Paul Wallbank | Paul Wallbank - Communications Professional

Carving up the web

What the new domain names mean to your business

As we discussed in 2008, there’s a new type of Internet address about to sweep into the online world. It may well change the web, but not quite in the way the promoters are saying.

On Monday ICANN, the International Committee of Assigned Network Names, approved the release of custom global Top Level Domain names. Organisations can now buy their own Internet addresses rather than adding a .com or .com.au to the end of their online business names.

For example Telstra can replace their telstra.com.au or telstra.com addresses with .telstra and offer sites like support.telstra or shop.telstra.

Some are claiming this portends the end of the dot com era as business drift across to these newer domains and abandon the addresses we’ve become used to over the last 20 years. Others say it will make data easier to find and consequently kill the search industry.

In truth, the immediate effects on business are going to be limited, but these new names are part of a much bigger change that is happening in the online world.

Take up will be slow

One of the first things to understand with these domains is they are mired in bureaucracy with ICANN itself estimating the approval process will take between eight and eighteen months.

Should an application be approved, there will also be a period where approvals will be subject to appeal, this in itself will prove interesting when conflicting claimants decide to fight over a domain.

The arguments over who owns generic names will probably end up in the courts while geographic disputes say between Melbourne, Florida or Melbourne, Victoria over the .melbourne address will require some very tricky negotiation.

Costs are high

The application cost of one of these global Top Level Domains is estimated to be $185,000 US with $25,000 annual fees so this is a game for only the biggest players.

Even then, we’ll see many corporations not bothering. Given the current proposal includes strong provisions against cybersquatting, there’s no need for trademark holders to rush, it’s quite feasible that many will sit out the hype and wait for the prices to drop.

ICANN’s track record is not good

Over the last decade ICANN have approved 14 new domains – .aero, .coop, .museum, .name, .pro .asia, .cat, .jobs, .post, .tel, .travel, .biz, .info, and .mobi – the last three have been mildly successful but most of these names have been ignored, a precedent that doesn’t bode well for a corporation or government building their own domains

There are some useful network management reasons and possibly some branding opportunities with these names, but the risk of confusing customers or web surfers seems to be high.

In this respect, the argument that the new domains will kill search engines seems odd as more addresses is going to increase the demand for a reliable way to find things online.

The middlemen assemble

Already some are touting the new domain names as an opportunity to get more money out of businesses with the idea various sectors can be enticed to use industry or location specific names. However history isn’t on the side of those schemes as we’ve already seen the release of the .travel and .jobs domains being greeted with a yawn.

One effect we can expect is that we’ll be told over the next few years how important it is be to list our business names with a whole lot of new domains; musicians might be urged to sign up with .music or Perth based enterprises to lock in a .perth name. In many ways these ideas already seem to be an attempt to replicate the old directory businesses that the Internet has destroyed in the last decade.

Locking down the web

Along with being a cash grab by ICANN, the custom domain name is part of the attempt to divide the public Internet into a cluster of privately controlled fiefdoms.

We’re seeing with social media sites like Facebook – and we can be pretty sure .facebook will be an early candidate for listing – striving to lock users onto their service. These new domain names will help them do that and in turn protect data on their networks being shared on the wider Internet.

This is going to play out in a very interesting way over the next few years as the large players jostle for their slice of the web.

Some larger businesses, and gullible governments, are going to fall for this money grabbing exercise, while the majority of Internet users will be excluded simply by the cost and bureaucratic requirements.

This grab for the Internet is a game for big, well funded players and most of us will be spectators in this struggle. Have no doubt though that while watching the big boys fighting over their Internet turf will be fun sport it will be us that will pay for the results.

The boundary of success

Customer facing workers are not an organisation’s fringe

Management speak is fascinating in the way the language constantly develops new words and phrases. One term gaining currency right now is the “boundary worker”.

In its most charitable sense, a boundary worker’s job is client facing, being where the organisation meets its clients. Generally these are the salespeople, customer support officers, call centre workers and check in clerks.

There’s a common factor here, most of these people are considered dispensable by a modern management, with most of the job descriptions of “boundary workers” being those eliminated or outsourced when costs need to be cut.

