One of the most frustrating aspects of starting any new business is going through the hassle of figuring out what to name it, based entirely on the availability of domain names. I have experienced this firsthand with the advent of myplacemat > the tripdoor > travelfli and probably own about 100 domains just because we thought they might be a good idea. Domains are a dime a dozen so every decent one has been claimed and millions of them are just being squatted on with no real value to their owners or anybody else. It’s an inefficient marketplace and a huge hassle to businesses fighting to go online.

According to ICANN (the organization in charge of overseeing the domain registration process), this is all about to change. The group has approved a law that will allow anybody with enough money to become a registrar and offer their own top-level domain extensions. However, the cost of getting into the business will reportedly be quite expensive at first (in the six figures).

At the end of the day one could argue that this will be a good thing because it will result in millions of new addresses; which will in turn, reduce the high asking prices for the finite number of domains in the marketplace today. On the other hand, it could also end up costing some companies a ton of money just to protect their brands because they’ll have to register every single top level domain related to new trademarks before somebody else does. Furthermore, the premium top level domains will likely get snatched up by major domain registrars or speculators and then just be sold off at a premium to the highest bidder.

My advice to startups - even if you clearly can’t budget 100K+ to register your top level domain before the next guy does, make sure you at least trademark your name and anything else related to your business. Although trademarks won’t be automatically reserved, there will be some mechanism for trademark owners to object to the registration of their trademarked TLD’s by another entity.

FYI -  if there is a wealthy Krista out there who is planning on buying my top level domain, .krista —- back off…you’re infringing on my brand and I will fight you for it.