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The future for domain names

8 Replies Christopher Roberts

In the last week, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) have decided to vote in favor of increasing the number of domain name suffixes available.

This is one of the biggest changes to the structure of the internet ever seen. Very soon domain names (the URL/web address) will be able to end in almost any word from any language. For example, in the future, Technology Bloggers could move from TechnologyBloggers.org to TechnologyBloggers.tb (for technology bloggers) or TechnologyBloggers.tech, or . almost anything!
.anythingNext year ICANN will begin taking applications from all sorts of different organisations for their preferences over what new domain name suffixes are to be created.

So what are the benefits and drawbacks of this decision to increase the availability of domain names?

The good…

Many domain names may become cheaper to buy, as if there are many more domain names available, simple supply and demand brings the price down, as there is a more diverse supply of domain names, therefore the price should in theory come down.

It could be easier for people to get hold of a domain name they want, as if .com and .org are taken, (for example) then they may be able to have .site (for example) instead.


Furthermore, people will be able to be able to choose much more topic specific URL’s for their website. This could help improve URL description. For example, if the domain suffix .blog was opened up, you would no longer need to have the domain ‘pastablog.com’ as the .blog domain would give away the fact that the site is a blog, so this particular domain name could be shortened to ‘pasta.blog’ a much simpler and easier to remember system.

The not so good…

If we get loads of new domain names suffixes it could be a nightmare trying to remember URL’s. Currently there is a relatively small (around 20-25 excluding regional variations) finite amount of suffixes it could be, however this may not be the case in future.

To add to this, the availability of many more domain names is likely to dramatically increase the amount of internet spam and potential fraud, as it would be much easier to fool users into giving details to a bogus site, it there were no universally recognised ‘quality’ suffixes i.e. .com and .org.

To apply for a new suffix costs over £100,000, so it looks like it will be a very costly process if such a fund is needed to perform the transition. If it does cost this much,  it is likely that the current global internet giants are likely to ‘mop up’ any new domain names that are relating to their company before others even get chance. This would mean that despite the increase in suffixes, the choice that people have is still relatively small.

Your turn

What’s your opinion? Is this going to be a massive leap forward for a web, or will the idea fall flat on it’s face?

About.Me

11 Replies Christopher Roberts

Every heard of the site about.me? Well I would say it’s a site where you can build yourself a great, highly customisable, online profile, to share yourself to the world!

How do the team at about.me describe their site?

About.me lets you quickly build simple and visually elegant splash pages that points visitors to your content from around the web. Get started today.

Do you have an about.me profile?

If so, please share it with us below, I would love to check it out! If you don’t, why not? Didn’t know about about.me? Well nor did until Ari Herzog wrote about his about.me profile, back in December. I thought it sounded like a good idea, so I checked it out.

About.me is a great way to tell someone about yourself in just a few characters – http://about.me/yourname. For people who run several sites and blogs (like myself) as well as loads of social media profiles, this is a great way to ‘slim down your email signature’. No need to chuck 10 URL’s at the recipient, just put your about.me URL!

Don’t have an about.me profile?

It really couldn’t be easier to get started, all you need is an email address, create yourself a password and choose your URL (i.e. about.me/yourchoiceofwords) and you are done! Create your bio, sync with your different profiles around the net, (like Facebook and Twitter) add your sites/blogs and voila!

Below is a screenshot of my about.me profile, just to give you some ideas 🙂
Christopher Roberts about.me Profile

Why not check out Christopher Roberts profile out on about.me?

You can now also find Technology Bloggers on about.me – check out our profile at http://about.me/TechnologyBloggers! The profile isn’t that flashy and amazing at the moment, but it does the job 🙂

Have you got an about.me profile? Will you have one soon?

How to claim your blog with Technorati

6 Replies Christopher Roberts

When registering Technology Bloggers Technorati account, I thought what a great idea it would be for me to tell you how you can claim you blog with Technorati too.

Why Claim Your Blog?

Why should you bother claiming your blog? Well there are a number of very good reasons as to why you should! The first is that it gives your blog some form of protection against content theft. If Technorati spiders your site and registers your latest content, and then hours later someone reposts your content claiming it as their own, you can use Technorati as your proof that the content is yours.

Technorati is also known as a “blog search engine” so if you are submitted to it and someone is looking for a blog like yours, yours might just come up!

How Do I Claim My Blog With Technorati?

Ever found yourself asking that question, or asking yourself that question now? Well it’s very simple. Just register for your free account, then scroll down to the bit that says “My claimed blogs” and enter your blog URL in the “Start a blog claim:” box and click claim!

You will then have to enter a few very simple details about your blog, like the ones shown in the image below…

Technorati Blog Claim - Enter Your Blog DetailsThen you will be given a code (probably by email) that you have to publish on your blog. Technology Bloggers code is MKZMCFEAWAME – yours will probably something of similar length, just random (to you and I but not to Technorati) letters.

Technorati will then spider your blog until it finds the code. Usually your blog then has to be reviewed by someone at Technorati, and after that it is registered to you!

After Claiming

You will then be able to see what rank and authority it gains, and other people will be able to search for it.

Happy blogging everyone 🙂

Any comments or questions?