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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."

15 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 BungaDunga · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

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

      You obviously haven't used Firefox 3 yet.

  2. 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.
  3. 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
  4. 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.

  5. 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 ----
  6. 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.
  7. 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.'
  8. 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...

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  12. 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...