New top level domains (TLDs) to be released in 2009 allow websites to have far more descriptive domains (such as .books instead of books.com). The domains are expected to be in hot demand once they are available for purchase.

But the release of Google's new browser, Chrome, makes these TLDs even more powerful.

Announced by The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in late June 2008, it is hoped a full plan for the creation of new TLDs will be released in 2009. This gives greater flexibility for webmasters to choose more descriptive TLDs, instead of the 21 we are currently restricted to; .com, .org, .tv, .mobi, etc. Applicants may be able to apply for descriptive TLDs such as .cat or .paris, or even brand-specific TLDs like .netregistry!

Currently ICANN plans to group top level domains into several different groups. Country Code top level domains will be for a specific country or dependent territory such as .us for the United States. Sponsored top level domains are for industries, such as .aero for air transport companies, .jobs for human resource managers, .museum for museums and .travel for the travel industry. ICANN is working on creating top level domains over different languages.

User’s browsing the net on Google’s Chrome will drive massive volumes of traffic to the owners of top level domains. In the Chrome browser, the multi-purpose explorer field is also used as the search field. When a user types the word ‘dogs’ into the search field to perform a Google search, the browser will automatically redirect to .dogs. Intended to be a feature that makes browsing easier, the search/explorer field aims to take users searching for iTunes straight to the iTunes store for example. Once top level domains are launched, all single word searches could automatically redirect to the top level domain of that name, bringing epic amounts of traffic to those websites.

Whether Google plans to adjust the search/explore field to accommodate top level domains remains to be seen when the domains are launched and Chrome is launched out of Beta.

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