For medium sized companies with aspirations of becoming really big, this is one to play close attention to.

There’s a move by ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to expand the name space used for what are called top-level domains. In short, there are a few top-level domain in the world, such as .com, .net, and .org. However in a news release today, ICANN announced that it is planning to expand the “real-estate” available at the top level.

What this means for business is that there will be a whole range of new names available. For example, if you’re willing to pony up the dough (and if you’re fast enough to get in on the application process) you might be able to acquire the top-level domain name of .acme. Or .yourname.

The possibilities here are staggering from a marketing perspective. Already, the news release cites certain cities that want to have access to their own names as a top level. So if you control the .van top level domain, you would then be able to market websites like canucks.van, dining.van, hotels.van …

The possibilities are staggering.

From a technical perspective, if you know what IPv6 means, then you’ll likely see that thjis new decision from ICANN will speed up adoption of the new protocol. Then again, if you don’t know what IPv6 means, then check back here again next week, and I’ll explain it.