ICANN’s long-awaited ruling came down today in favor of increasing the number of domains on the Internet beyond just identifiers for countries and suffixes like .com or .org or .gov. The move is liable to set off an “internet land rush,” says the Washington Post. Any combination of letters, including non-Latin character, is up for grabs with only one check in place: every new domain suffix comes with a $185,000 application fee and a $25,000 annual maintenance cost. So really it’s more of a check on what’s in one’s bank account, than whether the internet could benefit from a .rupertmurdoch or .walmart. AllThingsD’s John Paczkowski predicts: “This is going to be a massive brand identity land grab and one that’s unlikely to do much good for consumers, but plenty for ICANN and its coffers.” But rather than divvy up our beloved Internet according to who can pony up the fees, Betabeat would like to make a plea for honesty in domain names. Here are some helpful suffixes we’d like to see at the end of our URLs next year.
1) .contentfarm
Think how easy it would be to identify Demand Media properties or figure out which AOL-HuffPo blogs are just there for the SEO?
2) .vanityproject
With all the big paydays for tech investors and founders , we predict this segment of the internet will show considerable growth over the next quarter.
3) .futurepivot
That way when users hate your first idea, they’ll know to check back again in few months.
4) .grouponclone
A handy guide for any public investors when Groupon IPOs.
5) .bs
C’mon, Bahamas. Give up this suffix for the greater good.
6) .dinosaur
How to tell your new media from your old.
7) .spam
Great SEO is like poetry, sprinkled with Google Ads.
8 ) .domainsquatter
Speeds up the process from squatting to bribe.
9) .bigbrandtypo
Yes, we’re looking at you, Twiter.com
10) .xxx
Poof, like that, half your internet, all in one vertical.
