According to the New York Times, ICANN, the international entity responsible for policing the internet, has approved a measure which would allow for personalized network addresses. What this means, essentially, is that for a price, companies will no longer be limited to the 22 standard addresses like .com and .org, but will be able to create their own address extensions. The process will likely be an expensive one, as the article notes that if multiple claimants want the same extension (the article mentions the potential multiple claimants on .sport and .nyc), the issue will be settled via an auction.

The advertising power of this sort of branding is obvious. Think about how big an advertising advantage it would be to have an official site of “Obama.president” as opposed to McCain.com (or vice versa). Or a company like Google winning the .search extension over its rivals. In addition, the holder of a city extension (like the .nyc mentioned above), would be in a position for a gigantic financial windfall, as it would have the exclusive right to determine which companies and entities can use the extension. As an example, imagine the value of being the only e-mail or web hosting company which can use the .nyc extension. The possibilities are endless.

However, it should be noted that this extension system is not without certain protections and limitations. Companies would have the first crack at extensions which reflect their existing trademarks. In addition, racy and promiscuous extensions would be open to challenge, thus avoiding the inevitable attempt to register profanities. In fact, ICANN has previously rejected the attempt of the adult film industry to create an extension of .xxx.

So while the opening up of the extension system is not limitless, it does have limitless possibilities as a branding tool. Given the power of the internet as a marketing tool, this may indeed be the next step in the evolution of advertising and branding.