.Asia Internet Domain Launched

eldavojohn writes "Expect to see sites ending in .asia pop up soon, as ICANN has allowed DotAsia to recently open bidding on the new domain. A DotAsia representative is quoted as saying, 'Our research has found that Asia is one of the most searched-for terms and by having a .asia website, your ranking on Google or Yahoo will become much higher.' Is there really a need for more top level domains?"

Comments

need?

[stoolpigeon]

why does there have to be a need? will too many make the net too heavy or something?

Re:need?

[aadvancedGIR]

Not really a need, but a *.asia will look just fine in my host file.

Re:need?

[Zencyde]

No! Too many will clog the tubes. We already have to flush them thrice a day, as-is.

Re:need?

[Tetsujin]

why does there have to be a need? will too many make the net too heavy or something? The thing that gets me about all these new TLDs is that .com is still by far the most recognized, and so people continue to use it whether it's appropriate or not... But at the same time they scoop up the equivalent name in other TLDs as well to avoid confusion. For instance, a site I go to has a front page on .com - a store site on .biz, and a forum on .net...

Having more TLDs gives people a bigger namespace to play in, but the problem is people don't generally want a bigger name space for domain names. They want their domain name to be unique, for recognition and to avoid confusion...

Re:need?

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

Not really a need, but a *.asia will look just fine in my host file. 127.0.0.1 *.biz
127.0.0.1 *.tv
127.0.0.1 *.ru
127.0.0.1 *.asia

Yep, you're right.

Re:need?

[stoolpigeon]

But is there a real cost? I wasn't trying to be funny so much as ask a real question. So what if there are thousands of top level domain names? I don't care personally - so is there a technical issue?
 
I don't care if a name is recognizable. I use google when I don't remember exactly where something is at.

Re:need?

[Tetsujin]

I don't care if a name is recognizable. I use google when I don't remember exactly where something is at. But the point is, people who create sites do care if their name is recognizable. They have to. Nobody wants to create a popular site, and then have somebody else squat the exact same URL (except with a different TLD) and populate it with a bunch of porn links or ads.

Put another way, what value are we getting out of more TLDs? More sites can share the same name? Is that really something we want?

Re:need?

[aadvancedGIR]

I didn't have the *.biz yet, thanks for the tip.

Re:need?

[Spy der Mann]

Not really a need, but a *.asia will look just fine in my host file.

I thought the host file didn't accept wildcards...

Re:need?

[Eponymous Bastard]

127.0.0.1 *.ru "In Soviet Russia domains point to you"?

(Sorry, couldn't help it)

Re:need?

[jra]

You go ask the Ford Car Club of America and the Ford Foundation that...

Re:need?

[Tetsujin]

You go ask the Ford Car Club of America and the Ford Foundation that... Why? Why would the two of them have the same domain name with different TLDs? Neither one would be simply "ford"...

Re:need?

[Fozzyuw]

But the point is, people who create sites do care if their name is recognizable. They have to. Nobody wants to create a popular site, and then have somebody else squat the exact same URL (except with a different TLD) and populate it with a bunch of porn links or ads.

Your point is taken well. TLD's are not just "TLDs". They've become part and parcel with trademarked names and company names. No,no, no. It's not Expedia... it's Expedia[dot]COM. Etc. Companies scramble to register their business names only to find another business with the same name (see Nissan Computers long legal battle against Nissan Automotive).

You have to consider registering variations of your domain name before someone else does to avoid trademark dilution and consumer confusion. {company name}, {company name}Manufacturing, {company name}ManufacturingCompany, {company name}MFGCO, etc. Of course, YMMV depending on your company name and sector/trade.

Companies have multiple sites such as "corporate site", "brand A site", "Brand B site", "Product A Micro-site", etc. Then, they might have to register multiple variants of those sites. Singular and plural versions, Nicknames, and keywords. ie: should it be Business.com, BusinessProduct.com, BusinessProducts.com, BusinessProductName.com, etc. (some products are two words that are commonly referred to in the singural, like "Toilet Seat" might just be called a "Seat" or "Seats" in the context of a bathroom.

On top of that you have to consider registering multiple TLD's. .COM, .NET, .ORG, .JOBS, .BIZ, .INFO, etc. Now, if you're an international company, you have to consider registering country specific TLD's. .US, .CO.UK, .FR, .IT, .CN, .MX, etc. Now, they're opening up regional TLD's that companies have to consider... .EU, .ASIA.

You take all the TLD's , all the sites a company might have, and all the name variations a of a site name a company might register, and you get yourself one hell of a mess and cost. Sure, domains are relatively cheep but if you're managing hundreds or thousands, it becomes a huge sink, particularly since most everyone STILL uses .COM.

Then you have to tie this all in with Search Engine parameters such as duplication. All you do is register these domains and 301 redirect them to your flagship domain name, which doesn't do a whole lot for you. Others might use language specific sites, which will pass duplication standards.

I guess, a good question is... what do people with to manage their site domains? What is your domain strategy? Do you try to register everything you can to avoid squatters and parkers for brand dilution? Or do you just say "screw it" and let them have them, they're not likely to get much out of them. Should you really use .jobs to be/point or redirect to your careers page? Or just say "screw it" because "no one"(tm) uses it?

Cheers,
Fozzy

Re:need?

[RalphSleigh]

That would be .su

Re:need?

[Loki_1929]

Heh, company firewall now has it banned. Customers' mail filtering now has it banned. Please, guys, keep going. You're making my life as an admin -so- much easier.

Why is it that such a large section of the planet seemingly churns out nothing but garbage? You would think at some point some of these ISPs (or even the governments of the countries in that region) would get the idea in their heads that if the entire region is flooding the rest of the world with shit, they may find themselves completely cut off from the rest of the world by admins who have better things to do than ban individual IPs all day every day.

I've got huge netblocks from that area completely blocked. Sure I could block 202.96.63.3, 202.96.63.5, 202.96.63.6, 202.96.51.103, 202.96.51.107 etc, but taking out 202.96.63.* and 202.96.51.* saves me 400 lines in my filter list. My country-based filters are the best tool in my multi-faceted spam filtering solution (they account for something like 70% of the blocks), and I've gotten to the point where large parts of that region are completely cut off from my customers. I use whitelists for customers who have a specific need to communicate with a specific company from the region.

