Is .Coke The End Of .Com?

ICANN (Internet Cooperation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the organization who determines what we can have after the “.” in our domain names has announced the introduction of generic Top Level Domains, a major change to the Internet’s domain name system.

“Today’s decision will usher in a new Internet age,” said Peter Dengate Thrush, Chairman of ICANN’s Board of Directors. “We have provided a platform for the next generation of creativity and inspiration.”

Instead of being limited to .com, .org, etc., companies and organizations will soon be able to purchase .whatever-they-want.  So, Coca-Cola could get .coke.  Nike could get .nike or even .shoes.  Maybe I’ll go pick up .seo (I’m sure there will be no competition for that ).  I suppose you may even be able to get .jesus or .god.

Below is the official vote to approve the development of the gTLDs:

The new gTLDs will not be immediately available.  Applications for new gTLDs will be accepted from 12 January 2012 to 12 April 2012.  I haven’t seen any pricing information, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s quite expensive and difficult to do, at least at first.  I’m sure there will be a lot of competition for some of the new gTLDs.

The Good and the Bad
It will be interesting to see the SEO impact of this.  Will simply having the .law gTLD give you a major edge over other websites for law related searches?  And while there are some good branding opportunities with this, I’m curious if it will end up confusing people more then helping organizations.  We’ve all been trained for the past 20 years or so to listen to the part of the address that comes before .com more than anything.  As it is, I’ve found that having a .com address is better than any other TLD because many people still tend to assume a domain name is going to end in .com.  If all the sudden every company in the world has a different TLD, will people have more trouble finding sites?  How quickly will the general public adapt?

What do you think?

Will the new gTLDs be helpful or more confusing?

Do you have any issues with an organization registering .jesus or .god?

Would you go out and get your own gTLD (assuming it’s affordable)?