Google Inc has applied to be allotted domain names like .google, .youtube etc. as well as those based on some generic words under the Internet authority’s new scheme for customized domain names.
The company said it has also applied for certain non trademark domain names such as .docs and .lol.
“We decided to submit applications for new TLDs, which generally fall into four categories —
Our trademarks, like .google; domains related to our core business, like .docs; domains that will improve user experience, such as .youtube, which can increase the ease with which YouTube channels and genres can be identified and domains we think have interesting and creative potential, such as .lol,” it said.
Under the new system being ushered in by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN, the top domain name body, entities and even individuals will be allowed to create their own top level domains or TLDs.
In other words, you don’t have to use a .com or .org to describe your website. You could use a .john or a .mary or, if you are company, .coke or .google.
The idea, of course, is to make website addresses easier to remember and more intuitive. For example, instead of video.google.com, you could have video.google or instead of india.cocacola.com, you could have india.cocacola.
The move has, of course, raised alarm as well, as companies and organizations believe rogue elements (remember cyber-squatting?) will capture their trademarks and then force them to pay a high price for it, or worse, misuse it.
Google is one of the few companies to open its cards on how it will approach the new top level domain regime.
That said, however, there would be opposition from others on the company’s move to seek top level domains such as .docs and .lol (and presumably, .search as well.)
The question of whether Apple Inc can claim .apple or whether that should belong to the U.S. Apple Association is yet to be decided.
Google also gave some interesting information about the state of the Internet at present.
“In 2016, it’s estimated that almost half of the world’s population will be online, yet nearly 50 percent of the websites we visit are found in the .com top-level domain (TLD), which was among the first TLDs created in 1984.
“Despite the great opportunities the web has enabled for people around the world, there is still a lingering question about the diversity of the domain space (given that the number of generic TLDs has only increased by 14 in the last 28 years),” it noted.
“By opening up more choices for Internet domain names, we hope people will find options for more diverse—and perhaps shorter—signposts in cyberspace,” a blog authored by Vint Cerf, renowned scientist and Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist noted.