I received an email the other day saying that I can now buy “xxx” extensions to the domain name. At first I thought it was a good extension to have because of it is easy to remember but when I spoke with a few friends about it, they told me “don’t do it!”
“It’s for porn sites,” another friend said.
I never even thought about that!
A few days later, I read in the Canadian paper, The Globe and Mail, that there are new rules now that may affect brands.
Did you know that soon, you will be able to get the extension .car or .book or .coke for your web site or blog site. Whatever you want your name to be, you can have it. So for example, a brand with many different product lines can use the same extension like .beer or .cereal.
There’s been quite a bit of conflict with this. According to The Globe and Mail, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Association of National Advertisers both warn that the “changes could damage their brand.”
Many believe that this will lead to cybersquatters who could potentially hurt a brand. Some people feel that there will be people surfing the web for one thing and coming up with something that they don’t want.
However, advertisers’ worries may not be warranted because of the $185,000 dollars application fee.
What do you think? Is this a good thing or is it just another one of those fads?
——————————–
