Member Article

.rip to.com?

In 2013, ICANN the organisation responsible for administering domain names announced plans to create over 1,300 new domains in what has arguably been the biggest shake up of the internet since the early 1990s.

Twelve months into the project and we’ve witnessed a plethora of new domain suffixes which are now readily available for public purchase. Almost every subject and increasingly, combination of letters is now competing against the trusty .com and .co.uk domains which have dominated the website industry for the past twenty years.

Although new choices are available, it’s clear that .com, .net and country specific domains continue to dominate internet domain registration. By the end of 2013, according to Versign’s influential industry report, more than 271 million top level domains had been registered. Collectively, .com and .net coupled with country-based gtlds accounting for over 90% of all domains registered.

December sees twelve new generic top level domains (gtlds) join the .party, but with hundreds to choose from, ranging from .ninja and .deals to .town and .work it’s enough to make any small business head straight for a .beer and .rehab!

So, should we be saying .rip to the trusty .co.uk and .com? The short answer is not yet, but there’s no doubt that the sheer variety and choice offered by the new gltds will offer many new opportunities for business to distinguish themselves from the competition.

Arguably, some of the most interesting domain releases concern smaller geographical areas. .scot is certainly likely to appeal to businesses north of the border and means that they no longer need to rely on using the Seychelles domain .sc which has been commonly used for many years to denote themselves from their English counterparts. Similarly there has been a rise in the UK amongst businesses adopting Columbia’s national domain, .co when the more familiar .co.uk domain is unavailable.

The new domains, especially those relating to geographical locations clearly offer good opportunities to connect with a region or city. But there are some drawbacks too – especially for marketeers keen to protect their company brand at all costs.

Historically, eagle-eyed brand managers have gone to extraordinary lengths to protect their company name with larger international brands purchasing every conceivable variation in domain in a bid to fend off the scammers trying pass off fake websites.

Earlier this year celebrity Ashton Kutcher attempted to outflank the scammers and spammers by purchasing every possible domain relating to the name of his unborn daughter in a bid to prevent her name from being used maliciously. By the time his daughter reaches the age of 18, he will have spent thousands of pounds every year in registration and renewal fees alone– and arguably it’s an approach that’s out of reach of the average SME.

One of the main reasons why the new domains were launched was due to the perceived shortage of available .com domains, it’s perhaps worth mentioning the 2013 Verisign report, suggested there were were more than 240 quintillion .com domains available for registration. Clearly there’s still life in the .com yet!

Rory Delahyode is the Managing of HA Hosting, home of the Sheffield Datacentre

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by HA Hosting .