Slashdot Mirror
Startup Applies For 307 GTLDs
itwbennett writes "Startup Donuts has set its sights on being a domain-name registry. With $100 million in venture capital in its pocket, Donuts has applied for 307 of the most generic of generic top-level domains. The new domains will be targeted toward specific services, said Jon Nevett, a cofounder and vice president of corporate affairs at Donuts. For example, the .tickets domain would be where Web users could expect to go to buy event tickets. 'There will be more names geared toward what consumers are looking for,' Nevett said."
tickets.domain.com
Next?
Life is not for the lazy.
Everything old comes back it seems. Why does this look exactly like AOL Keywords reborn?
We know nobody will be bothering registering subdomains on these turds. It will just be 'tickets' resold to the highest bidder.
Democrat delenda est
Is there a list of the 307 gTLD's? Isn't this story less than complete without it?
> For example, the .tickets domain would be where Web users could expect to go to buy event tickets.
I regularly start with a TLD and work backwards when I'm looking for things, rather than searching Google...
*facepalm*
People use google or another search engine.
I've seen less-computer-literate people type in the entire URL into google (e.g. open google, and type in cnn.com/search to go to CNN's website)
What an evil, scummy corporation. BS on "startup." This a bunch of back room money men.
That is too much non-specific not enough cash being paid to me.
Now you'll be going to domain.tickets for your ticketing needs.
In your example the user would need to know which domain to go to while in the new paradigm the user will only need to know what domain to go to. Much more efficient. Particularly since I did not have the funding/foresight to buy tickets.com when it was available.
On a less ridiculous note, I can see the ".web" gTLD but the others are just STUPID. .vodka ? .restaurant ? .doctor ?
I really hope they revise this back to its original intent of corporate brands rather than generics.
Then again, one could argue that domains have become brands rather than the other way around, e.g. "flowers.com," which has no meaning without the TLD, so I suppose you could indeed have DotFlowers for the *.flowers TLD.
Wow, this is messy.
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
Seems to me that in 18-24 months we'll be reading about how these guys pissed better part of $100M down the drain. Perhaps I'm being too optimistic with the 18-24 months time frame?
The more TLDs we create, the more opportunities there are for Phishers. For example, let's say there is a hypothetical TLD for .bank . And so someone registers Bankofamerica.bank as a phishing site. Well, lets say there is another one that is .finance, etc. So now as a precaution if you are Bank of America you have to register bankofamerica.com, .org, .net, .us, .bank, .finance, etc. all to redirect to your main site to stop phishers. Now then you've got to worry about typos... etc.
.org, .net, .com, a handful of others and then country coded ones?
What's wrong with just having
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
I could see the point of this in '96-'97. Now, not so much.
The more of these garbage TLDs are registered, the more valuable becomes .com.
There will be more names geared toward what consumers are looking for,' Nevett said.
Fetish
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
var filterEmail = /^([a-zA-Z0-9_.-])+@(([a-zA-Z0-9-])+.)+([a-zA-Z0-9]{2,4})+$/;
function validateForm() {
if (!filterEmail.test(document.newAccount.username.value)){
alert("Please enter a valid Email Address.");
return false;
}
}
And I'm not updating it.
Never trust an atom. They make up everything.
Am I the only one who thinks that this GTLD craze is going a little bit too far? (Along with the repetitive coverage on Slashdot telling us every day how many applications there were)
Soon, people everywhere are going to have a tough time trying to remember if their favourite cat website's URL was whether slashdot.cat, slashdot.cats, slashdot.kitty, slashdot.kitten, etc. and whether they should go to slashdot.pets, slashdot.pound, slashdot.rescue, or slashdot.shelter to find a new animal to bring into their home.
I'm (mostly) kidding but I'm getting the same headache I usually get when somebody tries to explain to me how I should "refactor a system to be completely object-oriented because it's better".
Probably going to be just another craze that'll blow over after a couple years and everybody will go back to using the "old" TLDs like .com, .org, .net, because they "look more legitimate" (or because they're too cheap/lazy).
