Ready for yet more internet domain name combinations?

Spring 2013 will see another change to the internet addressing system which will transform the way in which websites are named forever. At present, most of our websites are bound to a geographic TLD (Top Level Domain) naming system, such as .co.uk (United Kingdom) or .ie (Ireland).

Other non-geographic variants such as .net, .biz and .me are available, but like those bound to a particular country, all are limited to a maximum of three letters. But come Spring 2013 ICANN, the organisation responsible for maintaining the addressing of the internet, will release a new generation of potential TLDs.

Several companies have already tried to corner many of these new TLDs including .news, .search, .islam and even .christmas. These organisations have entered a lottery which, when drawn by ICANN on Monday 24th December, will decide the first of the new TLDs to be made live.

The first of the new domain addresses are expected to be made live in Spring 2013, rising to around 1000 over the course of the following 12 months.

What does this mean for you? If you do not already own a domain name, you will have an even wider choice of possible addresses from which to choose. If you do own a domain name, it probably means shelling out for another to stop someone else potentially hijacking your brand.

Need advice? Call the Broadband Cloud Solutions team on 0141 585 6363 and we’ll happily talk you through the new TLDs and how your business could benefit from them.