In early 2010 the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) plans to expand the generic top-level domains (gTLDs) or everything after dot in a website’s URL. At the moment generic top-level domains range from “.com”, “.org”, “.edu”, “.biz”, etc… to country-specific such as “.us”, “.uk”, “.jp” and so on. The expansion will allow the flexibility to register nearly anything, pending revision and approval by ICANN, of domains as such as “.beer”, “.xxx” or anything imaginable.

The expansion is driven by the need to account for the exponential need for gTLD’s by emerging markets such as China, South-East Asia and the Middle East. “The Roman alphabet, for instance, still dominates the internet naming system, yet the world’s biggest internet audience is now in China. Arab nations have also bristled under long delays in Icann’s efforts to come up with a system that suits their needs.” The move is fraud with potential pitfalls, the additions of top many top-level domains could splinter the “single global online medium into a series of separate systems.” The rise and fall of popularity of top-level domains could very well become a prominent concern for any company’s online presence.

In our interconnected age controlling the message to public is a top priority for any company, especially on the internet. In order to do it is not enough to retain rights to their URL address (companyname.com) but also those of those that might misrepresent, infringe or in any way damage their brand; Companies like Microsoft and Verizon, the US telecommunications operator, control hundreds of URL addresses including misspelling and potentially damaging one such as ‘Verizonsucks.com’, all in the efforts to control their brand message. The open bid for generic top-level domains could drastically complications the web presence of many companies, small and large.