Posted 06.20.2011 at 12:35 pm
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ICANN
ICANN, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, decided today to allow a whole new wave of domain names, far beyond the usual usual suspects (.com, .net, .org) and country codes (.co.uk, .jp). It'll be expensive, but people or groups can now buy just about any domain name they want. Sometime in the future, you might end up going to home.popsci rather than popsci.com. (Not yet, though. Keep coming to popsci.com until we tell you otherwise.)
This is actually a pretty huge shakeup for ICANN--NPR calls it "the biggest change to the system since '.com' made its debut in 1984." In recent years, with common .com domains taken (or held by domain squatters), there's been a movement towards other suffixes, including other country codes (with the nation of Tuvalu's ".tv" a popular example) and the controversial ".xxx." We've written about Al Gore's quest for a ".eco" domain, as well as the first Arabic domains. But ICANN expects a wave of new domain names, including themes (".cars," ".bank"), individual property names (".apple," ".nytimes") and even individual item names (".ipad").
To stop squatters from snapping up all the valuable domains in this new crop, ICANN is imposing a fee of $185,000 for each domain, along with what sounds like a prohibitive amount of paperwork, at least for a scammer. ICANN will begin accepting applications on January 12th, continuing to accept for 90 days.
What's also interesting to think about is a fundamental shift in how we direct people to websites. The suffix, despite the occasional .net, .co.uk, or .tv, is generally a foregone conclusion--your site is "something.com." Swapping out the domain name could result in a fundamental shift, and at the very least some confusion. How do you guys feel about the new domain names?
[NPR]
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I can't see this catching on for anything but MASSIVE sites, the ones that have 185 grand to throw around. It'll at least free up some of the older domain names
Sounds like a huge waste of effort an money. People just don't care or pay attention to TLDs much anymore.
While I like how they are trying to stop domain squatters, charging 185k for a custom domain is ridiculous! The ability to have a custom domain means that you can't really squat it. If foo.com is taken, just register anything else.
The themed domains are definitely a great idea like .cars .bank .game .news. It tells you what kind of site it is.
I think the price is ridiculous as previously pointed out. I believe it to very confusing in the beginning, but that doesn't mean its a bad idea. There is always some form of learning curve with new things.
.pr0n anyone?
I'm assuming the $185,000 refers to the creation of the top-level domain only - any indistry with an interest could easily band together to come up with that kind of cash. I wonder if that gives you rights to all possible domains therein?
.whatever
ICANN won't be considering any application from individuals or sole proprietorships. Instead, they'll be ignoring the needs of the vast majority Internet users worldwide. Perhaps it's time that Internet users consider the advantages of avoiding ICANN.
Right now, anyone can get into the "Create Your Own TLD" game without spending $185,000 and without reference to ICANN, simply by registering new Dashcom (instead of Dotcom) Domains
Dashcoms are memorable & relevant web addresses such as "sports-com", "live-music", "social-network" (available in any language, you can even use Facebook Emoticons like musical notes "♫♫-♫♫")
Totally outside ICANN's control and with users in over 90 countries worldwide, resolution is via an APP; although new ISP links are coming online to make that unnecessary.
This is just a BS way for ICANN to make money from large corporations who don't want others using their name(s). It's a scam, and I'll be surprised if ICANN doesn't get sued over it. The use of domain extensions is quickly becoming obsolete anyway. As an example, even now you can just throw the word "Apple" into your browser address bar and be taken to Apple.com. Not exactly sure how yet, but I think domain name extensions will be rendered obsolete someday soon.
.minecraft
-Spouting a fountain of nonsense since 1995-