As more and more people around the world turn to the Internet for communication, shopping, and research, there will likely be two trends: the first will be a strengthening of the global aspects of the "information highway," while the second will be the rapid growth of localized content.

In order to respond to the first trend, you'll want a name that has a maximum of consistent meanings, pronunciations, and spellings, so that no matter who in the world is trying to find you, your name is memorable and easy to locate, whether in .com, .biz, or some other TLD.

The second trend is the one which is harder to predict. Localization of Internet content covers everything from the language in which your browser opens to your default search engine and its default TLD for searching. Thus far, generic TLDs have all been English-based (.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .name, etc.). Non-English alphabet characters in domain names are a recent introduction. The Internet of tomorrow will demonstrate a compromise between a global English standard (which has been the unofficial case due simply to the predominance of English-speaking Internet users) and an interconnected quilt of sites using a variety of local languages which will be more or less available in translation to your local language.

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