I certainly hope no legitimate business owners in that region are trying to use locally hosted servers. It seems that for now, everyone over there is happy to be the New Jersey of the internet. Just sucks for the legitimate people who are going to have to seek hosting 1,000 miles away from their home country to have any shot at reaching the rest of the world.

Re:need?

[GuidoW]

why does there have to be a need? will too many make the net too heavy or something?

More TLDs mean higher load for the Internet's root servers. And it's more than just linear - the higher the number of existing TLDs, the higher the probability that a given nameserver does not have the NS records for a given TLD's zone in its cache, and so will have to ask the root servers the next time someone asks for a domain under that TLD.

Re:need?

[zippthorne]

Why is it that such a large section of the planet seemingly churns out nothing but garbage?

Because it only takes 2% of the population to produce all the food, and the rest of us need to find a way to justify our claim to the fruits (pun intended) of their labor.

Re:need?

[adatepej]

Why is it that such a large section of the planet seemingly churns out nothing but garbage? Kudos, you sound just like that new Pope that was part of the Hitler youth.

to have any shot at reaching the rest of the world. Not everyone is blocking .asia. Try asking the average American consumer of home internet service how to block content of any kind from any domain. They don't know how.

if the entire region is flooding the rest of the world with shit, they may find themselves completely cut off from the rest of the world by admins who have better things to do than ban individual IPs all day every day. I love it when computer administrators like to make it sound like they're going to change the world from their desk. "You just watch ... I'll ban your IP. Then see how you like it when nobody from the 40 employee company I work for reads your spam!"

Re:need?

[kv9]

perhaps you should block "huge netblocks" from the US too as long as they are the number one shit spewer and bot haven.

Re:need?

[rs79]

"So what if there are thousands of top level domain names? I don't care personally - so is there a technical issue?"

No.

Karl Denninger and Paul Vixie looked at this in the 80s. There can be a million tlds and it won't make any impace. Keep in mind in the day they were worried about a million names in .com and there are about 40 million names now.

Re:need?

[R2.0]

The need is for more money for registarrs. The ultimate goal is to have companies register their name 1,679,616 times. That's (26+10)^4, for a 4 position TLD.

Re:need?

[Loki_1929]

"Kudos, you sound just like that new Pope that was part of the Hitler youth."

Nice roundabout way of calling me a Nazi. Unfortunately for you, I'm not nearly so ignorant of historical fact. First of all, Joseph Ratzinger had the misfortune of being born in Bavaria. During the time of Nazi reign over Bavaria, all males over the age of 14 years were required by law to be enrolled in the Hitler Youth program. As the New York Times noted, he was actually quite defiant of the law, refusing to show up for legally mandated meetings and other activities.

So if you're saying that I've had the misfortune to grow up living under a brutal and genocidal regime and that I've done the best I can under the circumstances without getting myself killed, then you're offtopic and wrong. Otherwise, if you're trying to make some other association, you're still offtopic, still wrong, and an asshole.

In either case, I'm sure it was obvious to any objective reader that I was referring to the deluge of spam, viruses, and other unwanted abuse of network and internet resources coming from that part of the world. More specifically, I see Russia and China as being the worst offenders.

"Not everyone is blocking .asia."

Gee, y'think?

"Try asking the average American consumer of home internet service"

Fatal flaw: they don't control what's blocked upstream of them.

"I love it when computer administrators like to make it sound like they're going to change the world from their desk. "You just watch ... I'll ban your IP. Then see how you like it when nobody from the 40 employee company I work for reads your spam!""

I have no delusions of grandeur. I choose to block something at the firewall, a few dozen people don't see it while they're at work. I choose to block something at the spam filter (domain, netblock, country, etc), roughly a couple of thousand don't see any emails coming in from it. However, if you were keeping up with email abuse forums, you'd find out that I'm by far not the only one, nor the most militant, in blocking off huge swaths in an attempt to make the job of keeping the spam out more doable.

Change the world? Hardly, I just want the people working for this company to be able to work in peace and for the company's customers to be happy with their email so they'll continue hosting through us. In the meantime, I have a lot of other stuff that needs doing, so I don't need to sit here fiddling with filters 10 hours a day. "Block first; whitelist later" is becoming the norm for a lot of people who are being plagued by this flood of garbage that keeps getting worse every day. I just happen to think it's unfortunate for the legitimate people to get caught in the middle.

Re:need?

[Loki_1929]

"perhaps you should block "huge netblocks" from the US too as long as they are the number one shit spewer and bot haven."

FYI, I -do- have some netblocks based in the US and Canada blocked. They're much fewer and farther between because it's so difficult to isolate a netblock of abusers with virtually no legitimate users on it. That also doesn't take into account dynamic IPs and the like. I can't block Comcast (oh God, please? can I? please?!) because I'd instantly end up with tons of complaints about legitimate email being blocked. I -can- block off a netblock in China because I know exactly which customers have -any- international dealings with China, and those with extensive ties there have longer whitelists and less active netblock filters on them.

Per my own statistics, at any given time, roughly 35 - 40% of the spam hitting our mail filter is coming in from the US. Of the rest of the spam (and something like 94 - 96% of all connections to the mail filter are for spam at this point), some 90%+ is coming from Asia (mostly Russia and China). China's my second biggest offender at ~15% total spam volume.

You see, this has nothing to do with not liking a particular country or region. It has everything to do with the fact that the problem of spam is horrific and is only getting worse. I'm being forced to drill down to levels I'd have laughed at at this time two years ago. I'm also spending more time dealing with the issue that I should have to, but I pride myself on not getting complaints from customers that too much spam is coming in and not getting more than a couple false-positive reports every couple of weeks. As I said, I'm now looking at having to filter out over 95% of emails sent to customers. It's turning into a fight where searching for good emails within the spam is like finding a needle in a haystack. Anything that makes that haystack smaller is a good thing. If I had a nice long list of reliably bad netblocks within the US and Canada that I could block without pissing off customers, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

At least the US has been prosecuting those who spam from within its borders. That at least is somewhat helpful. It hasn't had a noticeable impact on the level of spam I've seen, but maybe if more places did it, we'd see better results.

