ZebraDomain.com

There is no denying we are in the midst of a green revolution. The rising costs of fossil fuels, growing pollution and green house effects are a matter for global concern. This revolution also influences the domain name market (which typically follows global trends very quickly). The terms “green” and “eco” have been almost completely sold out in most TLDs (especially true for the .com extension).

Actually there are even special websites offering to buy green related domains (here are two examples – one, two), but as with other topics the demand for good domain names far exceeds the supply. For this reason exactly a group made out of scientists, entrepreneurs and artists created in 2008 a campaign intended to promote the idea of a new green TLD – .eco.

This March former Vice President Al Gore and his philanthropy, the Alliance for Climate Protection, publicly promoted the .eco top level domain. However despite the opportunities the new TLD could offer there are many who oppose it (and basically any sort of addition to the fairly short list of gTLDs). Many large companies spend big money maintaining their existing domains any new TLD could force them to buy even more domains. Or at least this is what the people of the .eco initiative claim is their main opposition. To be honest even with the current economy most big companies should have no problem buying a few extra domains. The real problem is legal fees which companies need to pay to win back domains they feel fall under their trademark. In this respect each new gTLD can indeed add substantial costs to some companies.

To the rest of us however the possible addition of a new gTLD could indeed spell an opportunity and I promise to keep monitoring any developments on this front.