I read with interest (and strictly, a technical interest) that ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers – the people who run the ‘root’ dns registry) had signalled to new registry, ICM, that they would delegate the .xxx top level domain. This now means that pornography will be available on the internet. Or something.
This news made me want to look at what other top level domains had been proposed. The ICANN fee to propose a new top level domain is $185,000, so it is clear that there must be an enormous amount of commercial support for any proposal, before it reaches the ICANN process.
The proposed top level domains are normally proposed for the following reasons:
- Specialist language content (e.g. .cymru for Welsh speakers, .ker for Cornish speakers, in the same way that .cat was approved for Catalan content)
- Internationalised top-level domains, permitting non-latin script after the ‘dot’, e.g. .香港 in Hong Kong or امارات. for the UAE.
- Regional (probably PR led!) content, e.g. .berlin or .nyc for new york.
- Social groups, like .gay
- Professional interests, like .wine, or .eco for environmental groups
Not all of these bids will be successful, and many will only be successful bids after many years (.xxx was first seriously proposed around ten years ago). We are also likely to see consultancies born who specialise in taking new registries through the ICANN processes, and even companies which can host full new-registry systems.
There are already consultancies out there who specialise in taking new registries through the ICANN processes and there already exist companies that host full new-registry systems. Go to an ICANN meeting and you will come across many such companies.. some well known and some not so well known.
In any case, I am not particularly sure of the added value of new TLDs… call me a traditionalist. Adding new TLDs just dilutes the namespace, and in some cases they confuse matters.
As an example, the introduction of .xxx does not mean that all porn sites will be registered under that TLD. What is to stop a porn site registering under .com or even .co.uk? Nothing.
All that will happen is that porn sites will register under .xxx and also under .com and whatever other TLD they think will increase eyeballs.
I took part in an early study of .eco at the Sydney ICANN meeting a couple of years ago. That may work, as long as they keep it as a ‘closed’ TLD rather than a free for all.
However, the way things are and with the introduction of newer TLDs, the general populace does not care about the domain name or the TLD. It seems to me that most people just use search engines to look for the content.
I think it is just a few of us that remember domain names, TLDs and whois. No one else cares.
Just my tuppence worth. :-)
Posted by denesh | April 14, 2011, 9:27 pm