This isn't about this country vs that country, nor is it accusing a certain group of people of being bad people. It's about trying to filter out the crap in the most efficient way possible without spending 14 hours a day doing it in a world that's drowning in spam. The last thing on my mind is where a spammer lives, what language he speaks, or what color his skin is. The only thing I care about is his garbage not hitting my customers' inboxes and me not having to work 18 hour days to make that happen. I hate having to deal with this stuff; I want to do real work. I long for the days where the only spam filtering I had to do for customers was Bayesian and it worked.

Re:need?

[Oktober Sunset]

"Kudos, you sound just like that new Pope that was part of the Hitler youth."

Nice roundabout way of calling me a Nazi. Unfortunately for you, I'm not nearly so ignorant of historical fact. First of all, Joseph Ratzinger had the misfortune of being born in Bavaria. During the time of Nazi reign over Bavaria, all males over the age of 14 years were required by law to be enrolled in the Hitler Youth program. As the New York Times noted, he was actually quite defiant of the law, refusing to show up for legally mandated meetings and other activities.

So if you're saying that I've had the misfortune to grow up living under a brutal and genocidal regime and that I've done the best I can under the circumstances without getting myself killed, then you're offtopic and wrong. Otherwise, if you're trying to make some other association, you're still offtopic, still wrong, and an asshole.

Oh yea? well, he's still the emperor. http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=pope+emperor

Re:need?

[Loki_1929]

Well you've got me there. ;)

Re:need?

[DrgnDancer]

Strictly speaking, if people actually used them properly, more TLDs make DNS more efficient. The way DNS is supposed to work is that the root name server answers all requests to tell lower level nameservers where the TLD servers are. (In practice the TLD servers are cached by probably every DNS server in the world.) Then the TLD servers tell you where the canonical server for a sub-domain of the TLD are. In an ideal world where there is some balance to the TLDs, this means that all the TLD servers work equally hard tell you where the domain you're looking for is. In reality .com is so bloated that it needs tons of extra servers for its requests, and its database is fairly flat and inefficient.

If people took a new TLD and said, "ohh, this is more approriate for my site than blah.com, I will switch!" and let the .com registration expire, more TLDs would help make DNS more coefficient in the long run. Since most of them just register for the new TLD in addition to their old .com, it's pretty much mas-nix.

All of this is gross oversimplification of course, but the simple answer is 'no, the there is no technical reason to limit the number of TLDs, other than to prevent confusion'

In a word...

[AltGrendel]

Is there really a need for more top level domains?

No!

Re:In a word...

[rs79]

"No! "

You mean "no, Network Solutions should retain its de facto monopoly as a registry" I presume?

Fixed...

[EveryNickIsTaken]

Our research has found that Asians is one of the most searched-for terms

Who can tell?

[Funkcikle]

"Is there really a need for more top level domains? Find out more and take part in our poll at www.istherereallyaneedformoretoplevel.domains!"

Higher ranking

[tokul]

It will be higher for the short period of time. Then search engines will adjust their ranking algorithms.

P.S. Thanks for giving shorter filter for ranking abusers.

How about

[damn_registrars]

Just pushing for people / companies to actually register in the appropriate TLD's for their country? As it is, there's nothing to prevent you from purchasing a .com domain from a registrar in China, for a website to host in China. If we actually tethered the website domains to the countries they reside in, then we may be able to reign in the never-ending "canadian pharmacy" spam campaign that pushes out zillions of spams per second.

Re:How about

[JanneM]

Just pushing for people / companies to actually register in the appropriate TLD's for their country? As it is, there's nothing to prevent you from purchasing a .com domain from a registrar in China, for a website to host in China. Like having US websites register in the .us domain?

If it's a commercial website it's fine in .com no matter where it's located.

Re:How about

[damn_registrars]

If it's a commercial website it's fine in .com no matter where it's located.

I realize that, and I don't like it. Frankly I feel the whole registrar process is horribly borked. As I've said before, the registrars get off with no liability whatsoever, even when they repeatedly sell domains to known criminals for criminal purposes. With the right accreditation, a registrar can exist in a different country (even under a TLD other than .com), sell .com domains, and then pretend to not speak English when encountered over their willingness to sell to criminals.

Could new TLDs solve this? Probably not. But I like to think that someone cares enough about the problem to look into some sort of solution.

I'll stop complaining now, and watch this comment get modded down.

Re:How about

[IBBoard]

Personally I think .com should be for international companies/entities, with local companies using local domains. In that case .asia would be great for companies who cover the whole of Asia, but aren't known outside it. Quite why .uk is available to everyone I don't know :\

Unfortunately it would probably get to the point where someone wants a ".africanorthamericaasia" TLD because they're active in all three, but someone else thinks that ".africaeuropeasia" would be better because that's where they cover.

Re:How about

[Cyberax]

Actually, local domains are very popular at some countries. For example,.ru domain is very popular in Russia, .ua is very popular in Ukraine, etc.

Re:How about

[somersault]

I like to see UK companies with .co.uk addresses too - especially useful when buying stuff because I know there won't be an issue with shipping, I won't have to use an international credit card, etc

Re:How about

[Chelloveck]

Like having US websites register in the .us domain?
If it's a commercial website it's fine in .com no matter where it's located.

That's pretty much the way it is, but it's not a good system. There's no way of resolving disputes over names, which leads to domain squatting. I'd really like to see the end of all TLDs except for country codes. You want a virtual presence in the US? Register "here-i-am.us". You want to be in China? Register "here-i-am.cn". You want a virtual presence in every country? You'll have to register in every country from .ac to .zw.

From the domain owner's side, it essentially declares in which jurisdiction(s) any disputes are to be resolved. Countries are free to subdivide their own domain space as they see fit, of course, and to impose whatever requirements they deem necessary to register.

