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What if it were, www.The-CMA.to or www.The-CMA.thecma?

ICANN, a government-appointed organisation in America has proposed releasing more "domain suffixes" (ie: above and beyond ".com" and ".co.uk"). As noted on the ICANN website, there are currently only 21 top-level domain names in circulation and with so few, they are quickly running out of website addresses.

In the proposal they suggest using domain names that are specifc to geographic regions; for instance, a site from Toronto might end with ".to", or those based in New York City could end with, ".nyc." This is an excellent idea, especially for search engine companies, regional websites, and micro sites. Imagine if you were looking for an indian restaurant in London; rather than using "Google.co.uk" and searching all of Britain, you could search "Google.ln" for Google London.

As with anything however, there's a glitch. ICANN is suggesting using company names as domain suffixes. It may not be too long before we are searching, "www.Yahoo.yahoo." There are a couple of problems I can see immediately; one, it's way too long; two, what happens if a company doesn't claim the domain name, and phishing schemes skyrocket? ICANN insists that strict guidelines will be in place to avoid this, but inevitably, with the mad rush to claim new domain names once they are released, something will fall through the cracks.

There is already so much companies and organisations must do to protect their brand name and identity. Adding company names as suffixes will only serve to make this a more difficult task and may possibly alienate customers further.

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Nov. 11 2008 09:00 AM | Posted by CMA
on behalf of
Rhyannan Jones
| Comments 1 posted | Categories This and That -

Comments

I'm, not so sure a geographic ending to a url would work for local sites that want to have a national reach.

There'd have to be some sort way to be able to opt out of that - or claim all the domains (which sounds costly).

Either way, it sounds like a lot of logistical work (read nightmare). Good food for thought though.

Nov. 12 2008 07:41 PM | Posted by
Rebecca Atkinson
 
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