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New domain extension .motorcycles offered to dealerships

News release

Norfolk, VA – November 11, 2013 – The powersports industry is invited to participate in the largest expansion in the history of the Internet thanks to a successful bid by Dominion Powersports Solutions. The industry’s leading business solutions provider was one of a number of high-profile technology companies, including Google and Amazon that recently secured rights to new domain extension names.

Until now, Internet site addresses have largely ended with familiar “top level domains” such as .com, .org or .edu. That is changing with a momentous expansion that will lead to hundreds of new generic top level domains (gTLDs) like .shop, .free or even .smile. In the case of the powersports industry, it is .motorcycles, which will be operated exclusively by an affiliate of Dominion Powersports Solutions.

The recent announcement of the online expansion was hailed as an “historic day for the Internet” by the leader of the nonprofit organization orchestrating these changes. The organization, called The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), is in the process of approving up to 1,400 domain extensions, up from the current 22.

“The Internet will be changed forever,” ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom said during a recent webcast announcement. “We’re standing at the cusp of a new era in online innovation.”

The expansion is expected to make the Internet more consumer and search-friendly throughout the world. For businesses, the emerging benefits will be significant. Several of the world’s most high-profile technology companies, including Google, Amazon and Apple, were involved in the application process for hundreds of top-level domain names. Google itself applied for more than 100 generic names, including .car and .store.

To acquire these new domain extension names, companies underwent a rigorous application process and were required to pay significant application and annual fees. More popular suffixes — like .shop, .talk and .play — will likely be decided by a bidding process. Winning bids provide those companies with exclusive rights to the domain suffixes. For example, Dominion will have exclusive rights over .motorcycles. Domain registrars like GoDaddy.com will need to contract with Dominion and observe Dominion’s rules and regulations in order to offer URLs with the .motorcycles domain. Further, there were no other powersports-related trade-specific or generic names submitted during the process, and it is unlikely there will be another round of applications for several years.

“Dominion Powersports has taken a critical leap ahead on behalf of our customers. As Google continues to personalize the search experience for consumers, top-level domains like .motorcycles will elevate our dealer customers in the search results,” said Jeff Littlejohn, president of Dominion Powersports Solutions. “While some have downplayed this worldwide initiative, the proactive response of technology leaders demonstrates the impact the new top-level domains will have on the visibility of businesses on the Internet.”

Further details on ways that Dominion Powersports customers will take advantage of this landmark event will be unveiled later this year.

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3 Comments

  1. What’s the purpose? I can see it now. My local Cycle Trader rep comes in telling me that I need to have these extensions because Dominion management thinks its a great idea and they have a quota to meet. And if I don’t take their silly domains I’ll be missing out on a great deal. Come on man!!!

    Realistically this is just another ploy for Dominion to get more revenue from dealers.

  2. I’m not sure dealers will want to switch all their printed materials over to a long winded URL. Where’s the value to the dealer and, more importantly, the consumer. Definitely not easier to remember.

    Was the $$$ spent on this really something DOminion needed. Been told improvements were coming for PSN for years and this is all they to show. Can’t wait to be disappointed by DX1 whenever it comes out.

    Note to Dominion. Put first things first. This is not one of them.

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