Evening all!
There was a thought provoking piece on the Washington Post blog today about the domains of the future. ICANN was in Washington to discuss, among other things, potential new TLDs, which is, by now, a rather familiar subject. Lots of people lined up to poke sticks at the ICANN folks, by the sounds of the Washington Post blog and the debate on new TLDs appears to boil down to that time-honoured tradition of a pros and cons list…
PROS
- More competition
- Scope for non-English language communities to develop online identities
- Vertical-specific or geographic TLDs could prove very useful marketing and navigational tools
CONS
- More competition
- Increased consumer confusion?
- Potential for more cybersquatting?
- Added expense for brand owners protecting their IP?
I think the idea of new TLDs is a bit like Marmite – you either love it, or hate it. I’m going to take a wild guess that ICANN may love it (how much does it cost per new TLD application again?) and IP managers are going to hate it. The media, however, loves it and I’m guessing that press about ICANN Australia will once again have us breaking out our pro/con list. Back in July of 2008, I wrote that instead of worrying about new TLDs, many businesses would be better advised to concentrate on strengthening their existing digital assets. You can read the full text here.
Wish me luck for my Spanish test tomorrow!
Have a good weekend!
Nora
