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ICANN Board Approves Wide Expansion of TLDs

penciling_in writes "The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved the relaxation of the rules for the introduction of new Top-Level Domains — a move that could drastically change the Internet. 'We are opening up a new world and I think this cannot be underestimated,' said Roberto Gaetano, an ICANN board member. The future outcome of this decision was discussed on Slashdot a few days ago. It also seems, based on this post on CircleID from last month, that ICANN was already in preparation mode of mass TLD introductions. The new decision will allow companies to register their brands as generic top-level domain names (TLDs). For instance, Microsoft could apply to have a TLD such as '.msn', Apple apply for '.mac', and Google for '.goog'... The decision was taken unanimously on Thursday, June 26, 2008 at the 32nd ICANN Meeting in Paris."

39 of 490 comments (clear)

  1. The end of ctrl+enter days? by pwnies · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I sincerely hope that this doesn't become too commonplace, and that .com, .net, and .org don't just get thrown out the window. Call me lazy, but I love being able to ctrl+enter, shift+enter, and ctrl+shift+enter to auto-complete .com/.net/.org respectively. Typing "www.search.google" is just more tedious than typing, "google [ctrl][enter]"

    1. Re:The end of ctrl+enter days? by Gewalt · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Take a lesson from the idiots. Many times I have seen /.r's mocking end users for using the search feature on their homepage to get to another website, instead of using the address bar. I don't find that feature idiotic at all, and I use that behavior myself. The more and more TLDs we get, the more convenient this "feature" of a modern homepage becomes. And don't moan about have to use the mouse to click the first entry, most users would have had to use the mouse to even put the cursor in the address bar anyways, not to mention click the mouse a predetermined number of times between 1 and 3 just to be able to start tying a random URL.

      --
      Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
    2. Re:The end of ctrl+enter days? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Firefox 3's location bar makes this trivial. Just type "google [down] [enter]" and if you're already a frequent Google user, it should be the first entry.

      Manually entering URLs is becoming obsolete anyway. Either tools like FF3's amazing bar, or just Google'ing for the page are the best.

      In Japan, ads don't even show URLs anymore - just a search query.

    3. Re:The end of ctrl+enter days? by BungaDunga · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Couldn't there be www.google? ie, domain "www" TLD "google".

    4. Re:The end of ctrl+enter days? by alphaseven · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I sincerely hope that this doesn't become too commonplace, and that .com, .net, and .org don't just get thrown out the window. Call me lazy, but I love being able to ctrl+enter, shift+enter, and ctrl+shift+enter to auto-complete .com/.net/.org respectively. Typing "www.search.google" is just more tedious than typing, "google [ctrl][enter]" There are already quite a few popular sites that use "unusual" TLDs like last.fm, del.icio.us and blip.tv and it never struck me as a problem.
    5. Re:The end of ctrl+enter days? by Solandri · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Take a lesson from the idiots. Many times I have seen /.r's mocking end users for using the search feature on their homepage to get to another website, instead of using the address bar. I don't find that feature idiotic at all, and I use that behavior myself.
      When I need to go to a new site for a financial transaction (e.g. opening a new bank account), I always get there via a Google search instead of typing it directly. If I enter the address directly and make a subtle typo, I could end up at some scammer's site made to look like the real thing so they can steal my personal info. If I go through Google and make a typo, Google usually suggests the correct name. Even when it doesn't, I can usually tell by the search results that I've made a typo.
    6. Re:The end of ctrl+enter days? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Why www.search.google? Plain google will redirect to search the same way google.com redirect to www.google.com.

    7. Re:The end of ctrl+enter days? by geminidomino · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You do realize you don't need YubNub for that, right?

      Right click on any input field, "Create a keyword for this field", bada bing

      I've got
      wp - wikipedia
      gf - gamefaqs.com
      gw - guildwars.wikia.com
      g - google.com
      gi - google.com/images

      etc...

    8. Re:The end of ctrl+enter days? by hackstraw · · Score: 3, Insightful

      TLDs are pointless.

      Proof:

      http://slashdot.com/
      http://www.google.net/
      http://www.microsoft.net/
      http://www.craigslist.com/

      All of those are paid for by their respective owners, and they redirect or just display the content of the "real" TLD.

      Country codes would be nice, its annoying to go to a .com and find I'm in the UK, and I'm not going to order from them.

