Canon Acquires Its Own Top-Level Domain

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It’s little known, but actually true that you can get your very own generic top-level domain (gTLD) if you are willing to pay about $200,000 in registration and legal fees. Canon, the Japanese giant probably best known for their cameras, is taking the first step (where other companies will probably follow) by beginning the process with ICANN to get the .canon gTLD added to the web.

Canon is now “seriously aiming” at having .canon added to the list of gTLDs (like .com, .gov, etc.). While the specifics haven’t been announced, you’d expect that Canon would have full control over the .canon domains from ICANN, which would make them free to sell certain domains to whomever (like Micronesia does with .fm or Tuvalu and .tv). But since they’re a company, don’t expect them to give out .canon domains freely, if at all. .canon will be a legit top-level domain regarding e-mail and web URLs, it won’t be some a pseudo-TLD or some URL hacking trick.

Canon’s press release says that they “will make full use of the new domain name to increase the convenience and effectiveness of its online communications,” and they proudly point out that they’ll have full control over the gTLD. Canon hopes that their .canon domain will be easier to remember than such URLs as “canon.com”. This is a point they actually make in the release – although I’m not sure how difficult it is to remember canon.com. Although Canon is beginning the acquisition process today, don’t expect to see “canon.canon” and other websites until 2011.

ICANN was pretty strict on new gTLDs until 2008, when they begun to open up some of the strict rules. It’s a bit surprising that more companies haven’t done this, considering the relativity low price. Surely a .google domain would be appealing to Big G and their large collection of subdomains and web services.

Canon’s press release says they started the process to acquire their own gTLD in 2008 when ICANN changed the rules and we’re just hearing about it now. So, it’s possible that other companies have also begun the process to get their own top-level domains.