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ICANN Considers Single Letter Domains

* * Beatles-Beatles writes "...as the Internet's key oversight agency considers lifting restrictions on the simplest of names. In response to requests by companies seeking to extend their brands, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will chart a course for single-letter Web addresses as early as this weekend, when the ICANN board meets in Vancouver, British Columbia. Those names could start to appear next year."

8 of 314 comments (clear)

  1. So who gets them? Sesame street? by plover · · Score: 5, Funny

    This posting brought to you by the domains "F" and "U".

    --
    John
  2. Now Taco is mocking us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    He's going to post all Beatles Beatles stories to spite us.

  3. from the people that brought you ".museum" by rebug · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does anyone actually respect ICANN anymore?

    --

    there's more than one way to do me.
  4. So wrong ... by Kope · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The point of domain name hierarchy, as ICANN has forgotten, was to organize information into identifyable categories to make it easier for people to find what they want.

    Now, I will grant that with the advent of search engines, this is far less of an issue than it was 20 years ago.

    Still, the domain name conventions are NOT about corporations "extending their branding." It's about organizing the ip space into human-readable and human-understandable segments. Single letter domain names do nothing to further that purpose.

    It's a bad idea not because of any technical limitations but merely because it is bowing to corporate pressures in the governance of the last arena in the world where people have more power than the companies.

  5. A new record? by Tim+C · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Two **Beatles-Beatles stories on the front page at once? You guys might wnat to consider hiring him, he's clearly a journalistic power house. (Assuming he isn't already on the payroll, that is)

  6. Next in the news - Single Digit by tomhudson · · Score: 5, Funny

    First dupe post fromt he future -

    November 29th, 2006

    Today ICANN announced that they will free up single-digit domains. They expect to make millions off the sale of the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
    <p>When asked for comment about ICANN's new single-digit policy, one slashdotter said "Let them sit on THIS single digit and rotate!"
    Of course, 1 is going to go for big bucks - "We're #1".
    7 also - "Lucky us".
    Avis will buy #2 - "We're #2 - we try harder"
    3 will be bought out as a business portal - "3's company"
    4 will be some scam - "trust us - we work 4 u" - or some golf site - "fore!"
    9 will be sold to some kraut anti-drug campaign - "just say 9/nein"
    8 will go to weight-watchers or slimfast - "8 too much?"
    5 will go to whoever looses the bid for 1 - they''ll then say "5 - we're the quintiscential site" or some other loser shit
    6 will go to an online redneck pharmacy - "when you'se feeling six as a dawg, order your meds from 6.com"
    0, of course, will be the big one. The BIGGEST sex portal - "come to 0.com - because you can't get any lower than us"

    Remember - watch for it next year

    tt

  7. How to Advertise on Slashdot by nagora · · Score: 5, Informative
    Beatles-Beatles, AKA Carl Fogle, is using /. to boost his search-engine jigging company. By hosting gerorge-harrison.info and then getting /. to link to it, and therefore lots of other sites to mirror that link, he is boosting that domain's search ranking (he's up to #10 on Google for "George Harrison"). He can then point his prospective clients to this success when pitching to them for their business.

    TWW

    --
    "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  8. Re:Only 26 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually it's less than you might think....

    gTLDs - .com .edu .gov .int .mil .net and .org

    Of those, only the .com, .net and .org are 'open' for registration so that gives you 3 x 26 = 78

    Then you've got the new TLDs; .biz .info .name .pro .aero .coop and .museum

    Of those 3 are sponsored (.aero .coop and .museum) so the policies regarding registration are at the discretion of the sponsor. That leaves 4 more TLDs under the control of ICANN as far as policies go. We're up to 7 x 26 = 182

    Then there are the ccTLDs; .ac .ad .ae .af .ag. .ai .al .an ......... .za .zm .zw

    But the ccTLDs are under the control of a delegated agent in the country involved and the policies are once again at the discretion of the delegated agent. You've just lost the 240 x 26 which would have really bulked out those numbers.

    Oh, and then you have to take away the 6 existing one letter domain names which leaves us with a grand total of new 'approved by ICANN' one letter domains of;

    (7 x 26) - 6 = 176

    So it's not that many....