If your city suddenly decided to double the amount of waterfront property available for development, would you buy or would you be skeptical? That’s what’s happening on the Internet. More top-level domain names are being created so businesses can finally get those prize web addresses they’ve always wanted. For small businesses there are 2 things to consider before rushing to preregister your new domain name: credibility and whether or not it will actually help your business.
Our domain name universe is relatively small. We have top level domains (TLDs) such as .gov for government agencies and .org for non-profit organizations, but when it comes to online commerce, .com is king. With nearly 53 percent of market share worldwide, .com has a significant margin over the second place .net, used by 5.6 percent of website addresses globally. There is a change underway, however, to break up the .com homogeneity and create a more dot-specific Internet for businesses.