Are you ready to be master of your Domain? Starting January 12, 2012 you may have your chance! ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and its Board of Directors approved a bold new plan to change the Internet’s Domain Name System. The Board plans to allow an increase in the number of Internet address endings – called generic top-level domains (gTLDs) – from the current 22, which includes such common domains as .com, .org and .net. The price? Only $185,000 – or Bill Gates’s pocket change.
According to Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s President and Chief Executive Officer, “ICANN has opened the Internet’s naming system to unleash the global human imagination. Today’s decision respects the rights of groups to create new Top Level Domains in any language or script. We hope this allows the domain name system to better serve all of mankind.”
Internet address names will be able to end with almost any word in any language, offering individuals and entities around the world the opportunity to market their brand, products, community or cause in new and creative ways.
This has tremendous implications for the online reputation management community. The chance to take greater control over your name or brand and reclaim exclusivity from a generation of cybersquatters. It also will reshuffle search engine rankings in profound ways. Because applicants for a new Domain will have to go through an extensive vetting process, the new domain names will have a level of authority that will ultimately be recognized by Google, Bing and others.
ICANN will have a lot more details to say over the coming months. But the potential is exciting. From .gaga to .matrix, for a mere $185,000 you have the chance to carve out your own space in cyberspace.
Archives for June 2011
ICANN Ready to Revolutionize Domain Name Registration (Again)
Google Launches Reputation Management Tool
Last week, Andreas Tuerk, a Product Manager at Google announced a new tool to make it easier to monitor your reputation online along with some helpful tips to manage your reputation on the web. The new tool, Me on the Web, appears as a section of the Google Dashboard right beneath the Account details.
Like Google Alerts, the new tool can be used to set notifications for online mentions of your name, brand, company or email address. Me on the Web also provides some helpful resources to help control information that is posted about you online – touting the creation of a Google Profile as a great way to boost your web presence.
Although described as a bold new foray into reputation management, Me on the Web is more of a basic reputation monitoring tool that will provide the casual user with sufficient data to track his or her online reputation.
Me on the Web is missing analytics and metrics to evaluate trends, measure sentiment and analyze the sources of online mentions. This is a glaring weakness for an otherwise valuable service.
Business users and professionals who require more advanced reputation monitoring will need to look beyond Me on the Web towards other social media and reputation monitoring services. However, the arrival of Google and the development of Me on the Web furthers the legitimacy of online reputation management and heralds future developments from and beyond the Googleplex.
