Colombia makes bid for domain domination

Colombia is planning to become the new sexy alternative to the top-ranking .com domain. Its owns the .co ccTLD and is looking to make the most of it.

The South American country has finally recognised the value of its .co TLD. Well, more precisely La Universidad de Los Andes has realised its value. The university currently manages the ccTLD - a clear demonstration of how little Colombia has embraced the Web.

However, it is now inviting companies to tender bids to expand the domain into to a major competitor to the .com domain. The obvious attraction is that it is only two letters and that it can clearly stand for "company" as much, if not more, than .com (which is actually supposed to stand for "commercial"). It also makes the new TLDs - still not available after months and months of gabbing by ICANN - look incredibly long and unwieldy.

With .coms completely full up (and with WIPO's flawed dispute resolution policy), .orgs looking shaky after the new VeriSign deal and .nets strangely having never really taken off, .cos look like a good bet, especially when everyone is already frustrated with ICANN.

Just look at Tuvalu - which has the .tv ccTLD - to see the potential behind a decent URL. Colombia won't be selling the rights to its domains as Tuvalu has, however - it will simply licence the right to sell them to the company it thinks gives it the best pitch.

That company will be chosen in August and the university hopes to put the money towards scientific research. ®