      If I want to go to a company's website, I don't type www.barnes and noble.net, I ask google for it. Also, with the typosquatting, and whatnot, typing urls is simply unsafe. I do use the URL's history. s completes to slashdot, and whatnot. Just in case you need rock hard erections go to http://www.slashdot.net/

    9. Re:The end of ctrl+enter days? by TubeSteak · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There are already quite a few popular sites that use "unusual" TLDs like last.fm, del.icio.us and blip.tv and it never struck me as a problem. .fm, .us, and .tv are the TLDs of Countries.
      Federated States of Micronesia, United States, and Tuvalu respectively
       
      They are not vanity TLDS.
      And more importantly, there is an inherent limit to the number that can be created.
      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    10. Re:The end of ctrl+enter days? by el+americano · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Those all give a page load error for me. I think your browser wants to be involved in the decision making process.

      --
      Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others. -Groucho Marx
    11. Re:The end of ctrl+enter days? by prod-you · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You obviously haven't used Firefox 3 yet.

    12. Re:The end of ctrl+enter days? by pbhj · · Score: 2, Insightful

      [...] a few popular sites that use "unusual" TLDs like last.fm, del.icio.us and blip.tv and it never struck me as a problem. Those aren't unusual TLDs they're entirely generic and fit in the system of geographic TLDs.

      Basically they are going to screw up the system to allow anything that makes more money for the ICANN executives. No?

      There's still hope I think. If the major search engines chose to give a negative weighting to these new TLDs then ICANN wouldn't be able to screw quite so much out of the entire globes businesses - businesses can't afford to not control the website at theirdomain.tld, especially if there's a chance it can rank higher than theirdomain.com (eg if hte TLD is a keyword for that business).

      I wonder how they're going to open bidding and how I can pounce ".sex", ".money", etc.. Presumably they'll auction it as that's the most evil way to maximise their profits.

      If ICANN are going to follow this route then they could just go the whole hogg and allow alpha string with spaces as delimiters. Oh but I'm forgetting, artificial scarcity inflates the price for them .... capitalist pigs.

  2. Re:Slashdot can finally be what it wants by mlwmohawk · · Score: 3, Insightful
  3. So wait.... by porcupine8 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let's say Apple registers .apple or .ipod. Do they automatically get ALL of the possible domains within that TLD? If not, who controls the TLD? If .apple is a TLD, can I go to GoDaddy and register porcupine.apple? If they do control it, do they have to pay to register domains within their own TLD? Or does this deal come with free unlimited domains?

    --
    Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
  4. Re:There will be some good from this. by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Talk about printing your own money.

    This is like paying the city to give your driveway a name, so you can brag about what a blue blood you are for having your own street.

    --
    -1 Uncomfortable Truth
  5. Possibly the stupidest idea ever by lusiphur69 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hmmm..let's open up the TLD's so that DNS servers will become overcrowded with useless DNS information that will quickly go out of date and throw the usability and simplicity of the current schema right out the window.

    Additionally, of course, common folk will have more trouble getting a domain name for that personal website/application because the fees are going to increase exponetially.

    Cash-in for ICANN - and end users lose.

  6. God help us by nurb432 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This will only cause more confusion, especially to the average person.

    But they get more $ out of the extra registrations, so we know why it *really* happened.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  7. more cyber-squatting? by pak9rabid · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I what impact this will have on cyber-squatting.

  8. Re:This is going to suck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Then don't. Vote with your fingers and ummm... go somewhere else.

  9. Re:Slashdot can finally be what it wants by masterzora · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But http://slashdot.dot/ leads to an equal number of slashes and dots (not to mention maximizing the number of slashes and dots with out making the URL tedious). Surely this is a good thing?

    --
    Remember, open source is free as in speech, not free as in bear.
  10. So what! by Wowsers · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I have .com's .net's and two different country's domains. I have no interest to waste more money on domains just because they changed the end suffix. It will all end up as a fiasco for popular suffix's like .tv (overpriced). No doubt .sex will still not be allowed. Will ICANN allow every registrar to register any .suffix or will that be restricted as well?

    --
    Take Nobody's Word For It.
  11. "As if the internet didn't have enough arbitrary" by Animaether · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "As if the internet didn't have enough arbitrary hodge-podge already."

    It does - just look at Slashdot. It's hardly an 'organization' (.org), especially now that it's owned by a commercial entity (.com). Heck, it started out as somebody's personal little site.. happened to be an american (.us).

    Tons more examples of current sites being on domains that they 'shouldn`t' be in, and also a lot of examples of where that is the case simply because sites change over time.

    So if all of it is pretty much arbitrary anyway, then why not do away with it?

    Heck, some people already have... *entirely*

    For example: http://bi/
    ( disregard any re-direction by browser to www.bi.com ; open a shell, go ping 'bi'. If you're on windows, go ping 'bi.' or it will look for a local host)

    I understand the many technical, psychological, financial, etc. reasons against this. But in terms of organization - we don't have any anyway.

