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Now you can buy any domain with any suffix. If a dotcom is gone, so what? For a cost, you can create your own suffix, any letters and any name.

Domain names are made of three parts. The www, the "name" and the suffix like .com. With ICANN's latest decision, you now have full creative control over the last two parts. This is a revolutionary new concept creating a global scale boom in new names, massive confusion in duplication, global copycatting, all compounded with cyber-squatting, where piles of popular names will be turned into pyramids of shared stupidity. The explosion of new names will eventually hit the fan, and the global entrepreneurial community in desperate need of making some mega online bucks will ride this flood by paying top dollar to have any desired name with an equally desired suffix to corner markets.

However, it's a great move that favors the global consumer. This move creates a new wave of inter-connected global interactions and equally allows existing powerhouse name owners with a new set of strategies and angles to expand their global outreach by marking new territory.

With this new decision, big and small players will have their own suffixes like ibm.ibm, while others would create hotels.paris or play.casino all the way to sex.sex. Never in the history of business will a single decision create so much impact as this bold new policy by ICANN. Even when domain names were originally introduced, the adaptation process matured over a decade, and now everyone engaged in e-commerce has become so financially dependent on the structure of their domain names, the impact will be massive. Without a clear blue-print or a proper evaluation of their existing dotcom potential, a business can make huge blunders as sharks enter in protected waters.

Copycats, by the millions, like the early dawn of e-commerce, tried to register at times the entire phonebooks and dictionaries in hopes of selling them to other bidders, most eventually got exhausted while some made huge killings.

Who are the winners and losers of this policy? At a time where old mediums and new ones are clashing head-on, the GooHoo alliance of Google and Yahoo could wipe out old-fashioned advertising while search engines track our every move and predict every buying decision well in advance. This move sits very well for globally e-commerce driven models of the new world.

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Naseem Javed, recognized as a world authority on corporate image and global name identities, is a harsh critic of casual and accidental naming. He is a dynamic speaker on corporate image and branding issues, and is also the author of Naming for Power. He founded ABC Namebank International, an image and branding consultancy over 25 years ago.
Website: www.abcnamebank.com