Yesterday was an historic moment in the ongoing development of the Internet as ICANN ~ the people that look after all the Internet’s domain suffixes (such as the .com or .co.uk stuff) ~ decided to allow any type of domain suffix to be allowed.

In principle this allows any type of domain to exist, for example you could register a ‘.gardening’ domain, a .magic domain etc. We could register the .rna domain and have any websites we use attached to .rna (i.e. we could run www.support.rna)

Now this all sounds like a great idea, and I can almost hear you corporate types salivating with the possibilities, you must be aware however, that there are a few huge caveats:

1. ‘Cyber squatting” is a frowned upon practice, so buying the .mcdonalds domain is out of the question – there is legal precedent in place that almost ensures that, if challenged, you will lose the domain without any recompense.
2. ICANN are making applicants prove that they have a legitimate claim to that domain name.
3. The cost is a little steep and comes in at £114,000 ($185,000 in actuality) ~ yes that is a comma and not a decimal point.

Now while you are picking yourself up from the floor at the price, I’ll give you my honest opinion – this is a complete waste of time! ICANN should have introduced some more specific names to cover the requests being posted (such as .museum for museums sites (this was already approved) and .sex for adult sites etc…)

Currently we all know the .co.uk and the .com domain suffixes, you will also have heard of people using .org and .net, though less often. These are all recognised and well known.
Imagine that you now have to remember the entire address, not just the web or email address but the whole shebang. ~ There will be no more guessing of the ending, and if you get it wrong, there’ll be no website or email.

The cynical part of me says that the statement from ICANN saying that the price is high to dissuade spurious requests has quite a hollow ring to it – Can you spell ‘profiteering’?

ICANN say that the costs will go towards:

• Paying for the domain creation
• Employing people to scrutinise the applications
• Legal costs to defend the inevitable challenges

Yup – that’s exactly where it’s going to go

Lets see where this goes – I’d like to believe that the corporates willing to pay such ridiculous sums to “increase their Internet presence” hold off and don’t play this game – though I’d doubt it

Filed under : General  |  Be the first to comment! »

9 views

=============== ===============