General Motors Applies For New Set Of Expected Domains

Mark your diaries, log books, and smartphone calendars, as we may be entering a new era of online naming. Earlier this year, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) — the nonprofit governing body of the web’s handles — began accepting applications for new domain name extensions that can end with any name and cost $185,000 a piece. After receiving nearly 2,000 applications, ICANN recently began to release some of the associated documents.

For its part, General Motors has applied to secure control of .Buick, .Cadillac, .Chevrolet, .Chevy, and .GMC. On its application, GM mentioned that acquiring the .Chevrolet name would help fight cybersquatting — the practice of buying a domain name only to hold it hostage in hopes of selling it to someone who truly cares about it at a high price.

Notably absent from the list is .GM or .GeneralMotors — which is representative of The General’s transition from a corporate-endorsed hybrid brand setup to a multi-brand invisible corporate structure. But also absent are .Opel, .Vauxhall, and .Holden.

“Now that the application is complete we are in the process of developing our strategy to integrate the new domain names into our overall marketing campaigns,” said GM spokesperson Pat Morrissey.

Currently, websites are limited to several domain extensions, including the ever-famous .com, but ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom said that the new domain extensions have the ability to spark “a new era of online innovation”.

The GM Authority Take

It’d be cool — and rather different — to simply type in Camaro.Chevy in the web browser to view the landing page for a Camaro. Not that we’re not happy with simply going to chevy.com/camaro in the first place…