New domain names are coming

It’s been a long time coming, you may have heard or read about the pending release of new Internet Domain Names over the past couple of years – the process has been slow and drawn out. Finally though it seems that it’s coming to a head.

Melbourne gets a new internet identity

.Melbourne a new domain name space for the city was approved by ICANN over the weekend. It is the first of over 40 names that were applied for by Australian applicants and one of 1,930 application received from around the world. Other Australian applications are for names like .afl, .auspost and .anz – all from fairly obvious applicants.

Bigger change is coming

It’s going to be an interesting change in the landscape over the next couple of years. We’re all used to addresses like CompanyName.com.au or perhaps just CompanyName.com, while there have been a few additions to the internet naming system over the past 10 years none that have made a real impact for most businesses.

With almost two thousand new domain name suffixes applied for there will surely be a solid few that will make some kind of impact in the short term. Already other cities like  London, Tokyo and New York have also secured their own domain names there will be more to come.

It’s not all about cities or regions getting their space online either browse the list of names here you will get a feel for the variety on offer – it’s extensive! Some of the names will have straight forward and predicable uses ( .Windows / .Shop / .Sex ), I’m interested in what will be done with .Space – web sites that are out of this world? (Sorry couldn’t resist that)

What are the opportunities?

I think the number one opportunity for internet users is choice. A business wanting an online presence can choose from a huge variety of domain names suffix to best represent their needs. A restaurant operating in Melbourne I’m sure would love to brand itself around a web site like CitySeafood.Melbourne.

For those who are keen on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) think of what a domain name GreatSeafood.Melbourne could do for your ranking. I’m sure the likes of Google will begin to take into account these new domain names when they are indexing sites.

How to get involved

Right now it’s still a bit of a waiting game. August 2013 ICANN will release all of the results of the applications. Their dates have slipped a number of times so that could change. Then the successful applicants have to go about setting up their registries so they can begin to sell these new domain names.

There are a variety of methods that registries in the past have used to open up a new domain space, commonly they will have a period of time where they will take orders for new domains then process them, suffice to say it will be lot of ‘first come, best dressed’.

It’s worth keeping an eye on this space over the next 12 months to see how it evolves, even just as a web users it will be interesting to see the new names come into existence. Move over .com your time in the sun is coming to an end!

Just for the record, the NSW Government has also applied for .Sydney so we’re not left in the cold!