The dot-com world is about to explode

You've gotten pretty used to dot-com, dot-net and dot-gov. But your world is about to change in cyberspace with web addresses ending in far different worlds. And that change could turn your business on its head. Next year, the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is expanding domains available online, according to CIO-today.

"Whatever is open to the imagination can be applied for," says Paul Levins, ICANN's vice president of corporate affairs. "It could translate into one of the largest marketing and branding opportunities in history."

It could also turn into a big headache for many businesses that may find scammers are trying to exploit brand names and mislead consumers about where to go. The costs for re-directing customers won't be cheap, and neither will securing domain names. Companies may take it on themselves to take command of a new generic name, for instance .cereal or .detergent. But it will cost a company plenty to do this. Application fees are a whooping $185,000.

For more on next-generation domain names:
- check out this CIO-today article

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