Net expansion set despite '.worries'

Bidding will begin this week for words and brand names such as ".sport," ".NYC" and ".bank" to join ".com" as online monikers.

Up to 1,000 domain name suffixes could be added each year in the most sweeping change to the domain name system since its creation in the 1980s.

To some, the system will lead to ".cash." To others it will mean ".confusion." The idea is to let Las Vegas attractions congregate around ".Vegas," or a company such as Canon Inc. to draw customers to "cameras .Canon."

Some companies and entrepreneurs have already expressed interest in applying for a suffix and possibly earning millions of dollars a year from people and groups wanting a website that ends in that name.

Others worry an expansion will mean more addresses available to scams that use similar names such as "Amazom" rather than "Amazon" to trick people into giving passwords and credit card information. Others worry new suffixes could create additional platforms for hate groups or lead to addresses ending in obscenities.

The oversight agency for addresses, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, spent years crafting guidelines to curtail nefarious activities. Still, critics say ICANN is rushing to expand the naming system without putting enough safeguards in place.

ICANN will start taking bids for new suffixes Wednesday at 7:01 p.m.

Names will be restricted to the richest companies and groups, as it will cost $185,000 to apply and at least $25,000 a year to maintain one. By comparison, a personal address with a common suffix such as ".com" usually costs less than $10 a year.

A NATURAL SUFFIX FOR LI USE?

How about “.li” as an alternative to “.com” for Long Island businesses?

Some companies already have adopted it, notes David Gussin, co-founder of the advertising, networking and Web design company 516ads.com and 631ads.com. He says the suffix can be used here as initials for Long Island, because “li” is already being used — as the Internet country code for Liechtenstein.

Gussin says using “.li” makes sense for a business in Nassau or Suffolk to establish a brand and location in one move: “For branding purposes .li is beautiful for Long Island.”

Islandwide Realty’s website, for example, is “commercialrealestate.li.”

Gussin’s own company lists local businesses in a directory at “directory.li.” The Town of Hempstead is using “toh.li.”

Might there be confusion if a business in German-speaking Liechtenstein has the same name as a business on Long Island? “I guess there could,” said Gussin, “but so far it hasn’t been an issue.”

— Tom Incantalupo