Put another way, if I'm Microsoft, can I put my website at http://microsoft? Or do I have to use http://www.microsoft?
I've looked to see if there is a policy from ICANN on this, but I can't find one. Historically, TLDs did not themselves point to hosts (or have other things like MX or TXT records).
i just tried to submit
http://ac/
In fact I just checked that typing "ac" in the Chrome omnibox makes a Google search for "ac" as I would expect. So the value of having an A record on a TLD is limited.
Edit: Somehow I missed the bar on top of the search results that says "Did you mean to go to http://ac " so there's some value after all.
I've worked at many places where http://search/ was the Intranet search facility. Not now though, nope. Now your IT department will be under pressure to accept Big Search's latest site-integrated intranet search which they conveniently started marketing around the time they broke all your local URLs.
People in NY were asked what their browser was and the most common reply was "Google" - and this was before Chrome had any kind of share. People are completely ignorant when it comes to technology.
But you're wrong. When people go to buy a computer, most know what RAM is, i.e., they've heard of it. It's because advertisements always mention it.
The entire process is a money grabbing farce.