Re:How about

[Loki_1929]

"From the domain owner's side, it essentially declares in which jurisdiction(s) any disputes are to be resolved. Countries are free to subdivide their own domain space as they see fit, of course, and to impose whatever requirements they deem necessary to register."

Brilliant! So the next time Pakistan and India get into a diplomatic scuffle bordering on nuclear war, India can invalidate the domain registrations of every Pakistani company, and Pakistan can follow suite, and tens of thousands of businesses and individuals can get screwed out of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars! YAY!

Or...

They could keep a neutral party in charge of given TLDs whose only concern is keeping order within the world of the TLD. No, I like your idea better.

Re:How about

[Chelloveck]

They could keep a neutral party in charge of given TLDs whose only concern is keeping order within the world of the TLD. No, I like your idea better.

You seem to be under the assumption that there is a neutral third-party somewhere.

Besides, I don't actually see a problem of "domain wars" where one country invalidates foreign domains within its own country code. Say India gets pissed at Pakistan and revokes all the "pakistani-companies.in" domains. And Pakistan does the same, revoking all "indian-companies.pk" domains. First, how many Pakistani companies (or organizations, or individuals) do you think would be cross-registering .in domains, and vice-versa? Second, you'll note that the "pakistani-companies.pk" and "indian-companies.in" domains would be completely unaffected. So in practice I suspect such actions would inconvenience exactly no one.

Re:How about

[Workaphobia]

TLDs aren't about solving problems, they're about raking in money on nitch domain names and creating artificial markets. A real solution - or rather, since this is unworkable from the state we're currently in, I'll call it the lost alternative - would be to only allow ccTLDs since they reflect jurisdictions, and then make individual countries responsible for providing all the usual TLDs as subdomains. That way, you don't have as much head-banging about things like a global .xxx domain, and registration of a .com name could be tied to a business entity registered in that particular country. It'd also be nice to have a graceful way for users to select what root nameservers they use for what kinds of domains, and some sort of conventional but not enforced aliasing system, so it wouldn't be necessary to always add .us if you're located in the US.

Basically, make the whole damn thing more hierarchical than ever before, so when someone screws up on a policy decision, it doesn't clog the global namespace.

Re:How about

[houghi]

If it's a commercial website it's fine in .com no matter where it's located.

Except those who use a differnt way of writing. Those whose language does not even know the word "commerical". (and don't get me started on .biz)

Re:How about

[kelnos]

But why? People don't really think hierarchically. When I visit a website, I usually don't care where it's located. Why should I have to type 'slashdot.org.us' in the browser? What about companies or other entities that change their national location (I would imagine this sort of thing might be more common in Europe than in the US)? Do they lose their country-specific domain?

I'd go the other way: eliminate the ccTLDs except for government-related entities. Then you could get rid of .gov and .mil, and have .gov.us, .gov.uk, .gov.es, etc. Only sites that are government-related would go into ccTLDs, and everything else would use the normal .com, .org, etc. TLDs we have now. We could then rethink the TLDs to be more topical and category-oriented than they are now, though that isn't really necessary.

Re:How about

[Workaphobia]

> "But why? People don't really think hierarchically. When I visit a website, I usually don't care where it's located. Why should I have to type 'slashdot.org.us' in the browser?"

There's no need for the hierarchy to be that visible to the user. Simply have the browser, localized for the us, append that to the query. Or do it at the nameserver. The point is that the catagorization exists, not that it be ever present in the user's mind.

> "What about companies or other entities that change their national location (I would imagine this sort of thing might be more common in Europe than in the US)? Do they lose their country-specific domain?"

Why not? If you change physical locations, there's a ton of paperwork and you have to let everyone who cares know your new address. Why should it be different if you move from one jurisdiction to another? If you require a more permanent registration, choose a subdomain that is not bound to your residence.

The only problem would be entities that underplay or have no national affiliation, for example global online communities like open source projects, forums, etc. Still, I think assigning a geographical/jurisdictional label to the domain is preferable to the system we have now.

Re:How about

[raju1kabir]

Personally I think .com should be for international companies/entities, with local companies using local domains.

But almost every company dreams of one day being global. And if they have that ambition, they need to snap up .com now, before someone else does. And since they have it anyway, why postpone the hassle of getting their users to know the .com version of their domain? And so, why waste time on the cctld?

Re:How about

[raju1kabir]

"dotcom" is well-understood in any language spoken by people who use computers.

I will agree that .biz is the stupidest thing since reusable toilet paper. On the other hand, it's slowly gaining the same universal recognition of "dotcom" - people are starting to know that "dotcom" means "web site" and that "dotbiz" means "spammer".

Re:How about

[IBBoard]

Because your country is important? Why does the .com have to be the main site, why not buy the .com when you're international and have it as a landing page for either your investors while the ccTLD is for the general public of that country? (which is the best way I've seen people use the .com/.co.uk combo - .com for investors and corporate information, .co.uk for the shop and related pages)

As for "almost every company" dreaming of being global, there's a number of small companies I've seen who stand no chance of being global because they're just another service provider. They hardly even cover out of the county (which, in the UK, isn't often a huge area). So why do they go for .com instead of .co.uk?

Someone better tell...

[dada21]

...Rick Wakeman and Bill Bruford that their copyright is being violated.

Although I would support maybe the following domain names:

HeatoftheMoment.Asia
TheSmileHasLeftYourEyes.Asia

Re:Someone better tell...

[stoolpigeon]

I just ripped that cd to the hard drive of my laptop not 5 minutes ago. And no - I'm not ashamed.

Re:Someone better tell...

[Applekid]

HeatoftheMoment.Asia
TheSmileHasLeftYourEyes.Asia You beat me to it, good sir. Well played.

Re:Someone better tell...

[tsbiscaro]

Neither Bruford or Wakeman played on ASIA.

ASIA most famous line up:

Steve Howe (Guitar, also Yes member)
Carl Palmer (Drums, Emersonb Lake and Palmer member)
Geoff Downes (Keyboards, Yes and Buggles member)
John Wetton (Bass and Vocals, King Crimson member)

Re:Someone better tell...

