Got a Million Dollars? Want Your Own Domain Suffix?
The times are a-changin’ as ICANN, the American authority that regulates domain registration on the Internet, has announced more specifics about its plan to allow anyone to create their own top-level domains.
So if you can afford $500,000 to $1M you can register .gary as a top-level domain just like .com, .org and all the other dot names. Due to the high cost, however, only large companies like Nike and Amazon will be able to afford these domain suffixes. Pushing small- and mid-sized business out of the game. Which seems oddly contrary to the typical democratic access and control afforded to everyone by the web.
What do you think? Should we be calling, as some have, for this US-based business to open up the regulation to other countries and Internet participants? Is this high price a good thing, preventing a giant mess, or bad because only the wealthiest companies and countries can afford them?