Businesses make bids for Internet suffixes
Rod Beckstrom, CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, speaks on expanding the number of domain name suffixes during a news conference in London on Wednesday. Proposals for Internet addresses ending in ".pizza," ''.space" and ".auto" are among the nearly 2,000 submitted by companies seeking names with their brands. (June 13, 2012) Credit: AP
Amazon.com wants ".joy," Google wants ".love" and L'Oreal wants ".beauty."
Big brands are behind hundreds of proposals for new Internet addresses, including scores for generic terms such as ".cruise," ".kids" and ".tires." If approved, Amazon could use ".author" in an attempt to dominate online bookselling, while Google could use ".love" to collect registration fees from its rivals.
Amazon and Google also are vying for ".app" and ".music," while the wine company Gallo Vineyards Inc. wants ".barefoot." It's all part of the largest expansion of the Internet address system since its creation in the 1980s, a process likely to cause headaches for some companies while creating vast opportunities for others.
The organization in charge of Internet addresses, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, announced the proposals for Internet suffixes Wednesday. A suffix is the ".com" part in a domain name.
The bids now go through a review that could take months or years. Up to 1,000 suffixes could be added each year.
There were 1,930 proposals for 1,409 different suffixes.
From a technical standpoint, the names let Internet-connected computers know where to send email and locate websites. But they've come to mean much more. For Amazon.com Inc., for instance, the domain name is the heart of the company, not just an address.
A new suffix could be used to identify sites that have a certain level of security protection. It could be used to create online neighborhoods of businesses affiliated with a geographic area or an industry. French cosmetics giant L'Oreal, for instance, proposed ".beauty" as a home for beauty products and general information on personal beauty.
"The Internet is about to change forever," ICANN chief executive Rod Beckstrom declared
But there's a question of how useful the new names will be. Alternatives to ".com" introduced over the past decade have had mixed success. These days, Internet users often find websites by using a search engine. And with mobile devices getting more popular, people are using apps to bypass Web browsers entirely.
Amazon and Google are among 13 bidders for ".app." While Google applied for 101 suffixes, Apple sought only one, ".apple."
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