A story in the computer trade press last week illustrated this attitude where an airline announced they were moving their boundary workers – their check-in staff, cabin crew and pilots – to a basic email service while keeping their office staff on the more sophisticated and richer IT platforms.

What jumped out of that story was the underlying assumption that these “boundary workers” are on the periphery of the organisation’s operations despite being the people directly responsible for getting passengers, otherwise known as paying customers, safely to their destinations.

This idea that anyone outside of head office is at best an irritating cost centre isn’t just confined to airlines, management focus on building bureaucratic empires while neglecting the organisation’s purpose is a malady that in many ways goes to the root of what ails the modern corporatist economy.

Australian governments suffer badly from this because “boundary workers” have largely felt the burden of the last two decades of public service cost cutting. This has stripped government organisations of any corporate memory or the skills to manage programs and people, which in turn has caused politicians much grief as they find they can’t execute promises.

The corporate sector is also guilty of this; a recent “digital business” product launch by a major telco directed prospective customers to a “coming soon” website. Despite this organisation having hundreds – if not thousands – of bureaucrats, it couldn’t effectively launch a product line around its core services.

Probably the best example of this syndrome was Nortel, the Canadian based telco that never recovered from the dot com bust after expanding aggressively through the late 1990s.

As Nortel’s finances suffered, the company responded by steadily shedding support, engineering and sales staff, locking the business into a death spiral as competitors’ sales staff tempted clients to better products with superior customer service.

The funny thing with Nortel was it was fairly rare to see senior managers be affected by lay offs, so the proportion of head office bureaucrats grew in relation to staff numbers. By the time the company sank into receivership, its manager to worker ratio wasn’t probably too dissimilar to a Soviet potato collective.

While it’s tempting to think this is just a big organisation problem, many smaller businesses face it too as owners and managers starve their enterprise of resources while spending up big on prestige cars and other expensive management treats.

On an IT level, it’s common to see the business owner proudly toting a new iPad while his secretary and staff struggle with temperamental ancient desktop computers. Not to mention the proprietor’s home Internet connection being five times faster and more expensive than that of his office.

In an economy where it appears that global corporations and major banks are protected from the consequences, it’s easy to think that we too can ignore our customers and indulge our managers.

If your business isn’t part of a market dominating duopoly then your entire organisation is on the “boundary”, don’t fall for the conceit of marginalising the workers your organisation depends upon.

The e-Business Book

Seven steps to getting your business online and making money

Is your business website a money pit? A source of frustration? A time waster?

Does your business even have an online presence?

It’s time to get your website working for you and making money.

The web and social media have become the new shopfront where customers, staff and suppliers look to find people to do business with. eBu$iness will help anyone who want to set up and maintain a professional web presence by showing you how to:

Choose and register an effective domain name
set up your own free or low cost website
use social media to your advantage
optimise your website so search engines and customers can find you
take advantage of free local listing services and much, much more

Whether you already have a website or you’re just starting out, eBu$iness gives you the tools and know how to save time and money and will help you grow your business and make a profit.

The eBu$iness book helps businesses and organisations of all sizes understand and use social media, cloud computing, e-commerce, web service and other Internet tools to make sure their business is successful in the online marketplace.

eBu$iness is available from all good bookstores from 1 July and you can place pre-orders with our online partner Booktopia.

Planning for change

In a time of change we need to be flexible

Last weekend’s ABC Radio spot looked at setting up a blog. There’s a whole range of reasons why you’d one to build one; to start a business, to publicise a charity or to show off your hobby.

We were lucky to get food bloggers Thang Ngo from Noodlies and Rebecca Varidel from Inside Cuisine calling in to tell their experiences of setting up successful websites.

One common factor for both was they had started off using the free Google Blogger service and then moved up to the more robust and scalable WordPress platform as their sites took off.

Rebecca and Thang’s journeys, which is common for many businesses and entrepreneurs, illustrates how our plans have to be flexible and the tools we choose must be able to adapt to changed circumstances.

The nineteenth century German general, Helmuth von Moltke, said “no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy”. The same is true of business plans; none survive first contact with the realities of the marketplace.

