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Hundreds of New TLDs Coming — Question Is When

Posted by timothy on from the getcher-squatter-gun-ready dept.

netbuzz writes "A controversial plan to introduce hundreds of new top-level domains could be headed for the fast track to implementation or something more akin to the back burner, depending on what ICANN makes of public comments due to close at the end of this month. At most immediate issue is whether the process of granting these new TLDs will feature a pre-registration process that proponents say is necessary to accurately gauge the depth of interest and skeptics fear as moving too fast too soon. Says one critic: 'In effect, it's like ICANN saying we don't know what route this race is going to take or the shape of the track, but we're going to fire the starting gun anyway.'"

3 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. The original summary from the article. by stephanruby · · Score: 2, Interesting
    The original summary reads as follows:

    A controversial plan to introduce hundreds of new top-level domains into the Internet has reached a crossroads: The plan will either be accelerated or delayed based on public comments due at the end of January.

    I'm glad that here at Slashdot, we have submitters/editors that dumb down the original summaries for us.

  2. Long overdue by Low+Ranked+Craig · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The only reason that .com was so popular was due to marketing; practically no one in meatspace knows what .com even means. It's just a freaking address for Christ's sake. We need a metric shit ton of new TLDs so that we can get away from "premium" TLDs. It's a lot like when they rolled out 888 and 877 toll-free numbers; 800 numbers commanded a premium, due to marketing. it's a just a phone number, if your customers can find you who cares? Besides, do you really want a customer that is ignorant enough not to call you or visit your site because you don't have an 800 number or a .com domain? I do have a number of .com domains, but I really wish the importance of the TLDs would diminish.

    Oh, and fuck domain squaters.

    --
    I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
  3. Scarcity / Squatters by chapstercni · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Several things imo.

    As websites increase in number, the typical need for more unique domains increase. If a significant number of unique names are all tried to pull from a small number of TLD's, this makes it more difficult to find an available name that fits what you are trying to do. A substantial number of domains are tied up because of the squatters.

    If the REAL cost was ten bucks a year or so to keep a domain, the squatting would go down. Remember when .com was $50.00 a year? The really juicy names would still be squatted on. With business.com selling for how many millions?

    If a lot of new .TLD's are opened up, then it will be easy for you to get a domain you want. Say, bobspizza.newtld. If there is a real baseline of cost that makes it unlikely that people will squat on these new domains, then they will be available for business/people/organizations to use. However, .com is STILL the king of domains, and is what people want. But increase the supply say with 100 new TLD's (or more), and the impact of .com will be lessened, and the cost of squatting will become just too much.

    I've noticed that organizations and businesses are using facebook/wordpress for websites a lot nowadays. With no TLD at all.

    Will be interesting to see how this all plays out.