[RoyBoy333]

you must be thinking of the short-lived Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anderson_Bruford_Wakeman_Howe

Re:Someone better tell...

[Billosaur]

Of course you shouldn't be ashamed... after all, you did it in the heat of the moment...

Re:Someone better tell...

[stoolpigeon]

I'm slowly getting all my cds ripped. It's funny that I had just done that one this morning. I'm listening to it as I read all these comments.
 
They should follow it up with a .europe tld.

Re:Someone better tell...

[CmdrGravy]

Well the idea is on the loose but you'd probably be a dreamer or quite supersitious to believe it would be agreed before the final countdown is called on the whole top level domains issue.

Re:Someone better tell...

[starglider29a]

Not to mention when Greg Lake briefly did bass/vocals, with Howe And Downes, and drummer Palmer... (Asia in Asia)

I just called it "Yes, Lake and Palmer"

Re:Someone better tell...

[stoolpigeon]

Very nice.
 
I was driving to the grocery store the other night, listening to a classic rock radio station, all the while thinking, "They shouldn't be playing music that I remember being brand new, what seemed not that long ago." Middle age - it's an odd sensation.

Re:Someone better tell...

[Fred_A]

They should follow it up with a .europe tld. Good idea, let's call it .eu for short !

Re:Someone better tell...

[dwye]

> They shouldn't be playing music that I remember being brand new

Just wait until Sympathy For The Devil shows up on Oldies or Easy Listening stations.

quick

[circletimessquare]

someone register these:

Heat-of-the-Moment.Asia

Dont-Cry.Asia

Alpha.Asia

and perhaps:

Carrera.Asia

Argento.Asia

you can thank me later

Re:quick

[4D6963]

Better yet porn.asia

Seriously, this one is gonna be worth millions..

Re:quick

[UbuntuDupe]

You're thinking too small:

euthan.asia

anast.asia

fant.asia

d-.asia/vu

Re:quick

[neoform]

You know how I know you're gay?

You like Asia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCoeDeFZ-ns

Re:quick

[l-ascorbic]

grep 'asia$' /usr/share/dict/words

Re:quick

[paranode]

stopitorillt.asia

Re:quick

[KDR_11k]

we-have-always-been-at-war-with-eur.asia

Re:quick

[ndege]

grep 'asia$' /usr/share/dict/words

From Debian 4.1.1-21:

# grep 'asia$' /usr/share/dict/words
Anastasia
Australasia
Eurasia
Laurasia
Transcaucasia
aphasia
euthanasia
gymnasia

Reverse the question....

[Chyeld]

Is there really a need to avoid proliferation of top level domains? Outside of the old chestnut: "I want to own every domain that could be tied to X"?

Is there some sort of limit where too many top level domains break something?

Because if not, I really don't see the point in worrying about whether we 'need' another top level domain or not. Having more top level domains means more chances that when you look at something, having its domain name can actually tell you something.

Re:Reverse the question....

[Rob T Firefly]

Having more top level domains means more chances that when you look at something, having its domain name can actually tell you something. Yes, it can tell you "I'm paying someone for this domain because shady text-ransoming brokers and spammers have bought up every damn last text combination in my country's assigned .com/.co, .net, and .org TLDs."

Re:Reverse the question....

[Fred_A]

Let's just have every TLA be a TLD and be done with it already.

Re:Reverse the question....

[Doctor Crumb]

The main reason not to add more TLDs is because they make phishing easier. It's like the old whitehouse.com versus whitehouse.gov thing; people are more likely to go to the wrong site if the link differs only by a TLD.

This likely won't be an issue with dot-asia domains, but it is a reason not to add a bunch more TLDs to the already fairly meaningless list.

In other news. . .

[Seumas]

In other news, the western half of the globe now opens ".westernhemisphere" TLD.

or . . .

In other news, insensitive clods still refer to new TLD as "dot-orientals".

Stupid.

Re:In other news. . .

[UbuntuDupe]

In other news, the western half of the globe now opens ".westernhemisphere" TLD. Maybe they'll launch that one by occident! Get it?

I hate life :-(

Re:In other news. . .

[KudyardRipling]

I can see where this is going: .jobstealers .scholarshipsnatchers .economicallyindustriousbutpoliticallycompliant .wewantyourmoneybutnotyourvalues .romheads .youwontseeourfacesintheusamilitary .runwhiteyofftheplanet

The last time there was such angst was on the steppes north of the Caspian Sea about four thousand years ago (when the proto-Europeans were chased out of the space by the proto-jobstealers, etc.).

Re:In other news. . .

[dasunt]

I understand that "Oriental" is considered an offensive term by some, but I really wish that "Asian" didn't replace it. Asia is the largest continent and has a wide amount of human diversity and different ethnic groups. It seems a tad dismissive to use "Asian" as a replacement for "Oriental" (does that make a billion Indians no longer Asian?).

Re:In other news. . .

[shutdown -p now]

Wouldn't that rather be the ".free" domain?

First dibs

[James_Duncan8181]

mal.asia?

Also relatively rapid post!

Re:First dibs

[Stonent1]

youthin.asia

Re:First dibs

[meta coder]

camt.asia
aph.asia
disph.asia

Re:First dibs

[E 99]

fant.asia?
kinesth.asia?
auditoryaph.asia?
theorientnotsoutheast.asia?

Re:First dibs

[TeknoHog]

youthin.asia

You obviously have trouble connecting the spelling and pronunciation of a word ('euthanasia' in this case) together, which could be a sign of dysph.asia.

The possibilities!

[PlatyPaul]

fant.asia, your.asia, anast.asia... the list goes on and on.

More interestingly, though, will be the issue when countries fail to establish control over things like india.asia, china.asia, etc. I have to wonder, though: given the "worldwide" attitude of the web, do we really need to make geographic distinctions at the TLD?

Re:The possibilities!

[Billosaur]

You know Disney will want fant.asia...

Re:The possibilities!

[ThirdPrize]

On the contents of that post I would suggest euthan.asia.

