Outdated Domains To Meet Their End 173
Dr. Eggman writes "The little used .um internet domain is no more. The domain was used, or rather unused, for US minor outlying islands and the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute had grown tired of maintaining it. This announcement comes as last month ICANN began taking comments on deletion of outdated suffixes. Among the top of the list? .su, the internet domain of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's .su may prove harder to remove however, as Google still lists 3 million .su sites."
Why not just sell it? (Score:5, Informative)
There are tons of words that end in 'um' [morewords.com]. Why not sell domains there so people can get 'cesi.um' or 'im-a-b.um'? It would generate tons of revenue (just like .cx, .us, and .tv) and would free up some domain name space.
For those who are wondering, there are only 8 words that end in 'su' [morewords.com]
Bad journalism? (Score:5, Informative)
The Soviet Union's ".su" is the leading candidate for deletion; that'll be harder to strike than ".um" -- a Google search produced more than 3 million ".su" sites.
The Google results were vetted to ensure those were 3+ million unique domains, right?
A Google search for sites from only the
Results 1 - 10 of about 2,670,000 for site:.su. (0.04 seconds)
I don't know what folks will do without www.jedi.su [www.jedi.su]...
Re:What about new ccTLDs? (Score:5, Informative)
June 2006 [iana.org]
Re:get rid of all TLDs (Score:4, Informative)
Not 3 000 000 .su (Score:2, Informative)
3 million sites? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Let's Not Troll Too Much Please (Score:3, Informative)
Re:OK, but... (Score:3, Informative)
More about .um (Score:3, Informative)
Baker and Howland islands were claimed in 1857. guano (aka bird shit) was mined on these islands during the 19th century. In 1935, an attempt to colonize these two islands was began; World War II forced an end to the project. Howland Island was Amelia Earhart's intended stop on her last flight. They both became National Wildlife Refuges in 1974.
Jarvis Island was claimed by the US in 1858, but abandoned in 1879 after tons of guano were mined. The UK claimed the island in 1889 and the US claimed it back in 1935. A settlement was started here, but World War II ended those plans. Jarvis Island became a National Wildlife Refuge in 1974.
Kingman Reef was claimed by the Guano Islands Act in 1856. It was annexed by the US in 1922. It was used a stopover by flying boats in the 1930's. Kingman Reef was transfered from the US Navy to the US Interior Dept in 2000; it became a National Wildlife Refuge a year later.
Johnston Atoll was annexed by both Hawaii and the US in 1858. In 1936, it was placed under US Navy control. The US Air Force gained control in 1948. In the 1950's and 1960's, Johnston Atoll was used for Nuclear tests, and until 2000 the Atoll was used for chemical weapons storage and disposal. In 2005, the Atoll's cleanup process was finished.
The Midway Islands were put under US possession in 1867. In the 1930's and 40's, the Islands were used a refueling stop. A key battle of World War II was fought here in 1942. Until 1993, Midway was a US Naval Station. They are also a National Wildlife Refuge.
Palmyra Atoll was claimed by Hawaii in 1858. When the US annexed Hawaii in 1898, it was a part of the deal. When Hawaii became a state in 1959, Palmyra was excluded. Today, it is privately owned.
Wake Island was annexed in 1899 for use as a cable station. In the 1940's, a Naval Base was built. Japan had control over the atoll from 1941-1945. Since then, Wake has been used as a refueling stop for trans pacific flights. Since 1974, the Island has been used by the military as an airstrip. In August 2006, a typhoon tore though Wake. Because of this, the island's future use is doubtful. Wake Island is claimed by the Marshall Islands.
Navassa Island was claimed for Guano in 1857. Mining of the stuff took place here from 1865 to 1898. A lighthouse was built here in 1917; it was used by the US Coast Guard until 1996. In that year, the light was shut off and the island was transferred to the S Interior Dept. It became a National Wildlife Refuge in 1999. Navassa Island is claimed by Haiti and a private claim exists as well.
For more about these islands, see the CIA World Factbook [cia.gov] and Wikipedia [wikipedia.org].