Spammers and phishers and people trying to make a quick dollar off of renting room on the gTLD used by spammers and phishers.
Do you think whomever owns .bank will be able to tell a "real" bank from a phisher?
Or that they will even care after the real banks start informing their customers that they do NOT have a YourBankName.bank domain and not to trust anything claiming to be from them from that gTLD.
I don't understand why they are doing this at all. It seems to me that this will just lead to people faking websites for malware purposes. Like: www.Microsoft.update etc... Since I could just have www.any_god_damned_thing_I_Want_I_dont_see_the_reason_for_this_at_All.com
These will be completely useless and underused, if used at all.
If I'm typing out a URL from memory, I get kinda irritated if the site I'm looking for isn't the one that ends ".com". Even .org and .net results in too many options. Why the hell would anyone want to go to ticketmaster.tickets instead of the .com address? They like typing longer?
The general public won't care, and will remember just the name of the site, and go to the .com address of whatever the name is.
Do they think people are going to search URLs for "*.bank"? They'll just type "bank" into google, or go to www.{bankname}.com.
How does this add anything positive to the internet? I'm struggling to find a single reason these should exist now.
I think it is supposed to be for trademarked brands... and for whomever can pony up the $100k+ for a generic TLD, after ICANN has extorted those fees from the trademarked brand owners.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Just wait until someone implements ".con", the pure phishing TLD. "Click here [www.microsoft.con] to get your latest Windows update!"
"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein
When I'm after something, I either google it, or follow a link from some trusted source.
Usually, if something has its own domain like that ("getcheapwidgets.com!", or here, "whatever.tickets!") that makes me highly skeptical of that site, and I tend to stay away unless there's a damn good reason not to.
that gives worms to ex-girlfiends.. i still dont understand what you dont get?
^ Probably Sarcasm...
.corn looks more passable, although I do appreciate the irony behind the "con" of it all.
Bow before me, for I am root.
The existence of powerful search engines means that people don't need to know the exact domain name. I very rarely type in a domain name, even when I'm pretty sure I know it. I can never remember if it's slashdot.org or slashdot.com or slashdot.net. I don't need to. If I don't have it bookmarked, I just type in slashdot and here I am.
Most of my bookmarks got there because I stumbled onto a site and saved the link. I have no idea what the domain name is for some of my favorites, I (usually) don't need to know or care.
Squatters. As if no one expected this.
I expect extortion for 'adult' TLDs that sound similar to commercial sites. ( like google.sex or something )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Doesn't this all remind us at the CompuServe times where typing just one word was enough to do exactly what is being sold now at a much higher price?
Support Eachother, Copy Dutch Property!
I can't wait to register the.police domain, so i can have fuck.the.police website.
What about the long time dream of this web site to have a .DOT domain? So that we can have:
http: slash slash slash dot dot dot
( http://slashdot.dot/ )
...at domain.thickets?
What I am afraid is, after ICANN granted the ".tickets" GTLD, someone will find a way to insist that if you want to sell tickets, any kind of tickets, online, you have to sell 'em through one of those ".tickets" domains
My sincere hope is that nobody would do that. But then, when big money is involved, who knows ?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
With more people using custom apps and connecting on facebook to their favorite stores, bands, movies, etc and search engines giving instant as you type recommendations, worrying about names of a web sites will not that important for much longer... I would think traditional web sites are becoming alot less used, when looking for quick information on a business, Ill check their facebook before the website. It will give you address, directions, any last minute specials they business may have posted and even say if they are currently open or closed. Even on the google search results page, you can get basic business info, with out ever clicking on the web site link itself.
ISCAMM indeed.
This is just embarrassing and this single incident is proof of why it is such a monumental waste of time for both them and the internet as a whole.
From here on out, the DNS is just going to continue to get shittier until someone else big enough decides that it is enough messing around and actually makes a competent replacement for it.
Up yours, ICANN. You are a worthless excuse of a company now.
