« Google ban themselves again | Home
Themed top-level domains
By Adam C | November 14, 2009
I confess to having given little thought to ICANN’s upcoming liberalisation of top-level TLD’s since I wrote a post for econsultancy on the subject in July 2008. However, an interesting concept caught my eye recently: a specialist registrar proposing to offer second-level domains under themed top-level domains.
Adrenaline TLD Inc. intends to be at the forefront of this new era by introducing five new Top Level Domains spaces dedicated to the 1 billion global action sports participants, professionals, organizations and corporations. Skiers, surfers, bicyclists, boarders and skaters will find unique navigation opportunities, safe and dedicated content for their passions through the provision of domain names using the .ski, .surf, .bike, .board and .skate extensions.
Whilst the initial costs of registering a top-level domain can appear to be prohibitive for many, Adrenaline TLD have hit on a novel approach. By combining these related interest-themed domain extensions, a perceived need to register all five versions for a brand operating in this space arises.
It also opens up a scenario whereby webmasters may chose to spread an ecommerce site over 5 domains - with the surf section under brand-name.surf, ski section under brand-name.ski and so on - rather than the more traditional brand-name.com/surf etc.
I’m sure there will be other companies with similar plans to Adrenaline TLD, and I’m looking forward to hearing about other innovative business models for the new TLD’s as applications go in to ICANN early 2010.
Photo credit: VancityAllie
Topics: Domain names |
