Housing
The New Economy of City-Based Top Level Internet Domains
Dozens of cities will have the chance to design their own municipally focused microcosm of the web.
Craving a slice in Istanbul? Check out www.pizza.istanbul. Need a taxi in Tokyo? Try www.taxi.tokyo.
Those URLs don't lead anywhere at the moment, but in a matter of months, they will. The geography of the Internet is on the verge of a historic growth spurt, and cities will be presiding over some of its largest new territories. Dozens of municipal governments, from Durban to Taipei, have claimed corresponding top level domains (TLDs) -- even the wordy ones like .amsterdam and .helsinki -- in the hopes that a domain will soon become as important to the global city brand in 2020 as a website was in 2000.