.Canon to herald new generation of web addresses?

Posted on 18 Mar 2010 at 11:10

Canon has applied for the ".canon" domain name in a move that could herald a new era of website addresses.

An essential part of all web addresses is the domain name, such as .com and .net. These are just two of around two dozen Generic Top Level Domain Names (gTLDs) – others include .mobi and .org.

Until recently, the organisation responsible for managing gTLDs, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), has been conservative in expanding the number of available gTLDs. ICANN will now accept applications for a much larger number of gTLDs and Canon is the first company to apply for its own gTLD, .canon, which, if successful, could mean many more corporate-themed web addresses.

Applying for a new gTLD is an expensive and lengthy process, effectively limiting new gTLDs to large corporations and governmental bodies.

Corporate-themed gTLDs may seem a little superficial and unnecessary, but other new, proposed gTLDs, such as .blog and .xxx, could make it easier to find and organise websites – from concerned parents with filtering software up to governments with strict internet policies, such as China.

Author: Alan Lu

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