sarettah
11-28-2005, 07:16 PM
This would be worth killing over :blink:
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/11/28/D8E5LAR00.html
Agency Weighs Single-Letter Web Addresses
Although Internet domain names may be getting longer or more complex as Web sites creatively squeeze into the crowded ".com" address space, most single-letter names like "a.com" and "b.com" remain unused. That may soon change as the Internet's key oversight agency considers lifting restrictions on the simplest of names.
In response to requests by companies seeking to extend their brands, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will chart a course for single-letter Web addresses as early as this weekend, when the ICANN board meets in Vancouver, British Columbia. Those names could start to appear next year.
But the transition won't be easy _ and it could lead to six-figure sales of this new online real estate, akin to opening New York's Central Park to development.
............................
(There are no immediate plans to release two-letter combos that have been reserved under some suffixes _ they were set aside not for technical reasons but to avoid confusion with two-letter country-code suffixes such as ".fr" for France.)
Meanwhile, a handful of companies have asked ICANN to free up the single characters. Overstock.com Inc., for instance, prefers a single- letter brand of "o.com" because its newer businesses no longer fit its original mission of providing discounts on excess inventory.
..........................
Matt Bentley, chief executive of domain name broker Sedo.com LLC, said single-letter ".com" names could fetch six-figure sums, and a few might even command more than $1 million from some of the Internet's biggest companies. Yahoo Inc. applied for a trademark to "y.com" this year.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/11/28/D8E5LAR00.html
Agency Weighs Single-Letter Web Addresses
Although Internet domain names may be getting longer or more complex as Web sites creatively squeeze into the crowded ".com" address space, most single-letter names like "a.com" and "b.com" remain unused. That may soon change as the Internet's key oversight agency considers lifting restrictions on the simplest of names.
In response to requests by companies seeking to extend their brands, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will chart a course for single-letter Web addresses as early as this weekend, when the ICANN board meets in Vancouver, British Columbia. Those names could start to appear next year.
But the transition won't be easy _ and it could lead to six-figure sales of this new online real estate, akin to opening New York's Central Park to development.
............................
(There are no immediate plans to release two-letter combos that have been reserved under some suffixes _ they were set aside not for technical reasons but to avoid confusion with two-letter country-code suffixes such as ".fr" for France.)
Meanwhile, a handful of companies have asked ICANN to free up the single characters. Overstock.com Inc., for instance, prefers a single- letter brand of "o.com" because its newer businesses no longer fit its original mission of providing discounts on excess inventory.
..........................
Matt Bentley, chief executive of domain name broker Sedo.com LLC, said single-letter ".com" names could fetch six-figure sums, and a few might even command more than $1 million from some of the Internet's biggest companies. Yahoo Inc. applied for a trademark to "y.com" this year.