I wish ill things on all of you.
your partents must be proud that the best you can do is extort future businesses
Can someone explain to me how GTLDs are actually supposed to work? We now have word of some 307 generic names being purchased. So what do I do to visit a TLD? Do I go to http://tickets/ ? So what happens if someone now decides to buy a GTLD that has the same name as a computer on my network?
(Yes I know this is slashdot and I should have fully qualified domain names for all my PCs but I don't)
The average home network still uses NetBIOS names for home networking. So today we have .tickets what happens when tomorrow someone registers .firewall? They will be unreachable by typing their GTLD into the browser? As in will http://firewall/ point to the computer called firewall, and then http://www.firewall/ point to the website with too much money to spare?
Let's hope they've applied for the extension that will make the Dillon Edwards Investments site a reality.
http://www.myspace.com/video/ben/ad/4706887
Alright, fine, trademarked in WHICH COUNTRY?!? With the old system (us owns com net gov & org, canada owns ca, france owns fr, etc it was very easy to decide which trademarks qualified). How are you going to enforce that on an INTERNATIONAL basis?!?
From the article,
"We'd be increasing the real estate on the Internet," Nevett said. "We think they're good, generic terms that will give consumers more choice and benefits."
Um, snapping up domain names to sell at a premium to someone else later is not "increasing" anything, it's a land grab in hopes that the "land" grabbed will sell for more than it cost.
When did this sort of behavior become a legitimate business plan instead of just being a sleazy attempt to squeeze money out of people that DO have business plans?
More cost, less benefit. That's going to get us out of recessoin!
It's not like they are sticking to the rules about .org and .net, so I don't think they would mandate you need a .tickets to sell tickets.
Mandating that you would have to purchase one would only make sense if you needed help to sell out the space. With asshat squatters and speculators I sincerely doubt they will have problems selling it.
It's entertainingly foolish that people and companies are still forking over wads of cash for these phony patches of cyber-real-estate. The presence of Google and other search engines essentially negates the value of needing or having a domain that is directly descriptive of the endeavor, not completely but substantially. If the various search engines' crawlers can regularly find your site and its motive is well defined, regardless of whether the domain name reflects that, then your site will appear at or near the top of the rankings. I suppose whoever owns that perfectly descriptive domain might appear above you if their motive is just as well defined otherwise, but is it worth the continued obsession with domains? All it would take to completely negate the value of domains would be for search engines to deprecate the descriptive significance of them in their search algorithms.
I can sorta see the though process. Just as sex.com has a high value because some people really use the internet that way, for car info they would go to car.com, .tickets could work. IF you managed to create a site on it that then contained every ticket seller in the world so you can find the one you want on a very specialized search page, maybe organized by paid by the industry organization. A coop model. Of course, that is not likely to happen but that is the original idea behind meaningful domain names.
If you want the ftp of the commercial company ibm, you got to ftp.ibm.com
And then the internet exploded and search engines were invented and the majority stopped trying to guess the domain name for a service they wanted and just let altavista and others do the finding for them.
It is the same pipedream as youtu.be it is worth a giggle but really, if your browser is halfway decent when you have typed "yo" it should already be listing the right domain. When do you really have so much trouble typing youtube.com that 3 letters more is an issue?
.xxx is being sold NOT as a .com domain but rather more as a portal. They are not ICANN, they are a registar that wants to be friends with the porn industry, want to look out for it, make .xxx a special place.
In other words, they are a portal and want to be payed to list you on their portal page. Portals were tried and rejected, search engines replaced them. There was a time you went to the homepage of your isp to find links to content. Now you don't, most ISP's don't even bother anymore and just shuffle data and have only a help page.
But don't worry, this will sell... for a while. Go check your own company and see how many invoices they paid for listings somewhere that nobody ever checked on. Even this big companies are going to have to think about just registering their name to make sure nobody else uses it (ford.no) because right now, the costs are so low as not to make it worthwhile the potential hassle. It is not that ford.no has any value, after all, how would people know it is there? Search engine but that same search engine would also work for any other domain if that page is deemed relevant to the users search. But some execs just seem convinced that people care what the URL is of a site. Like if it was slashdot.net, that would like totally wrong dude!
