Right now, if you want an internet domain name that screams “Toronto,” your best bet is to invest thousands of miles in the remote island kingdom of Tonga, which has .to as its code top-level domain. of internet countries. .
But that could all soon change according to a new lobbying case opened by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), which could create a brand new top-level domain code specifically for the city of Toronto.
News of the new domain appeared in the City of Toronto’s Lobbyists’ Registry in a March 31 request that states “CIRA will discuss the merits of the City of Toronto applying or not applying for the .TORONTO top-level domain in the next application round is opened by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.”
This opens up incredible possibilities for joke URLs like youcantafford.toronto or the905isnot.toronto, or even more serious URLs for existing entities like universityof.toronto or cityof.toronto.
And it’s not just a novelty. Top-level domains like .ca that you see at the end of many Canadian websites immediately let online shoppers and other internet users know they’re in the right place and aren’t looking at foreign currency prices. foreign countries or accidentally look at a company with the same name abroad.
While currency isn’t a driving factor when introducing city-specific domains, it can still help create a sense of ownership for businesses trying to refine their online presence.
Dozens of cities around the world already have their own top-level domains, including a few right here in North America, like Boston (.boston), Miami (.miami), New York (.nyc) and Las Vegas (.vegas), while the province of Quebec also has its own .quebec domain.