From 1 July 2018 as part of auDA’s Registry Transformation Project, domain names in Australia are heading for an overhaul with “.com” looking like being the first casualty and the addition of non-ASCII characters and other changes.
The reforms being proposed is to drop the Top Level Domain (TLD) “.com” and simplify domain addresses with use of just the “.au”. So in other words visitors to our website could potentially just type webtekmedia.au.
Why the reforms you may ask? Well a besides being a potential windfall for domain registrars in making available even more domain extensions to register, the main goal it seems is to increase Australian websites to the broader international community.
auDA Policy Review Panel Chair John Swinson was quoted as saying.
“We believe there is an untapped market for internationalised domain names given Australia’s multicultural community and the increasing demand for Australian products and services overseas”.
auDA is holding a series of public forums around Australia in February to share some of the proposed changes to the .au space and to get the public’s input into how it should work. The .au namespace is a critical part of Australia’s digital infrastructure. It’s auDA’s role to ensure it works for the whole Australian community.
You can find out more information and how to register via https://www.auda.org.au/news/auda-policy-review-panel-forums-2018/.
We like the idea of these proposed changes and can see the positive side of broadening Australian websites, especially eCommerce sites to a wider audience. One thing does concern us is the addition costs business will have to fork out to secure your company’s name to ward off any attempts by cyber squatters in registering your name.
We will be attending and live tweeting the Sydney event on February 9th at Rydges Sydney Central, so make sure you are following our twitter feed @WebtekMediaOz