As our businesses adapt to the ever changing economy and the needs of our customers, we can’t afford to get locked into static tools and responses. Our choices have to reflect that we will make mistakes, assumptions will be proved wrong or our customers, suppliers and staff will change.

Being flexible and open to new ideas is essential to survival in the 21^st Century economy. The days of doing things because they have always been done this way are over.

The ideas revolution: How to set up a blog

It’s never been easier to tell the world about your ideas, passion or business

It’s been a big month for ideas in Sydney with the Sydney Writers Festival, TEDx, Vivid Sydney, AMP Amplify and XMedia Lab along with many other events intended to stimulate thought and action.

One of the things that’s great with the Internet is we’re able to get our ideas out to the world very easily without spending much money. If you have a great idea, for a business, community group or just an interest there’s nothing stopping you letting the planet know about you and your dreams.

During the Sydney Writers Festival we saw debates between food bloggers and the print critics, particularly notable was Food blogger Rebecca Varidel and her Inside Cuisine website.

Earlier in May, Louise Hewson launched her 52 Suburbs book and exhibition which was born out of her website chronicling her discoveries around the suburbs of Sydney.

The biggest challenge is setting up a website so you can be found on the net, today’s tools make it very easy to set up a site. Here’s a few you can use.

Facebook

If you already have a Facebook account, it’s very easy to set up a page covering your topic or idea.

While it’s simple to create a Facebook Page, be aware there are risks as the company has some quirky policies and not everybody has a Facebook account or is comfortable with it.

Blogger

This is the best basic starting tool which also has the attraction of being free.

Blogger’s simple layout which you can change by dragging and dropping the various parts of the website works well and you can add features such as subscription services, advertising, e-commerce and other features by turning on various “gadgets”.

52 Suburbs and Grab Your Fork are two good examples of Blogger based sites. In Louise’s case she registered the 52 Suburbs domain name – the bit behind the “www” or “@” in an email – which costs around $20 a year.

WordPress

The big daddy of Internet publishing is the WordPress tool. This free software drives most websites and is becoming the software of choice. Rebecca at Inside Cuisine and this website are using WordPress along with thousandds of businesses.

One WordPress’ great attractions is it features thousands of ready to use “widgets” and templates that makes it extremely easy to add features and customise your website.

WordPress offers a free service that gives you the basics of the platform. To get the most from WordPress you need to host the site with a web hosting provider and this can get more expensive and complex.

Other tools

There are hundreds of other platforms you can use to get your ideas out to the world. Worpress, Blogger and Facebook are just three of the most popular and easy to use. It’s worth exploring with what you find works well for your idea or business.

Growing your site

As your site grows, you’ll need to manage content, track visitors and promote it through the various social media and traditional methods. We have some free resources from NSW Microbusiness Month that can help you manage and grow your online presence.

More information

In July we’ll launching eBu$iness: 7 Steps to Get Your Small Business Online… and Making Money Now! Which will cover all the steps of getting your business online, promoting it and tracking your success. Pre-release orders are available now.

We also have some free workshops for business wanting to get online sponsored by the NSW Government, contact us for more details.

If you subscribe to our newsletter we also make available various free offers along with keeping readers up to date with smart new ideas.

There’s nothing to stop you getting your ideas online. If you want to do something interesting, or even change the world, the tools are now here for you to do it.

Keeping things simple

In a technology driven world, we often lose sight of the simple solutions

We all claim to want a simple life, but sometimes we make things too darned complex by slapping layers of technology on problems that should have straightforward solutions.

New York Times’ technology writer David Pogue last week wrote about his battles with technology at speaking events, often finding he can’t control his own presentation or the hapless venue doesn’t have the right dongle for his computer.

At one event he describes how he had a technician driving two computers, one showing the current slide and the other showing the next slide so David would know what was coming up next. The article is worth a read just to understand what hoops people will go through to get technology working for them.

Like all technologists, David has a touching belief in the reliability of technology and forgets Murphy’s Law – what can go wrong will go wrong. To a degree we’re all doing this as technology becomes pervasive, cheap and easy to use.

