Business Names as URL Extensions

The time is fast approaching when you will be able to use your business name in place of extentions like .com or .org. That is, if you can afford it. The pricetag is currently reported at a whopping $185,000, so only businesses with a lot of capital will be able to afford it, but recent surveys indicate that two thirds of businesses aren't even aware of the change.

The internet domains are to be liberalized next year, and this will allow large companies to take full advantage of branding. Another beneficial aspect of this change is that businesses will be able to isolate traffic more effectively. Consider that there are many websites created with a similar url as a competitor and they throw a .net on the end instead of a .com. This allows them to pick up traffic from whoever typed the wrong extension into the url. If the extension is .nike, for example, it will be tougher to get the url wrong. Another nice feature is that you can create separate websites under the umbrella of your business with your own extension attached.

Applications for top-level domains will be accepted next year by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), according to researchers at Future Laboratory. Now if only more businesses knew about it. For those that do, the prospects have been met with enthusiasm.

The reason for the high price tag seems to exist in order to give the largest corporations and organizations the first opportunities to take advantage of the change. Eventually, smaller companies will have access to extensions that match their location, such as .maui.

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*Source: MSNBC