Host of new website addresses likely next year

A SLEW of new internet addresses could be established in SA next year, including the city-specific names capetown.za and Joburg.za.

The new domains would let companies, tourist attractions or even citizens display where they are from on their websites and on their e-mail addresses.

Another new address could be mobi.za for websites designed for viewing over a cellphone.

A survey will soon be carried out to gauge how much demand there is for the new addresses and to canvass ideas for other names.

There are already close to 500000 internet addresses registered in SA, mainly under the co.za domain. The org.za domain is the next largest with 15000.

Globally there are almost 200- million registered domain names, with 85-million under the .com address.

The numbers could boom when new names were established next year, said Vika Mpisane, GM of the .za Domain Name Authority. He expects 10 new domains to be established.

Mpisane is urging anyone with a name or trademark worth protecting to register it on the internet before cybersquatters register it.

Cybersquatters usually want to sell the name back to the rightful owner for a huge fee, but others set up a website at that address to commit fraud or to capitalise on the success of the famous name.

“Getting your name back comes at a cost so we are encouraging people, and particularly small businesses, to take preventative measures rather than try to cure it afterwards,” he said.

stonesl@bdfm.co.za