Because it’s so easy to use, we assume it’s always going to be there so we come to rely complex solutions to simple problems. The GPS takes the place of the street directory and, because the computer says ‘yes’, we suspend belief in our own eyes until we find ourselves stranded in the wilderness.

The business risks are even greater when the computer says ‘no’ and all work comes to a stop, as we’ve seen with recent bank and airline outages.

The chain of disasters that led to the Fukushima Dai ichi nuclear plant meltdown is probably the worst case example. Each potential problem had a complex solution involving standby power and emergency pumps, all of which were washed away by the tsunami leaving the operators helpless.

Fortunately most of us will never be responsible for a nuclear meltdown – except maybe in our own offices after a disastrous presentation – but the lesson is that the more simple we can keep our systems, the more robust our businesses.

David Pogue’s adventures are a good example of this, avoiding disaster when he was told his computer, and therefore his presenter view, would be off stage, David panicked and it was only when he realised he could have a, gasp, print out of his event was the day saved.

A simple hard copy print out beats the technology bugs every time which is what anybody who regular gives presentations knows.

With presentations, people have come to expect to see a slide show illustrating the speakers points which does add complexity to everybody’s lives. Just how complex it can be is shown in how I make sure we have there’s a working presentation at the venue;

Mail the presentation to the organisers a few days before
Upload a copy to Dropbox or Box.net
Save the presentation to a USB stick
Copy the presentation to a netbook computer
Take the netbook with me. The netbook is dumb and cheap but it has a VGA output which will work with most projectors
Have a print out the presentation with speaker’s notes
Arrive early
Finally, I practice. Winging it the way David Pogue does is a recipe for embarrassment

Practice is an important thing both in presentation and businesses. If staff are trained, prepared and confident then they can work around tech or other hiccups.

How can you strip some of the complexity out of your operations? You could save some money along with making your business more flexible and robust.

A tale of two conferences

How two very different events put their ideas across

Two conferences about ideas took place in Sydney last Saturday, TEDx Sydney and Social Innovation BarCamp. While both involved exploring concepts and thoughts they could not have been more different.

One was about exclusivity and elitism while the other was about a genuine exchange of ideas. Both the events tell us much about the new and old models of communication and learning.

Welcome sign to SIBSyd — The entrance to SIBSyd. Exit through the gift shop?

At the Paddington College Of Fine Arts, Social Innovation Bar Camp – SIBSyd – was open to anyone with an idea or who just wanted to show up a throw some thoughts around. Across town at the Everleigh Carriageworks, the TEDx Sydney offshoot of the prestigious US TED event featured high profile speakers before an invitation only audience.

Welcome sign to TEDx Sydney — Welcome to TEDx Sydney. May I see your invitation, sir?

Most TED events are exclusive and restricted you have to be qualified to attend, let alone speak and this showed in the way the audience were ushered into the auditorium and then asked to turn off their mobile phones unless they wanted to sit in the back two rows.

The speakers at TED were slick, rehearsed and had their presentations timed exactly to the minute – as you’d expect at an event where the content is carefully chosen – while at SIBSyd any of the audience could choose to speak.

Even with a speaker everybody at a SIBSyd is able to participate, with all the audience of giving their views. In the reforming education session I sat in on a quiet lady at the back of the room told her experiences of working with villagers in Chiapas, Mexico.

It’s unlikely that lady would get an invite to TEDx, let alone have the opportunity to tell her story and that illustrates the fundamental difference between the two conferences.

One is the formal, traditional one-to-many lecture from an expert imparting wisdom on an audience awed by the speaker’s knowledge while the other sees the speaker – who may be an expert – drawing out the collective wisdom of the room.

TEDx Sydney stage setup — TEDx stage ready for action

The “unconference” structure of meetings like SIBSyd probably does a better job of developing new ideas as the traditional conference TED is based upon that assumes the expert on the stage already has the answers.

Of the two types of conferences, it’s probably safe to say the collaborative “unconference” model works better in driving innovative solutions to problems. To work effectively though it needs the participants to be motivated by common issues.

