A topic which probably straddles a few modules - and I'll try to cross post.
You have probably seen reports of the ICANN initiative to allow (for a very significant price) organisations to bid for their own top level domain name. The link below
http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/application-results/strings-1200utc-13jun12-en
should take you to the current state of affairs. What do you think? My own feeling is that many of the names applied for will never be commercially successful. In itself perhaps not new with ICANN. There have been a number of top level domain names - such as .biz - which have been established and failed miserably in the market place.
Other TLD have been a big failure since they have opened up to .biz/.name/... a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe only exception I have found is the international lost baggage tracking system :-), which uses the .aero domain (http://www.worldtracer.aero/cgi-bin/filerequest.exe?tran=XXXafXXXXXl1=enCB=Y)
My personal view is that the new TLD could also easily become another big failure. However, the difference now is that once you own your personal TLD you can just decide to make no subdomains under it and just use the... full world.
for example I could register (although they're charging big bucks for it...) the .salvatore domain and then set up my website such that you could just type into your address-bar "salvatore" and get to my site. This may be a significant advantage...
Regarding more legal issues, this also means that brand/copyright/trademark issues will become even more bordless than they are today (no way to limit the extent of the brand ... )
I am not sure how they will cope with that, already at the start of the process they have few applicants for every "interesting" name (suck as "book").
Will be interesting to see how it will evolve.
Salva