ICANN Board Approves Wide Expansion of TLDs

penciling_in writes "The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved the relaxation of the rules for the introduction of new Top-Level Domains — a move that could drastically change the Internet. 'We are opening up a new world and I think this cannot be underestimated,' said Roberto Gaetano, an ICANN board member. The future outcome of this decision was discussed on Slashdot a few days ago. It also seems, based on this post on CircleID from last month, that ICANN was already in preparation mode of mass TLD introductions. The new decision will allow companies to register their brands as generic top-level domain names (TLDs). For instance, Microsoft could apply to have a TLD such as '.msn', Apple apply for '.mac', and Google for '.goog'... The decision was taken unanimously on Thursday, June 26, 2008 at the 32nd ICANN Meeting in Paris."

There will be some good from this.

We are long overdue for a .sucks domain. It will be nice to finally have it.

Re:There will be some good from this.

You'll have to talk to Hoover to register domains under it, though.

Re:There will be some good from this.

Talk about printing your own money.

This is like paying the city to give your driveway a name, so you can brag about what a blue blood you are for having your own street.

first.post

fuck.icann

The end of ctrl+enter days?

I sincerely hope that this doesn't become too commonplace, and that .com, .net, and .org don't just get thrown out the window. Call me lazy, but I love being able to ctrl+enter, shift+enter, and ctrl+shift+enter to auto-complete .com/.net/.org respectively. Typing "www.search.google" is just more tedious than typing, "google [ctrl][enter]"

Re:The end of ctrl+enter days?

Take a lesson from the idiots. Many times I have seen /.r's mocking end users for using the search feature on their homepage to get to another website, instead of using the address bar. I don't find that feature idiotic at all, and I use that behavior myself. The more and more TLDs we get, the more convenient this "feature" of a modern homepage becomes. And don't moan about have to use the mouse to click the first entry, most users would have had to use the mouse to even put the cursor in the address bar anyways, not to mention click the mouse a predetermined number of times between 1 and 3 just to be able to start tying a random URL.

Interesting reversal

It wasn't that long ago that ICANN voted against allowing the much-requested .xxx domain. Now they want to open up to allow custom TLDs?

As if the internet didn't have enough arbitrary hodge-podge already.

Re:Interesting reversal

I say make 'em type in the ip address. That'll get rid of that hodge-podge lickety split. Now get off my lawn!

Re:