Re:The possibilities!

[Rob T Firefly]

I have to wonder, though: given the "worldwide" attitude of the web, do we really need to make geographic distinctions at the TLD? Apart from looking up the whois for every site you hit, it's the first indicator of the physical location of a person or persons you may be interested in contacting. That could be important information if you're looking to do business, look for dates, or.. er... whatever it is people do over the web that isn't buying, selling, or flirting.

Hmmm....

[Otter]

I immediately ran out to grab euthan.asia, but registration seems to be limited to trademark holders right now.

Then came back here figuring the same comment had already been made, but people seem to have jumped on references to the 80's band instead.

And now you find yourself in 82. The disco hot spots hold no charm for you.

Re:Hmmm....

[Billosaur]

I immediately ran out to grab euthan.asia, but registration seems to be limited to trademark holders right now.

Change your name to Euthan and become "Euthan the Magnificent, Master of Technology." Voila! Trademark and you're done.

Re:Hmmm....

[russ1337]

I immediately ran out to grab euthan.asia, but registration seems to be limited to trademark holders right now.

I hope that when you do setup your .asia site, you follow the appropriate formating and layout rules, as it is a requirement that all the .asia sites look the same.

Obvouis 1984 domain

[InterBigs]

I want the domeinname eur.asia. Not only will it give me teh leet status on IRC, but it will also make me seem lettered and well-read.

Re:Obvouis 1984 domain

[TheRaven64]

You post won't however, make you seem geographically educated. Eurasia is the name given to the continent which includes Europe and Asia (the division between which is political, rather than geographical). See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasia

Re:Obvouis 1984 domain

[NewsWatcher]

"You post won't however, make you seem geographically educated. Eurasia is the name given to the continent which includes Europe and Asia"

Don't be so sure. That Europe and Asia is a single continental landmass is not 100 per cent accurate. The reason the Himalayas are so huge is because you effectively have a subduction zone where two pieces of continental lithosphere meet. The Indian Plate and the Eurasian Plate.

So in a nutshell, Eurasia is a single continental landmass if you exlude India, which is politically part of Asia. Ipso facto, Eurasia geographically refers to Europe and Asia, minus India.

meh...

[cosmocain]

...first they cut off the xxx-tld and now - now they open up one for special interests? i demand .midget

Re:meh...

[djh101010]

...first they cut off the xxx-tld and now - now they open up one for special interests? i demand .midget
Sorry, not at this time, but check back shortly.

Re:meh...

[cosmocain]

I'm pretty sure the demand for that tld will be too short.

such two-dimensional thinking mustn't be supported!

Re:meh...

[Chelloveck]

...first they cut off the xxx-tld and now - now they open up one for special interests? i demand .midget

But where would midget porn go? .xxx or .midget? I think we'll need a .midget-xxx TLD before too long.

And if you think .asia is a bad domain name...

[rdwald]

Just wait until .berlin and .nyc come online. I mean, at least the culture-based domains (.cat for Catalan culture, and the proposed .bzh, .cym, and .gal) are for areas not already defined by the underutilized country code TLDs.

Re:And if you think .asia is a bad domain name...

[drapeau06]

Is ICANN composed of only "cat people" or is there also a .dog available?

"sex.asia" could not be found.

[Janek Kozicki]

Check that you are connected to the internet, and that the address is correct.

If this page used to exist, you may find an archived version:

• in the Google Cache
• in the Internet Archive

Re:"sex.asia" could not be found.

[LynnwoodRooster]

No sex in Asia, that can't be right! How else do you get 1.3 billion Chinese and 1 billion Indians?

No thanks

[Billosaur]

I'll wait for .antarctica to become available.

Re:No thanks

[Jugalator]

That would be .aq. :-)

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:aq

Re:No thanks

[Corporate Troll]

.aq

Popular searches

[highlander76]

'Our research has found that Asia is one of the most searched-for terms and by having a .asia website, your ranking on Google or Yahoo will become much higher.' WIth that logic look for the new .britanyspears domain coming soon!

It's like that audio daily double

[DeafDumbBlind]

"Name this continent"
"Asia"

Re:It's like that audio daily double

[phobos13013]

EENNNNNNNNNNHH! I'm sorry, you did not phrase your response in the form of a question.

Great, next we need.

[Usefull Idiot]

.na - North America .ca - Central America .car - Caribbean .sa - South America .eu - Europe .me - Middle East .ar - Arctic .an - Antarctic .af - Africa .nh - Northern Hemisphere .sh - Southern Hemisphere .eh - Eastern Hemisphere .wh - Western Hemisphere .eq - Equator .tcn - Tropic of Cancer .tcp - Tropic of Capricorn .np - North Pole .sp - South Pole .mn - Magnetic North .pm - Prime Meridian .isl - Miscellaneous Islands

Anything else I'm missing? Why not just start using degrees latitude and longitude in the tlds as well, just because we want as many as possible, right?

Re:Great, next we need.

[ZigMonty]

Pretty sure .ca is already taken...

Re:Great, next we need.

[Anonymous Coward]

There is already a .eu

Re:Great, next we need.

[KayakFun]

Actually, .eu already exists.

Maybe the people who live between .ca and .mx can start using .us instead of poluting .com with non-commercial or non-USA websites (if you care about using the most meaningful TLD)

Re:Great, next we need.

[IBBoard]

Oh dear, that screws Namibia, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Montenegro out of their TLDs from the first six alone! :D Plus one is already in existence, so you've got the first six TLDs with four taken by nations and one that's already there.

Re:Great, next we need.

[Bitsy Boffin]

.aq is Antarctica, not currently in use, but assigned none-the-less

Re:Great, next we need.

[Kalriath]

Not in use? There are over 5,000 hits on Google for entities with .aq addresses: http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=site%3A.aq&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

That doesn't look like "not in use" to me.

Re:Great, next we need.

[Bitsy Boffin]

Right you are, there's no whois for it, and no (online) registrar that I know of, so I just assumed it was an inactive tld, but as usual, google knows all.

search / TLD

[Sparr0]

Who told them that TLDs have any effect on search with regards to keywords? I don't get more .net sites just by having "net" in my search terms (just had to go verify that).

