Tech giant Google is making way for companies to flaunt the name of their brands in the digital realm.

The company recently published a new website, blog.google, that makes use of the .google domain name, rather than the commonly used .com. The new website has consolidated nineteen previously individual Google blogs.

The search giant's website is at the forefront of a much expected boom in the websites category as it has taken advantage of a recent change in the internet rules that had limited the use of these suffixes, called the top-level domains. This is has now brought .xyz, .movie and .paris into existence in email addresses and websites.

The new internet rules can also end up giving brand names a whole new importance in their internet addresses. In fact, many top companies have already requested and received approval for using domain names. This includes .samsung, .ibm, .apple, .kindle and .canon.

This isn't just limited to tech companies. The list of approved domain names also includes . mcdonald, .hbo, .ford, .delta, .statefarm, .nike, .oldnavy and .homedepot.

It is important to know that approval is just the first step. While one can't really predict right now how enthusiastic a majority of the companies will be about the new domain names. But, so far, search giant Google is emerging as one of the most enthusiastic beaver.

According to a statement given out by Google's spokeswoman Andrea Faville, while Google is extensively exploring other ways in which they can use .google, the search giant believes blog.google is a fun way to use their own branded domain. Google has now brought the blogs together on a new central website called the Keyword.

What could become a little difficult task for the search giant is the financial commitment to others. With the application fee of a whopping $185,000 and an annual operation fee of $30,000, owning their own domain names might remain only a dream for all the mom-and-pop shops.

But still, there are quite a number of companies other than Google that are considering the new domain names as a good investment.

Currently, if you input canon.com in your web browser, you'll be automatically redirected to global.canon. Similarly, famous French bank BNP Paribas uses group.paribas. Branded domains can help in adding distinction to an internet address, too.

Renting out generic top-level domain (GTLD) names also has the potential of becoming a very financially viable business. In a January auction this year, GMO Registry bid a extravagant $41.5 million to win rights to sell .shop domain names. And then in July this year, Nu Dot Co ended up wining the .web domain with a bid of $135 million.

All this bidding money ends up in ICANN, a nonprofit organization that overlooks all the internet plumbing on behalf of governments, universities and companies, as well as the public.

It is interesting to note that a number of brand holders were initially opposed to this expansion of the domain names, but they still ended up signing up for them. Out of the original 1,930 applications filed for generic top-level domains, 246 have been branded.

[Top Image- techgyd.com]
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