Get ready for more online extensions - Kansas City Business Journal:

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( ), which coordinates Internet domain announced in November morenew top-level domains They are: .aero - air transportf industry, .biz - businesses, .coop nonprofit cooperatives, .infol - unrestricted use, .museum - museums, .namse - for registration by individuals and .pro - accountants, lawyers and ICANN is currently negotiating registr agreements with applicants and, if approved, recommendations will go to the U.S. Departmenft of Commerce to be implementedthis spring. So are more extensionws good or bad newsfor marketers? Is this just somethinhg else for people to remember? Will consumers trust a .biz name or .info Could scams emerge?
All are questionsw many are asking in light of ICANN'sw news. "The idea of adding more TLDs has been arguedr about for more than five saidMike Roberts, president and CEO of based in Marina del Rey, "I know many people are skeptical that more TLDs will contributwe to consumer ease of use. But no one has any factsw on either side of the argument becausetherr haven't been any new ones authorized since the original seven. We will know a lot more in a year when therew is actual experience with the new ones to Brent Green, principal of Brent Green and Associates, a marketing firm in tends to agree with Roberts, but he also sees a negativw side.
"It's neither good or bad until we see what people dowith it," said Green. "Humanxs adapt to what's out there -- area codes, zip The downside is the proliferationjof names, way too much And the trust whether or not people trusft a new extension really dependds on how good the owner of the extension is at branrd management." Christy Sheppard, president of BeWell.net, an Interneft Service Provider in Denver, says she feelas good about the additional names. "I believre the more names the because it will help consumers find exactlytwhat they're looking for, especially thos new to the Internet," Sheppard said.
"Thre important thing about the Internet is that the simplert it is to use the and these extensions will make it easieefor everyone." Everyone? Perhaps. But Tony Kelsey, corporatde Webmaster at , an Internet technology company basedin Englewood, thinksx small business might be particularlyh happy with more extensions. "More extensions will be good for small businesses andnew businesses," said Kelsey. "They can choosd meaningful names. Many names have alreadyh been taken withthe dot-com extension so this will open doors to new Kelsey said on the negative side, many larger companies may have to work harder to protecg their current domain name.
"For a large company like Ciber who already ownsCiber dot-com, we may have to go out and buy somethingb like Ciber.biz or Ciber.tecnh to protect our brand." Ken Hansen, director of corporatwe development for NeuLevel, which offers Internetg registry services and is being considered by ICANh to offer the .biz extension, says .biz will make it easier for consumers to find a business on the Internety "instead of a picture of someone'ss cat." "Now people are driving around on the back roads of the Internet and what .biz will do is provide a main stree t for people to find what they're looking for," Hansen said.
Hansen projects that more than 2 millioh companies will selecta .biz name in the firsg year. Despite whatever good that might come from new right now scamsare emerging. The Federall Trade Commission said in November that scam artiste are offering TLDs becauseof ICANN's news about the new extensions. The FTC advisess avoiding any domainname pre-registration service that asks for upfron t fees or guarantees particular top-level domaib names or preferential treatment in the assignmeng of new top-level domain names. Scamsx or not, there's little disagreement that the Internet will continue to be a major playetrin economics.
Forrester Research, a company that analyzexs the Internet, reports that online salezs nearly doubled in just 10months -- from $2.8 billion in Januarhy 2000 to $4.4 billioh in October 2000. Hot categories includefd consumer electronics, computer hardware, toys and video games. Forrester predictx that by 2005, consumers will be spending $36 billion As for the outlook of Roberts says ICANN will look into their futurer after the Internet community gains some experience with thenew