The traditional TED style conferences do a better job of getting big ideas across to a broader audience and that’s probably one of the reasons why the event’s videos have been such an Internet success.

Some of the differences reminded me of British writer Paul Carr’s comments about the South By South West Conference in 2009 when he said “I really hope that next year one or two of those early adopters will organise – and I mean that in the loosest sense – a user-generated unofficial fringe conference to sit alongside the main event.” In many ways SIBSyd was the fringe festival to TEDx’s “establishment” status.

SIB Syd session in progress — SIB Syd session underway

Both have their role and probably the most worrying thing at the two events was the lack of Australia’s corporate and political leadership, with the exception of Penny Sharpe, MLC who appeared to be the sole member of Parliament attending TEDx, there was little representation from either group.

In a time of massive climate, technology and economic change that is challenging the assumptions and business models of previous generations, it’s a shame our business and political leaders aren’t engaging and listening to those outside their narrow circles.

But ideas are one thing and action is another. As journalist and enfant terrible Stilgherrian said during the day, “completely over events about ‘ideas’. We have plenty of ideas. What we need is a bit of effort put into execution.”

Hopefully out of both events we’ll see some of the ideas discussed turned into action

Is there a need for digital literacy?

Are we teaching the wrong computer skills?

In preparing for tonight’s ABC Nightlife segment I was re-reading the Australian government’s National Digital Economy Strategy when I twigged what was bugging me in the first few pages; the talk of “digital literacy“.

As part of the plan, the Federal government intends to setup “digital hubs” in the each of the 40 communities that will first benefit from the NBN, these will “assist local residents to better understand how they can benefit from the NBN and to improve their digital literacy skills”.

The whole concept of digital literacy is worrying; it assumes there is something unique about using technology and that the concepts to use web services and devices are arcane and difficult to grasp.

Such a belief might have been true in the days of the command line interface where obscure commands and strange keystroke combinations controlled how you used a computer, but in the age of the touchscreen and intuitive systems the majority of people, regardless of age, can pick up the basic concepts with a few minute’s instructions.

A bigger issue is genuine literacy and numerical skills. Without these, we’re not able to understand or properly evaluate the data that is being presented to us.

Even more important are critical skills, the volume of information on the net demands we have the ability to filter fact from opinion and truth from misinformation if we don’t possess these talents we’re condemned to being unable to filter the gems from the dross that masquerades as fact on the net.

Clifford Stoll said “data is not information, information is not knowledge, knowledge is not understanding, understanding is not wisdom”. Without basic literacy we’re unable to process the data we see on the net, without the critical skills we cannot understand that information.

That’s the real challenge the connected society presents, how do we develop and nurture the critical skills that lets us identify the scammer, the knave and the ill-informed – all of whom thrive in an environment that gives their views equal weight with the wise, honest and knowledgeable.

Probably the best thing we can do for our children, and ourselves, is to work on developing those skills.

ABC Nightlife: Our Digital Future

What do we mean by a digital economy?

Our digital future

In the last week the Federal government announced their National Digital Economy Strategy while at the Sydney Opera House the Digital Sydney project was launched. In New York the city has appointed a digital commissioner and London has launched their Tech City community.

Clearly our governments think the future is digital. But what does that mean and are their plans achievable? Join Paul Wallbank and Tony Delroy to examine how our society, economy and businesses are changing in the digital era.

The program details

The podcast of the program is available for a limited time at the Tony Delroy’s Nightlife homepage.

Aspects we discussed included;

Why are our governments suddenly talking digital?
What are the digital industries?
How are they changing the way we live?
In what ways are existing industries coping with these changes?
What are the barriers to setting up new industries?
How do we create regional business hubs?
How important is broadband in these developments
What tools can we use to start new online business?

Listeners’ Questions

YouTube not playing

Rod asked about his computer not playing YouTube clips. This is usually due to problems with the Adobe Flash software on the computer.

To fix it, first uninstall all the versions of Adobe Flash on the computer. Then run a computer cleanup on the system. Finally reboot your computer then reinstall Adobe Flash Player.

Multiple business accounts on one computer

Running a number of businesses from one office can raise some difficulties, Jane called to ask if she can have different email accounts that have each businesses customised address block.

