Google Taking Over New TLDs

bobo the hobo writes: In the corner of the internet where people care about DNS, there is a bit of an uproar at Google's application for over a hundred new top-level domains, including .dev, .lol, .app, .blog, .cloud and .search. Their application includes statements such as: "By contrast, our application for the .blog TLD describes a new way of automatically linking new second level domains to blogs on our Blogger platform – this approach eliminates the need for any technical configuration on the part of the user and thus makes the domain name more user friendly." They also mention limiting usage of .dev to Google only: "Second-level domain names within the proposed gTLD are intended for registration and use by Google only, and domain names under the new gTLD will not be available to the general public for purchase, sale, or registration. As such, [Google's shell company] intends to apply for an exemption to the ICANN Registry Operator Code of Conduct as Google is intended to be the sole registrar and registrant."

Comments

Greedy bastards.

[The Rizz]

I think their application for .dev to be Google-only highlights a major problem with a company like this having control over any TLDs: They intend to use their control to crowd out competitors in a monopolistic fashion. That no non-Google developer can register a .dev is akin to saying that if you don't work for Google you're not really a developer. The only TLD restriction I would be OK with Google having reserved entirely for personal use is .google - and even that I'd be wary of without concrete rule for revoking the exclusive use if a good reason comes up.

Re:who cares ?

[ShanghaiBill]

I wouldn't try name-of-church.church, but I would just search for name-of-church in google.

But how do you know which is the real site? If I am looking for Foobar Inc's website, and I see www.foobar.com, I can be pretty sure that is legitimate. But if I see foobar.info, foobar.dev, foobar.sucks, I don't know if they are legitimate or not. The proliferation of TLD's just pollutes the namespace and sows confusion. They can be used for fraud, or they can be used to extort money from businesses that feel they have to lock down more and more domains. The drawbacks outweigh the benefits, especially as more and more are added.

Re: Concentration of power is evil

[Anonymous Coward]

systemd

Re:do no evil

[VernonNemitz]

Perhaps they should be asking for a ".google" gTLD, for that purpose, instead of trying to monopolize a generic identifier.

Re:Monopolistic: Do no evil?

[Dagger2]

I might be guessing wrong here, but I'm thinking the primary intention of these new TLDs was to earn ICANN shitloads of money. It costs $185,000 just to apply for one, and $25,000/year to keep it.

Every Fortune 500 company doing the same thing would be a dream come true for them.

Re:.dev

[lgw]

I think .dev should be like example.com: not able to register so DEVELOPERS (re: NOT GOOGLE) can use like, [mydomain].dev to develop, and not have to create wonky local host names.

RFC 2606 reserves 4 TLDs for this purpose: .test .example .invalid .localhost

I've always used .test for domains for QA/test deployments. It also reserves the example.* second level domain name across all TLDs.

I think there are some other reserved TLDs, including ".xy" and some 63-character name that was something like "sixtythreecharacterdomainnamefortestingpurposes" , but I can't find the RFC. Anyone?