New domain names on horizon

It's time for dot-com and dot-net to move over. Hundreds of new top-level domains are coming your way next year. But, as always, there is controversy. U.S. corporations with large portfolios of domain names want more protection for trademark owners to prevent cybersquatting. Leading registries want continued separation of back-end and retail domain name operations. ICANN faces criticism, too, about the fees it plans to charge new applicants when it begins taking applications in the first quarter of 2010.

But new domains open a new door to creativity and lots of space for new messages on the Internet. These domain names can be anywhere from three to 63 characters in length and can support Chinese, Arabic and other scripts.

Dozens of groups have announced that they plan to apply for new domains. That includes terms such as dot-wine, dot-paris, dot-nyc, dot-sport and dot-food. Some companies plan to reserve their own names like dot-deloitte. It could actually get very crowded when all these domain names become a reality.

In the meantime, IT executives may start thinking long and hard about whether they want their own domain name and if they want to pay for it.

For more on domain names:
- check out this NetworkWorld.com article

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