The answer is “yes” if you’re running Microsoft Outlook, you can setup separate accounts that automatically add the correct business information. Microsoft explain how on their web site. This feature has been around for some time although instructions vary between the different software versions.

Choosing the right Internet plans

Two of our callers, Shirley and Margaret, called about the limits and costs of their Internet connections. This is understandable as both prepaid wireless and satellite Internet plans can be very expensive.

Where possible it’s best to go to fixed plan with shaped excess usage, where rather than being charged when you go over the monthly data limit your connection is slowed.

It does take some research to find the right service and we recommend Whirlpool’s Broadband Choice website to find the plan that suits your needs.

Software and websites referred to in the program

Ccleaner: Free computer clean up tool (remember to back up your data first)
Adobe Flash Player
Microsoft Outlook email signature setup
Whirlpool Broadband Choice

Next program

The next Nightlife program should be at 10pm on July 14. The topic we’ll discuss will be posted on the events web page and in our weekly newsletter. Subscribe to get all the details of upcoming radio segments and workshops.

Business Web Essentials

A free e-book to help your online presence

In conjunction with Microbusiness Week, a New South Wales government initiative to help smaller and startup businesses, we’re happy to release our Business Web Essentials e-book.

This e-book is free to all subscribers of our newsletters lists the online tools that can help your website be more effective online. While it’s aimed at business users, if you’re a blogger or community group running a website you’ll find most of the information in the book will help you as well.

Business Web Essentials lists the important web hosting, search listing, social media and cloud computing services that will help you promote and track the progress of your online presence.

Subscribe now to our weekly newsletter and receive the e-book free of charge. If you’re an existing subscriber, you’ll get the link in our regular newsletter.

Building business communities

Setting up next door to your competitor could be a good idea

Last night the NSW Government launched Digital Sydney, an initiative to bring together the various groups that make up the digital media and IT industries while raising the city’s profile as a global digital centre.

This project was something close to me as I’d been involved in developing the concept through 2009 when working with the then NSW department of Industry and Investment.

Originally the idea had been to create a digital hub around the Australian Technology Park to the south of the city. Over the decade of its operation, the ATP had attracted some high profile tenants and various high tech business start ups but there was a feeling it could be a more dynamic centre of the Sydney tech sector.

Digital hub failures

The setting up of “digital hubs” around the world has not been a great success – in Ireland an attempt to set one up in central Dublin’s disused Guinness brewery cost the European Union well over 100 million euro and subsequently collapsed amid acrimony between the various governments and businesses involved.

Even if there was a track record of success it’s unlikely any Australian government, state or Federal, would be prepared to spend money on the European scale. So the idea of building a “hub” had to be kept within industry, particularly the IT and digital media sectors.

Existing industry hubs

In talking to the industry, it became apparent that Sydney already a digital hub spreading across the suburbs immediately to the south and west of the city centre and centred around Surry Hills with an vibrant community of developers, designers and entrepreneurs occupying the old factories and warehouses being vacated by the city’s rag trade.

The proximity of competitors, clients and suppliers was why the hub had developed; exactly the reason why the fashion industry had previously concentrated around that district.

This is consistent with history; the great industrial hubs such as the English midlands of the 18^th Century, the US mid west of the 19^th Century along with today’s Chinese coastal manufacturing centres and event Silicon Valley happened with little government forethought.

Like-minded businesses clustered together because they could find the essential resources for their industry such as raw materials, labour, transport, markets and capital.

A shortage of capital

The access to capital is a problem for all smaller and innovative businesses in Australia, not just those trying to build digital businesses or hubs. Start up enterprises have been starved for capital and a few late stage Venture Capital investments like the recent ones in Atlassian or 99Designs are not on their own enough to build vibrant businesses of the future.

In Australia, it’s difficult to see any government in the near future changing the tax and legal regimes which favour property and stock market speculation over investment in new businesses and technology so the best hope is initiatives like Digital Sydney, along with the profiles of similar industry hubs in Brisbane and Melbourne, can encourage investors to look at the start up and innovation sectors.

Why big cities?

