Broadband News

Domain name expansion set to alter the internet

Tuesday 10 January, 2012

By Duncan Heaney

New suffixes will be biggest shakeup to the web in 30 years.

The internet is constantly changing, but this week will see one of its biggest changes ever.

Currently, the suffix that appears at the end of a web address can either be a country code (.uk for example), or one of 22 generic suffixes, including .info, .biz, .gov and - of course - .com.

However, as of Thursday, industry body ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) will allow organisations to register almost any word they want as a domain name. For example, Pepsi might claim .pepsi, creating websites like www.pepsimax.pepsi. Ford could pick up .ford, for sites like www.mondeo.ford.

There’s been a lot of interest these suffixes, particularly from cities. Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has revealed City Hall intends to claim the rights to .london, and many other cities, including New York, Paris and Berlin have similar plans.

Despite the interest, not everyone is happy about the changes. More than 40 of the world’s biggest corporations, including Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson, believe that the expanded options will increase costs, bewilder consumers and increase the risk of fraud.

The US Federal Trade Commission is also wary, claiming ICANN hasn’t done enough to protect people from cyber criminals misusing the new system. It points out that a criminal group could register a misspelled domain to trick consumers - for example Amazon.comm.

ICANN claims that a 50 question application form will weed out the fraudsters, and ensure that companies win the rights to their copyrights. In addition, although anyone can apply for a custom suffix, it will cost them around £119,000, meaning it is only corporations and governments that can really afford it.

Last year, ICANN made another major change to the web by creating the .xxx suffix, designed for adult websites. The domain went live in April and already more than 250,000 .xxx websites have appeared.