It’s simple, it’s clear and it’s contentious. ICANN’s decision to broadly widen the number of top level domain, that is. Canon has given notice that it is ready to ditch .com and gather all its web properties under .canon by late 2011.
Does it mean that no one else will be allowed to register a domain name ending in the top level domain .canon? Yep, the privilege of obtaining a top level domain name all to yourself [uh, sorry, only companies or organizations need apply] will set you back by about US $185,000 for now.
Lets’ see how that might work in the case of Canon:
| .canon Top Level Domain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Current | Becomes | |
| Global company | http://www.canon.com | http://canon |
| Canon USA | http://www.usa.canon.com/ | http://usa.canon or http://canon/usa |
| Canon Canada | http://www.canon.ca/ | http://canada.canon or http://canon/ca |
| Canon UK | http://www.canon.co.uk/ | http://uk.canon or http://canon/uk |
Does Canon really want to get rid of the country top level domain such as .ca and .co.uk?
We have enough confusion as it is with companies misusing .net and .org. Now picture someone registering .cannon. Who will own .photo, .religion, .help, .tutorial, etc.? And gouge others who want to own a domain name under one of these broad and generic top level domain. It’s such a shame that ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which maintains and regulates the Internet’s addressing system) has seen fit to relinquish its authority and control over top level domains and instead offer them to the highest bidder. I wonder if .com, .org and .net will also be put on the auction bloc?
[ via Wired ]