Re:search / TLD

[OrangeTide]

They just need an excuse to have their TLD and a way to market it. Just because it's an untruth that it increases a site's ranking does not mean that it still not useful for selling those sites a worthless domain.

Re:search / TLD

[rs79]

No, but (with google at least) you can restrct searchs to a domain and all domains are treated equally.

So, "foo site:asia" as a google search term would find occurences of "foo" in sites with a .asia tld.

(This is handy and fun when you look at "site:gov" stuff)

Nevermind the need, they got the term wrong

[TheAxeMaster]

The most searched for term on the internet is "asian" not "Asia." I propose a .asian TLD so that the porn surfers (me included) can have maximum search efficiency!

Search Terms...

[Androclese]

What they fail to tell us is that the matching search term was "girls"...

How many?

[UnderDark]

Really, how many goatse.* does the Internet need?

Re:How many?

[antifoidulus]

Obviously he is going to have to start a world tour now. Goatse man on the Great Wall of China, in front of the Taj Mahal, outside the Japanese imperial palace etc.

Re:How many?

[russlar]

Really, how many goatse.* does the Internet need? None. What the Internet really needs is a .goatse TLD.

how about .slash?

[jolyonr]

Then we could have http://slashdot.slash/

Jolyon

Re:how about .slash?

[IBBoard]

I'd be careful. Slashdot would probably then end up on a TLD with a load of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash_fiction]gay porn story[/url] sites ;)

It's worrying what you find out people write when your wife is involved in Harry Potter fanfiction 8|

Re:how about .slash?

[rs79]

"Then we could have http://slashdot.slash/"

Point of trivia: ".dot" was the very first alternative TLD, it came up on the usenet II (nee BOFH) newsgroup mailing list. I pointed slash.dot to slashdot for ages but nobody ever used it. This was about 10 years ago

% dig dot. ns
 
; <<>> DiG 9.3.0 <<>> dot. ns
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 55770
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;dot. IN NS
 
;; ANSWER SECTION:
dot. 518381 IN NS aardvark.wr.umist.ac.uk.
dot. 518381 IN NS matterhorn.nielsen.net.
dot. 518381 IN NS ns1.op.net.

Something I always wondered...

[scarboni888]

Is there really a need to have a limitation of the number of top-level domains?

you win

[circletimessquare]

that's a far superior list ;-)

Obligatory

[Jedi Alec]

http://never.fight.a.landwar.in.asia/ !

Re:Obligatory

[Glowing Fish]

But fighting two is fine!

Just the need...

[rickb928]

...to sell the same obvious domain names over and over and over again. You know the drill:

- Create new TLD.

- Sell domain names to corporations again.

- ???

- Profit!

It's a good thing. For someone else.

My captcha for this post: 'proffer'. Damn, but he's good.

4 letter TLDs?

[nurb432]

That isn't a good precedent. Soon it will be total chaos.. 3 letters is bad enough.

Whats next 5? How about an entire sentence..

Re:4 letter TLDs?

[darthflo]

Precedent? Ever heard of .aero?
By the way: .museum is available, too.

Re:4 letter TLDs?

[nurb432]

.info is also 4letters. ( and is also wrong )

I realize that this isn't the *first* but i bet its the first widely used one, especially to designate a region as apposed to a function.

Re:4 letter TLDs?

[rs79]

.nato was the first 4 letter tld. It was added when a general called IANA and insisted it be put in back in the 80s. It was removed by Postel as cruft around 96 or 97 when somebody pointed out it was still in the root zone file.

Let's not forget ".museum" which led to such important names as "swiss.frog.museum" sadly now taken down, but archive.org remembers: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://swiss.frog.museum

Re:4 letter TLDs?

[l-ascorbic]

How about six?

Re:4 letter TLDs?

[raju1kabir]

.nato was the first 4 letter tld. It was added when a general called IANA and insisted it be put in back in the 80s. It was removed by Postel as cruft around 96 or 97 when somebody pointed out it was still in the root zone file.

Before .arpa, which was created on the same day as .com, .net, .mil, .org, and .edu?

Domain Name: ARPA
Registrar: INTERNET ASSIGNED NUMBERS AUTHORITY (2)
Creation Date: 01-jan-1985
Expiration Date: 31-dec-2099

I hope they didn't pay Verisign rates!

Re:4 letter TLDs?

[rs79]

Verisign didn't exist then and Netsol hadn't got the Internic contract yet. The SRI-Nic was keeping track of stuff (albeit badly). Nato was created after the other 7.

That's Easy enough...

[Beefslaya]

Adding *.asia to the spam filter's list of blocked domains. :)

Of *course* there's a need

[jra]

If we have *enough* TLDs, then people will (forcibly) stop {succumbing to,giving}
advice to register their trade name in "every available TLD"... which is a) moronic, b) counterproductive, and c) breaks the DNS rather badly.

Chris Ambler (whose .web proposal is *still* on the shelf, almost 10 years later) had this stuff figured out years ago: let anyone who wants to become a registry, as long as they prove financial and technical aptitude, and post a bond, along with plans for what happens if they tank.

But no, it's all Layer 8 and 9 crap, instead of engineering, as usual.

Re:Of *course* there's a need

[rs79]

Chris is being punished by ICANN for working withing the alternative root system. He'll either never or will be the last to get .web into the root. Interestingly Darth Cerf refused to give .web to anybody else at the (lame) Marina Del Rey ICANN meeting in 2000 because he knew .web has already been deployed (and that Chris would sue him) despite giving .biz to somebody else when it had been deployed for 4-5 years already.

From the archives:

Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 12:40:30 -0700
From: Jon Postel
To: rick@uunet.uu.net
Subject: Re: ISOC Statement on Domain Name Fees
 
Rick:
 
I think this introduction of charging by the Intenic for domain
registrations is sufficient cause to take steps to set up a small
number of alternate top level domains managed by other registration
centers.
 
I'd like to see some competition between registration services to
encourage good service at low prices.
 
