After I wrote the first draft of this post I was reluctant to submit it. I was saying to myself, "This is overstating the importance of domains. Google doesn't really care about this stuff." A day later in the news: "Google offers 6 figures for knol.com." Google cares about names. As does Apple. As does any company that knows the web. So let's talk about the looming battle for .search.

In 2009 ICANN intends to liberalise the domain system and open a flood gate of applications for new name extensions. Some new extensions that we are likely to see will be .radio, .video, .love, and geography names such as .berlin and .paris, etc. Here's guessing teams are already working behind the scenes to acquire the extension .search. For the giants battling to control the industry known as search, the battle for ownership of .search is certainly meaningful. Why? The value of a domain essentially boils down to the power of its meaning. Whoever controls .search has the ability to create a plethora of resource locators that link a user to a resource. It would be the most logical and simple means of direct navigation to search.

Is this a first?

Try typing in swimmingpools.search.com or hotel.search.com. Wow, it works! Pretty usable, right? Fast and logical. I won't speak about the quality of the index, but I sure like the concept. I wonder why that didn't take off.

But let's face it, hotel.search trumps hotel.search.com.

A sample of the power of .search: You are at home sitting on the sofa. You need to make a dentist appointment. You speak into your microphone "dentist search." By this time Firefox knows exactly what you want to do. The owner of .search has made deals. All devices and operating systems know exactly what you want to do when you say "search." You are automatically directed to dentist.search.

Google (I'm guessing they'll own it) detects your current location from your IP address. The screen at the URL dentist.search is not actually a website, it's a location on the Google earth map. Visible in your town are 10 dentist locations. You select one. Check online calendar. Select a time. Search complete.

A little far fetched? Maybe :)

If Google is willing to put up $4.6bn to try and acquire a wireless spectrum, they won't be hesitating to pony up the $100,000 - $200,000 dollars it is estimated to cost to apply for a new name extension.

And if the other players in search know what's good for them, they'll see the value of .search as well. Hold on to your hats, it's time for a bidding war.