  12. Re:Abuse of TLDs by Amouth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    persontal i want to try and get .local

    just so i can fuck with all the small biz NT/AD domain installs out there that doen't use a fully qualified name

    as soon as .local is resolvable soooo many people are going to have a bad day

    --
    '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
  13. Great idea. Terrible implementation. by ivan256 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Instead of letting people own/register a TLD, they should have just let people register domains in *any* TLD.

  14. Hello www.m.i.c.r.o.s.o.f.t, www.m.i.c.r.o.s.o.ft, by mkcmkc · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Frankly, I fail to see how this is an improvement, as opposed to (say) yanking Network Solutions' monopoly...

    --
    "Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
  15. Back to the future by Todd+Knarr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And so it comes full circle. The ancient flat hosts file that the ARPAnet used way back in it's early days, the one that was abandoned in favor of hierarchical DNS because it wasn't possible to manage a flat namespace when the net was a few thousand machines, returns. What, you think the companies that insist on registering every variation of their name in every domain in existence won't insist on having their own TLD too? And we'll be back to hostnames being of the form "ford". And "fordfocus". And "focus". And "myfocus". And "myford". All belonging to Ford Motors. And the inevitable fights when Focus Magazine (a fine-art photography magazine) also wants "focus" and has the trademark to justify getting it just as much as Ford.

    Siiiiiigh...

  16. Re:Those're gonna be some fun router tables by DarthBart · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't know about you, but none of my router tables have DNS names in them.

  17. Re:Interesting reversal by Caldrak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They feared the study that shows that 90% of all traffic that's not torrents relating to copyrighted material points to the red light district.

  18. Makes no difference by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    .com, .net, and .org domains will still hold the most legitimacy. How many large companies have you seen switch to predominantly .biz or .info domains?

  19. The rich take all? by Excelcia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem I have is with the dispute resolution system. According to Paul Twomey of ICANN (as quoted by the BBC), "[i]f there is a dispute, we will try and get the parties together to work it out. But if that fails there will be an auction and the domain will go to the highest bidder."

    So, I pick a name, and McDeepPockets comes along and thinks, hey, that's a great idea - I'll just take that, thank-you. They "dispute" it, and ICANN's response is... well, if you really can't settle your differences, high bidder gets it. Wow... that's going to make for a pretty mercenary internet.

  20. Re:Interesting reversal by Bogtha · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The difference is that the supporters of .xxx could only get what they wanted if the rest of the net became a porn-free zone.

    I supported the xxx TLD and you aren't describing what I wanted at all. Just because some people wanted all porn to go in its own TLD, it doesn't mean people shouldn't be able to choose an xxx domain voluntarily.

    So it was about censorship and control.

    That much is right. You can't have an xxx domain even if you want to. That's censorship and control all right.

    --
    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
  21. Then what's the point of subdomains. by Stopher2475 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    By expannding the TLC to anything what is the point of having subdomains in the first place? This is basically just reselling the value of anyone who bought a .com address.

  22. Re:Slashdot can finally be what it wants by danbert8 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If that were symmetrical wouldn't it be http://slashdot.todhsals/?

    --
    Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
  23. Re:There will be some good from this. by whackco · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I am more interested in seeing a list of the immediatly blocked list.

    One thing they would want to block is the .local - this is very common in Active Directory structures to differentiate the LAN/WAN environments.

    Imagine if some company bought the .local and started to be able to randomly answer requests from around the world of millions of potential queries?

    This brings up a good point, if you want to look at where this can be exploited, simply look at the dropped and invalid query records of the current root servers. I just hope they have some common sense... oh wait...

  24. COM is already 'level 0' by argent · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hey, I was all about opening up the TLDs back in the '80s, I worked on getting one of the first open TLDs (.dot) running under The Internet Namespace Cooperative (TINC). But it doesn't matter any more.

    Because "COM" is "the" top level. Who the hell cares about "name" or "per" or the rest of the "we are not COM, but..." domains? It's too late, it's a done deal, "COM" is the top level, everything else is parochial.

    So don't fight over who's going to be ".sex", people will still pay more for "sex.com", and when you say your email address is "you@yourname" you better make sure that "you@yourname.com" works as well.

    1. Re:COM is already 'level 0' by otmar · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This a quite US-centric view.

      In most other countries, the local ccTLD is the default where people look for company websites.

  25. Phishing by Hatta · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wait until someone registers the .con TLD. http://www.mybank.con/

    --
    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  26. Re:Woohoo by Workaphobia · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Dead on commentary. I suppose we all should have seen this coming. Why is it that some people can't grasp the beauty of a tree structure?

    --
    Evidently, the key to understanding recursion is to begin by understanding recursion. The rest is easy.