What Will Generic Internet Domains Mean For Your Business Website?
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Tue, Aug 16, 2011
Last week a big announcement was made regarding top level domains (or as we like to call them, TLD’s), which could change the face of the Internet as we know it, and the way you manage your business website. ICANN is the organization who manages internet web addresses worldwide, at in Singapore last week, they approved an expansion in the range of internet addresses available, to that soon website addresses will be able to end with anything they want – from generic names and words like “.shop” or “.eat” to brand names, like “.Google” or “.SiliconCloud”. This will really mess with some people’s heads for awhile – it won’t seem natural to end a URL with www.blog.google for example.
Cool Business Website Domain Names Are Becoming Scarce
Up until now, ICANN only allowed 22 different domain extensions like “.com” and “.org”. However, with the growth of the Internet, room for expansion is required. Last year alone there were 89.2 million “.com” registrations. Other popular domain extensions include the newer “.info” and “.biz”, with a combined registration last year of 8 million new domains. The new arrangements mean that from 2012 ICANN will accept requests for almost any word in any language.
Got $25,000 To Spare For Your Business Website Domain?
It sounds like this is a big change, and everyone with a business website will be jumping on the bandwagon – so what’s the catch? Well, the catch is that these new domains will not come cheaply. ICANN will charge $25,000 per year to keep one of these domains – leaving out most small businesses and leaving it up to the big brands to take advantage. So it seems that for now at least, these revolutionary top level domains will not be the next big trend – and “.com” will remain king of the web!
Only time will tell regarding the success of this move. If the price of these domains comes down, then it might be feasible to get one for your business website, but for now the cost far outweighs any branding benefit.
If you are thinking about developing your business website, contact SiliconCloud today for expert advice, or learn more about online lead generation and nurturing by downloading our free guide.
