ICANN, the international body that oversees certain aspects of the internet, has for some time been discussing and creating proposals in relation to allowing what are termed as ‘generic top-level domains’.

Generic top-level domains mean that for instance, Coca-cola could obtain ‘.cola’ for usage in connection with their business or indeed to preclude usage by third parties. The likely proliferation of generic top-level domains will bring a new aspect to an internet previously delineated predominantly on national boundaries.

For small to medium sized businesses this could mean attempting to get .roofer or .builder. The process for obtaining these domains is still being ironed out by ICANN, however, they have recently provided conditional consent to top level domain .xxx to ICM, a body sponsored by the International Foundation For Online Responsibility, for usage by adult websites.

Whist this could potentially be viewed as a positive step in terms of regulation of adult entertainment world, the industry is rightly fearful that this could lead to the ‘ghettofication’ of the industry with conservative pressure groups applying pressure with a view to preventing the industry from using more orthodox top-level domains and imposing a higher burden of responsibility on owners of .xxx domains. That certainly seems to be the motivation behind the administrators of the domain, ICM who plan to impose content restrictions on users of the new domain.

As to other generic top-level domains, literature from ICANN suggests that the process for all top level domains will follow a similar structure with body being selected to administer the particular domain.

As you can imagine, the possibilities for generic top-level domains are endless and whilst there would undoubtedly be a range of claims from competing parties for generic top-level domains it would certainly make sense for, by way of example, a roofer based in Salford to try to get geographic variations of the .roofer domain name such as ‘manchester.roofer’.

This new dawn of specialised domain names will provoke a new gold rush so it is important for businesses to be alert to the progress and possibilities that the new domains present, in terms of brand visibility and attracting in customers.

If you would like further information on the above, please contact us.

30 June 2010
by Michael Goulbourn

Tags: Domain names, Generic top-level domains, online marketing

Posted on: Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 at 1:27 pm - Category: General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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