Why not discard top level domains (TLD)?

During the past few years, I've noticed an increase in the use of customized and abstract top level domain (TLD) names, such as bit.ly, bu.mp, babyli.st, etc. Even Microsoft recently registered bi.ng, and .42 has also been created. (UPDATE: Thanks to commenter tjogin for pointing out that they in fact are all country TLDs. .ly > Libya, .st->São Tomé and Príncipe, etc.)
Until recently, I believed that top level domains were few, and that each served its purpose (.com for commercial use, .edu for education, .gov for the US government, etc). The increase in usage of non-.com TLDs made me think that they are not a limitation, but that we can change them almost freely, presumed we have the knowledge to do it (Please, correct me if I am wrong and forgive my ignorance).
Isn't it possible to make TLDs optional (or hidden)?
Then typing just the readable part of the domain - second level domain - (e.g. google instead of google.com) could send you to the the appropriate address.
The address bar in Firefox will actually redirect you to google.com if you type just google, however what I am proposing is to actually get rid of the TLD for some websites.
Some websites should keep their TLDs. For example I find it favorable that educational domains end with .edu, but I certainly see no use for a personal website to end with .com or any other TLD.
Can TLDs be omitted? Made optional?

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