Yesterday, the board of ICANN (the group that develops policies for website naming architecture) approved opening up the website naming system so that almost any word could be a domain. (Press Release Available Here)
Until now, obviously .com has ruled the landscape and other domains such as .net, .edu, or .info have seen some use. But now ICANN has approved a policy that would allow “applicants for new names to self-select their domain name so that choices are most appropriate for their customers or potentially the most marketable.” So, we could soon see domains such as:
.rentals
.jobs
.cars
.sports
Now before you get ready to join in a land-rush to claim names and then cash in like some did in the early .com days, ICAAN officials have estimated that prices for the new domains would be in the low six-figures. From a marketing perspective though I think owning domains like this will be a no-brainer for many companies. For instance, instead of Coke.com for the Coca-Cola website the website name could be Drink.Coke or Coca.Cola.
