New Net Battle Over ".mobile" Looming

John IPsen writes "A group of big companies, including Nokia, Vodafone and Microsoft, today applied to ICANN to have a new ".mobile" domain in the next round of new Internet domains for connecting phones and PDAs to the Internet. But while they say they aren't aware of any competition, it seems that some others have been preparing their bids for a lot longer and a big battle may be brewing. More here."

Comments

add this to /etc/sendmail/access

[grub]

From:.mobile ERROR:"550 Go away, spammer."

Right where it belongs, along with .biz and .info

Alabama City TLD

[AtariAmarok]

Where's .biloxi and .tuscaloosa ?

Re:Alabama City TLD

[Cutriss]

Sigh...Funny, yes. Informative, no.

Biloxi is in Mississippi.

Re: Alabama City TLD

[Black Parrot]

> Where's .biloxi and .tuscaloosa ?

In Wales you'd need a .llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysi liogogogoch (without the Slashdot space).

.mob?

[Tyler Eaves]

Why not continure the 'tradition' of 3 letter TLDS and use .mob? It's even descriptive of the companies trying to push this through...

Re:.mob?

[Lawbeefaroni]

And it's a hell of a lot easier to type in on cell phones.

Re:.mob?

[dietz]

I think the point of this is that you wouldn't NEED to type the TLD. They want to make this TLD the default search domain on mobile devices.

So, for example, http://google/ would take you to google.mobile on a cell phone.

That's the impression I got from the article, anyway:
The application could turn out to be more politically charged than its proponents hope, because the mobile domain is not just another Internet domain like .biz, extending the address space. Instead, it is a new text-based user friendly addressing scheme for phones and mobile devices, which could replace and extend the power of phone numbers - just as the current Internet domain scheme did for numeric Internet addresses, replacing 207.46.245.214 with "microsoft.com", for instance.

me first?

[bbsguru]

This is too much fun! Can I be the first to register olds.mobile? hupp.mobile? auto.mobile? alexander.calder.mobile.hangs.in.a.museum?? semi.mobile? quasi.mobile.rang.notre.dame.bells? Can the .matic domain be far behind?

Re:me first?

[Anonymous Coward]

Would the registry block the new goatse.mobile?

Re:too long a name

[the_c0de_man]

No. And a six-digit TLD is even worse.

.mobile is too long.

[michael path]

oh yeah. the last thing i need to address from my phone is a longer TLD.

rcpt to: path@sprint.mbolie^H^H^H^H^H
501 5.5.6 You're an IDIOT
CRAP!
501 5.5.7 That doesn't work either.
rcpt to: path@sprunt.mlobie^H^H^H^H
501 5.5.8 Nope. Not even close.
rcpt to: path@sprint.mobil
501 5.5.9Try Exxon

ad nauseum.

Verbosity?

[avalys]

Is there something wrong with .mbl? I don't see why we have to spell the whole thing out: the existing TLDs are all blissfully concise.

Long TLDS distract from the domain names themselves: which looks better, www.slashdot.org or www.slashdot.nonprofitorganization?

Not your ordinary TLD

[pbug]

According to the article this namesapce is strictly for mobile devices. The actual TLD has not decided yet. This is going to be a namespace for your mobile number for instance bob.jones.cingular.mobile will be your mobile phone or wifi address. Well let us see how this one plays out.

It's mostly marketing but it's a good idea

[ChiralSoftware]

These companies need to do anything they can do to get more mobile data use out of their networks, hardware and software. Margins on voice traffic are dropping and will continue to drop, hastened by VoIP, so how to make up for lost revenue? Pretty soon a large chunk of high-margin international calling traffic will be VoIP, which basically means flat rate, which means... no more big bucks for ATT, etc. By selling new services, like wireless data the carriers can save themselves (they hope). Another problem for Nokia and friends is that handsets are starting to be manufactured in China, and Nokia will not be able to build plain old voice handsets at competitive prices, so it needs to get away from the commoditized market of voice handsets, which means it needs better entertainment abilities, which means wireless data. A TLD could really fit into that. The wireless web has great potential but consumer awareness is poor, because there aren't any good ways for consumers to identify mobile content and there aren't any easy ways for websites to produce mobile content without learning a bunch of new technologies. Well, there are some ways to do it now...

Re:add this to /etc/sendmail/access (Zombie PDAs)

[G4from128k]

Great, now spammers are going to create exploits for phones and PDAs as relays for their filth. I wonder how many e-mails a zombie Pocket PC can crank out before the the user sees a $10,000 for bandwidth usage? I guess the antivirus indusry will see a nice boost in revenues for AV for Blackberrys, Palms, PocketPCs, Symbian phones, etc.

This is fucking ridiculous.

[JessLeah]

Why should a single corporate entity control an entire TLD?

I can 'kinda' understand if Microsoft wanted .microsoft or Nokia wanted .nokia, but even then-- why waste the resources of the top-level DNS servers for something which will only serve to benefit one company?

This is absolutely disgusting. It's bad enough that Verisign/NetworkSolutions/whatever has such control over .COM/.NET and over the DNS system in general (kof kof SITEFINDER kof kof), but now they want to start giving entire freaking TLDs over to companies wholesale?

This is bullshit!

Re:This is fucking ridiculous.

[Dun Malg]

They seem to believe the snazzy corporate slogans like "GE: We Bring Good Things to Life", and honestly believe that the megacorps are out to help humanity.

Hey, GE put as much care and attention into designing and building GAU-8 30mm and M-61 20mm multibarrel cannon systems as they put into refrigerators and dishwashers. Customer satisfaction is important to their business. If your food spoiled, or you dishes came out dirty, or the T-72 tank you were shooting at from your A-10 warthog didn't explode, would you buy another fridge, dishwasher, or GAU-8 Avenger 30mm cannon from GE again? They're a real people company because they have to be!

Phone numbers already are globally unique

[yelvington]

Phone numbers already are globally unique, so there is no need to have second-level domain names within a mobile TLD. Having carriers or hardware makers involved is only counterproductive. We don't need any more vendor lock-in opportunities.

On the other hand ... globally available free access to MY cellphone for the purpose of delivering messages sounds like an open door for yet more spam. Phonenumber.mbl is just too easy.

Saddest line of the entire article

[JoeShmoe]

ICANN charges a non-refundable $45,000 for an application, and the total cost of developing a proper bid is reckoned to run into millions

What better way to foster innovation and good ideas than to make sure the barrier to entry is so unbelievably high that even three of the largest corporations on the planet --combined-- are thought to have "barely" a chance at floating a few new letters through cyberspace?

There's articifical scarcity, then there is intellegence scarcity. Five years after ICANN's creation, we still have (for all intents and purposes) no new TLDs. How many meetings in Hawaii and Barbados has that taken?

If Microsoft wants .mobile, guess what, they can add it to Internet Explorer and the new TLD will exist literally overnight. I'd actually be in favor of this horrible break of standards because it would teach everyone a valuable lesson that these precious root servers are modern feudalism and we serfs should wise up and go form our own government and let the 14 non-elected lords go out and dig up their own turnips.

-JoeShmoe
.