The Total.Chaos Domain Has Already Been Registered? How About Shameless.Money.Grab?
Think Internet domain namespace is an unnavigable mess now? Just wait. ICANN, the Internet’s body for domain-name management, today voted to allow domain names using any combination of letters, including non-Latin characters. Beginning next year, anyone can register as a TLD (top-level domain) any combination of letters they like, their range limited only by the breadth of their own imaginations and the $185,000 application fee.
“This may be the dawn of a new age of online innovation in the domain name space. … The Internet’s addressing system has just been opened up to the limitless possibilities of human imagination and creativity,” ICANN chief executive Rod Beckstrom said during a press briefing this morning.
But by “limitless possibilities of human imagination and creativity,” he really meant corporate imagination and creativity. Because that’s who’s being targeted here: Entities with the money to blow on $185,000 TLD application fees and a desire to promote themselves. This is going to be a massive brand-identity landgrab and one that’s unlikely to do much good for consumers, but plenty for ICANN and its coffers.