With the flood of companies taking to the internet to explore the wealth of possibilities that lay in wait for those willing to take a stab at developing a social media marketing strategy, it’s evident that the end of the dotcom era is upon us. Of course, that may not mean what you think it means.

According to ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) website URLs that up until now have been limited to 22 suffixes including .com, .org, .edu, .us and so on, will be able to end with just about any suffix a user desires. But before you go jotting down your wish list of dotcom replacement suffixes, remember this first big step is only for entities big enough to afford the $185,000 application fee.

So why even mention it? Because it’s a huge departure from tradition that’s sure to have a rippling effect across the entire online world. And when ripples form, things everywhere begin to change. Consider the social media branding influence that being able to have a .imsocool suffix for your URL will have on your social media marketing strategy in the future. Yes, we thought you’d like that idea.