All this new registar needs is to sell its product to those execs that surf the net by typing ford.com rather then googling for ford. They are out there and they got money.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The important test case there would've been with .xxx, which would've proved a monumental disaster to enforce.
Lucky for most, I guess, they just got to rake in all the cash from schools, porn companies and businesses that felt they had to buy up the new .xxx domain to protect themselves.
No real utility in it, just a cash grab (or if you prefer, robbery), plain and simple.
I would never give my credit card to any site outside .com hierarchy. Other TLDs reek of location in a 3rd word country with dubious law enforcement, not being able to comply with security policies of mainstream registrars or spoofing a better known company. Establish your own trademark and people will have no trouble finding you.
if you want to sell tickets, any kind of tickets, online, you have to sell 'em through one of those ".tickets" domains
These aren't tickets. These are vouchers. For a drink. But no, you can't enter this gig without a voucher for a drink.
Using generic GTLDs suffix the country is not known any more.
Using IPv6 the locator is not valid any more, you could be anywhere.
Are we missing or getting something out of this deal?
I'm pretty sure zero would be the perfect amount of use.
if you want to sell tickets, any kind of tickets, online, you have to sell 'em through one of those ".tickets" domains
These aren't tickets. These are vouchers. For a drink. But no, you can't enter this gig without a voucher for a drink.
Well you can't sell them unless you register ".voucherforadrink"
I'm assuming it'd be more the other way around. If you want a .tickets domain, you have to be selling tickets. I can't (if the registrar has rules) put up my gallery of speeding tickets on a .tickets domain, for example.
I doubt there'll be any enforcement like this or as you suggest, though.
Hope nobody else beats their patent application in....
Visit http://dotdot.dash-dashdot.dot for all your Morse code needs!
Holy crap, is every single post here going to be about "omg no one types domains to search!!1".
This isn't about searching for a site. It's about making a site memorable. You know why companies will want a to make a site address memorable? So that people will remember it from the time the hear/read it, to the time they are by a computer
Yes, there exists a world outside of the browser. Yes, there still exists print. No, not everyone will scan an insecure QR code and use their data plan to go to a website on a 320x200 screen.
Heck, someone might even be seeing the URL on a billboard. While driving!
So these companies want a memorable site name, and part of making something memorable is associating it with a word that already has a meaning. Which is easier:
Now, I'm not saying that it's the right or most foolproof way. Hell, even I still use Google Search for a domain name, when I can't remember if it's .com or .org, or if it has a superfluous "u" in there or something. But this is why large corporations (many of whom still haven't wrapped their head around the digital era) would want them. That being said, I'm sure this startup won't go anywhere (307 GTLDs at $185k each?), but there's an obvious reason why it exists
UTF-8: There and Back Again
> someone will find a way to insist that if you want
> to sell tickets, any kind of tickets, online, you have
> to sell 'em through one of those ".tickets" domains
Yeah, that'll happen -- just like how all non-profit organizations have to be in .org, all museums have to be in .museum, all informational sites have to be in .info, and so on. None of these kinds of sites would ever be registered in .com, for example.
Quite frankly, it is tempting to use an alternate DNS root that ONLY contains .com, .net, .org, .edu, .gov, .arpa (for reverse lookups), and the two-letter country-code TLDs for the six largest countries (by population) where your native language is spoken daily by more than N% of the population (where N is about 95 for English, 75 for other major world languages, and a lower number for less common languages). Under such a system, pretty much every single site you will ever find yourself unable to access as a result will be related in some way to phishing, spamming, or fraud. To date I've discovered one exception, ever, which could be easily handled with a hosts file entry if I cared.
Forgot to say: in addition to your native language, you would of course also want the TLDs for the main countries associated with any foreign language you are studying.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
Anon.set, for example. I suspect but a few will get it, though.