The real question is though is why is this just the major cities? Why can’t we have hubs in Renmark, Esperance or Hobart?

Access to skills and talent are the driving forces behind the local hubs and in that respect some smaller towns and regions do have the skilled workforces and businesses capable of building industrial centres and we’ve seen some regional hubs develop like the wine industry in various places.

So it’s worthwhile considering where your business is located, maybe it would be better to set up next door to your competitor? For many organisations, being part of vibrant industry hub is part of their success.

postscript;

Joe Kelly, former Commercial Director of the Dublin Digital Hub Development Agency, takes me to task on the claim the Dublin Hub collapsed. His comment is as follows:

As the former Director of Commercial Operations at The Digital Hub Development Agency, I felt compelled to correct you on your assertion that the Digital Hub in Dublin collapsed. That is incorrect. Media Lab Europe, an entirely seperate entity collapsed at a cost of over 100 million euro. The Digital Hub continues to thrive with over 100 companies located there. Please refer to www.thedigitalhub.com for further information.

Is the dot com dead?

Will private top level domains kill the search engine?

The web is about to change with a range of new domains due to appear. But does it mean the web will get easier to surf, dot com addresses will disappear and Google quietly fade away?

It’s expected ICANN, the International Committee of Assigned Network Names is set to approve custom global Top Level Domain names – known as gLTDs – which will allow big organisations to buy their own domain names.

This idea was first announced in 2008 and was expected to be in place by the end of 2009 but the Internet bureaucracy is not known for quickly making decisions.

Once this policy is in place organisations can register their own domain and not bother with a .com or other suffix.

For example Microsoft could ditch the microsoft.com domain and move the .microsoft address with websites named support.microsoft and shop.microsoft

The cost of one of these global Top Level Domains will be $178,000 with $25,000 annual fees, given the cost it’s only going to be the largest organisations who can afford them.

Even then, we’ll see many businesses simply not bother. Given the current proposal includes strong provisions against cybersquatting, there’s no need for trademark holders to rush, it’s quite feasible that many will sit out the hype and wait for the prices to drop.

Where these domains will work well are for internal networks and secure applications where system administrators can lock out unauthorised devices from their domains.

Excluding search engine robots will provide a certain level of security along with some opportunities for corporate mischief like we’re currently seeing between Google and Facebook.

The potential for misbehaviour by owners of these domains will be a barrier for small business adoption. Few businesses or groups are going to trust their online properties to a .facebook, .ibm or .apple address when they can own a domain with the current registrars.

An application being cited is using the .music domain and selling space to performers. That’s nice but it locks them into the same risks they currently have with Facebook and MySpace that at the first sign of controversy their account will be shut down for allegedly breaching some obscure term of service.

A major problem for ICANN is going to be place names, how do you decide between Birmingham, England or Birmingham, Alabama when the .birmingham name comes into play?

Better still the argument between the city of Victoria, British Columbia and the state of Victoria, Australia becomes problematic.

Even more delightful is who owns a place name? Should Australia wrest the rights to .sydney off Nova Scotia, the dysfunctional state of Aussie politics almost guarantees an unseemly brawl between the Federal, state and local governments over the name.

The corporate sector has similar problems with similar trading names being used in different jurisdictions, Woolworths in Australia and the UK is one that immediately comes to mind.

While it’s clear many of the domain registrars think these new names are going to be a nice little cash cow, it’s not difficult to see they may have misunderstood just how complex and fraught some of the registrations will turn out to be.

Most of the registrations though will be straight forward and far from killing search engines, the further fragmentation of the net into even more domains is going to make services like Google and Yahoo! even more powerful as web surfers will find it harder to guess or remember websites.

On balance it’s unlikely the new top level domains are going to put the search engines out of business or see the dot com addresses we’ve grown used to disappear.

What we are seeing though is the evolution of the web, search engines will adapt and the addresses we use will develop as the technology changes.

It is quite possible that eventually we’ll have our own personal top level domains should we want them when the price drops to the levels we’ve become used to with dot com addresses.

This won’t happen overnight and it’s a long way off if ICANN and their members keep prices high. The famed dot com is going nowhere yet.