.koeln

a new top-level domain

Applicant

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The .koeln team is comprised of a number of qualified individuals. Together with their combined experience in the Internet and related fields, the founders possess backgrounds ranging from Internet policy, public affairs, law and journalism. The needs of day-to-day business operations will therefore be met with the practical professional experience currently held by the campaign's founders.

Mission

The Internet is becoming more local as an increasing number of searches relate to users' local environment. Ideally, search engines would understand and adapt to search requests and rank items located in a user's vicinity above items located remotely. Additionally, logically-named domains have become a scarce resource. The extension of the Internet's namespace is therefore a fitting answer to these developmental needs. Under the .koeln top-level domain, companies, individuals and organizations with addresses such as zoo.koeln or painter.koeln will be able to make their purpose visible. The .koeln campaign is the first initiative for a regional domain extension in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and takes its place along side other prominent city new TLDs such as .berlin, .nyc and .tokyo. Even Barcelona, the Catalan sister city of Cologne will apply for its own suffix, .bcn.

Advantages

The greatest advantage of a .koeln top-level domain name is the connection to the city that the name invokes. Visitors to sites displaying the city's name will undoubtedly immediately realize the meaning a site such as hotel.koeln or restaurant.koeln hopes to convey. New TLDs will benefit both site owners and visitors alike as the system will allow for a more structured and logical naming convention.