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What’s that distant buzz you hear? It’s the sound of a swarm coming your way.

In late-2009, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) plans to begin accepting applications for new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs), and granting them by the hundreds. This move will likely usher in a new world on the Web.

Web 3.0 is fast approaching and brand owners should beware. It’s not necessarily designed with you in mind. In fact, hundreds of Internet players and brand owners — including Nike, Hasbro, Viacom, Wells Fargo, Verizon and Molson Coors Brewing — have registered their concerns about the impact of the expansion of the world’s domain name system on their brands and budgets.

Background: In June 2008, ICANN approved a plan to add an indefinite number of new gTLDs to the 21 already in existence (.com,

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