I don’t know if you realize this or not, but we seem to be in the midst of the second dotcom boom.  Everyone has (or can easily have) their own website, most brick-and-mortar organizations are mirrored online, and now the organization that manages domain extensions like .com and .org (ICANN) has announced they will be relaxing their regulations and allowing ANYONE to apply for their own top level domain extension.

I own several dotcom addresses.  As a matter of fact, I even own a dotus address.  I purchased these in the hopes that, someday, I would be able to sell them for a profit.  From the looks of things, this won’t be likely.  Why would someone pay me for “SmarterBranding.com” when they could register “Smarter.Branding” instead?  No dotcom to confuse people, and they could ‘sublet’ sites like “Better.Branding,” “Successful.Branding,” and “LearnAbout.Branding” to make even more of a profit!

For those of you still having trouble understanding the issue, compare it to real estate.  Right now, all of the ownable land in the US is claimed.  You either have to buy or sublet from a private landowner – in this market, usually at a loss to them.  The ICANN announcement would be akin to the US government announcing that anyone could instead just take up a chunk of real estate in any national park, for pennies to the acre.  Current land owners and home sellers would be devastated!

Am I upset about ICANN’s decision?  No.  For all we know, my application for .Branding might be the one accepted!  What top level domain would you choose for yourself?  For your company?