I do think we need to proceed with some care, to understand what are
the requirements and responsibilities of these service centers, what
informatrion they have to provide to the community, what oversight they
are subject to and by whom, etc.
 
I'd be happy if you could help me come up with a plan for this.
 
--jon
 
--
 
From: Simon Higgs
 
  Cerf: Alternate roots are "cyber-squatting at the top level."
  http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/stockholm/archive/scribe-bod-060401.html
 
Chris & I were in the IANA conference room (next to Postel's office). Bill
Manning said "go set up your registries or we won't be able to give your
application full consideration".

And as long as I'm here I can't resist throwing these up:

From: Einar Stefferud
 
Sometimes the resilience of the Internet to stupidity truly astounds me.
 
--
 
Andy Mueller-Maguhn, one of five at-large board members elected late
last year, abstained from a vote to approve the minutes of the previous
meeting, explaining he had not read any such minutes.
 
"Fifteen minutes later it was discovered that there were no minutes,"
Muller-Maguhn said. "But that is the mentality on the ICANN board:
Always to say yes. It's a lot like in the old East Germany."
 
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44404,00.html

.eu

[jra]

You're, um, not familiar with it?

Re:.eu

[remahl]

.eu is for the European Union, not for Europe.

Re:.eu

[stoolpigeon]

europe was another 80's band like asia. it was a joke.

Let's simplify it even more.

[Toonol]

... and introduce a ".foriegn" domain. Then all those other people would have their own domain, and we would have .com, .net, .org, .gov, and .edu. The grouping makes logical sense... they are all foriegn.

Re:Let's simplify it even more.

[Just Some Guy]

introduce a ".foriegn" domain

How about .misspelled?

>

Need for domains

[Romwell]

Of course there is need for new TLD's. Not stupid ones like .asia though, more like .xxx and .porn

too small?

[cliveholloway]

"You're thinking too small"

You obviously haven't seen Asia Carrera's breasts?

.asia over .xxx??

[Dretep]

I think there's a bigger need for .xxx than .asia, no?

New domain! Free pr0n!

[Yvan256]

www.hentai-tentacles.asia

Eh, it's just a joke, it's not a real domain. Yet.

Re:I bet the first domain with .asia

[cashman73]

I think I'll go ahead and register euthin .asia ...

Do we need more...

[guruevi]

Is there really a need for more top level domains

Yes, there can always be more. We like MORE TLD's so domain squatters can spend MORE of their money on pointless domains up to the point it doesn't become profitable enough. Next to that, it's also easier to filter the net if you can tell Amavis to always add +5 to domains coming from asia, russia and china without having to query a freakin' GeoIP database.

Soviet Slashdot

[gr8dude]

Too bad, that won't allow you to see http://www.slashdot.ru/ ;-)

tag: allowarbitrarytld

[rjamestaylor]

Why not just allow arbitrary TLDs? Keep registration requirements to avoid collision and provide for consistency, but otherwise just open the TLD up to who-so-ever will.

Instead of ibm.com, ibm.biz, ibm.net, ibm.org, ibm.info... just...

ibm
gnu
slashdot
google

of course, amazondotcom, etc.

Re:XXX & SEX most searched for terms

[rs79]

Actually ICANN approved (afer several iterations) the .xxx proposal and sent it up to its overlord, the US Department of Commerce for rubber stamping to include it in the (legacy) root zone. Keep in mind the GAC ("Government Advisory Committee") of ICANN hadn't said anything about it and they have de facto veto rights to the spineless entity that is ICANN.

But, a newly Bush appointed director of the commerce department got a phone call.

Turns out Karl Rove had got a letter from a large (read "powerful") southern religous organization with three demands: 1) no gay marriage 2) no stem cell resrarch 3) no .xxx.

Rove picked up the phone to them and said "I think I can help you with that third one", called commerce and nixed the .xxx tld. America then denouced the tld, Australia followed suit (a ex government wonk from Aus., Paul Twomey was instrumental in getting ICANN started and was an ICANN CEO for a while) and, presumably as favours were called in, other world governments expressed displeasure with .xxx. It is now dead, Jim.

Theory: ICANN has a narrow mandate of technical administration of names and numbers on the internet by measuring and implementeing "community consensus". That's what's on paper.

Reality: it's all trademark lawyers, registrars and government officials; they do as they please.

That whiting sound you hear is Jon Postel spinning in his grave at 15,000 RPM. This is exactly the thing he worled so hard to prevent before he died suddenly durng the formation of ICANN.

I disagree...

[moriya]

There are about 3 more TLDs we can add that will definitely improve the internet experience.. .idiot .moron .retard

Thankfully, I'm only just an idiot. But we can always have someone register a person's name on all three (a certain Jack comes to mind)

DNS is Hosed.

[IdeaMan]

DNS should be traffic based.
I.e. you should be able to register for any DNS entry you want, but in the case of multiple registrations, sort the choice of which site to go to by traffic. You could set a threshold of say if site has had > 100k hits, and gets > 75% hits, default to the most popular site.
Why on earth would we have to PAY for little bits of electronic data? And we did it to ourselves...

... next up a fix for the whole stupid paying for website certificates boondoggle.

Re:DNS is Hosed.

[Kalriath]

Your ideas are stupid, and I would like to unsubscribe from your newsletter.

Seriously though, the paying for certificates is the only thing that prevents any old idiot from getting one and diluting the one tiny remaining speck of trust in them. Next, you'll want Extended Verification Certificates free too (which cost for a reason).

Re:I bet the first domain with .asia

[xvx]

I just want band.asia so I can have the vhost loves.the.band.asia

Actually, an Antarctic domain already exists

[Artifice_Eternity]

The TLD for Antarctica is .aq. Yes, it's real.

That's weird..

[rastoboy29]

It's the .asia TLD...in English.

Re:I bet the first domain with .asia

[MadMidnightBomber]

I think I'll go ahead and register illitera.cy

Update Bookmarks

[rolando2424]

Well, I'll have too update the wowgold.com to wowgold.asia now.

Was that really necessary?