debate over new top-level domains drags on

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ICANN opens a Digital Wild West