Radical change coming to Net addresses (FAQ)
Come 2012, confused camera customers might be able to point their browsers to a Web address that looks very different from what's available today: support.canon. — That's because the organization in charge of such names …
Context & Ripple Effects
ICANN has confirmed a radical expansion of the internet address system, opening top-level domain suffixes beyond the familiar fixed set starting around 2012 — and the illustrative case making the rounds is camera-maker Canon's rumored support.canon, where buyers would land on a vendor-run namespace instead of a .com address. The story lands at a moment when the camera itself is already being debated as a connected, software-defined product rather than a standalone box.
First-order effects
- Brands such as Canon gain the option to register their own top-level domains, giving them direct control of customer-facing addresses like support pages without routing through generic registries.
- ICANN becomes the gatekeeper of a far larger address market, with the 2012 timetable setting the application window every trademark holder must plan against.
Second-order effects
- Companies that decline to apply still face the cost of defensively registering their marks across whatever suffixes rivals or squatters might claim under the expanded scheme.
- Registrars and branding agencies acquire a new line of business helping corporations evaluate, apply for, and operate brand-specific namespaces.
Third-order effects
- If brand-owned suffixes take hold, the address bar shifts from a shared public directory toward a set of corporate gateways, raising unresolved questions about how consumers navigate and verify sites once .com is no longer the default trust cue.
The trend: Internet naming is moving from a scarce, centrally curated suffix market toward an open application system where large brands own their own top-level domains.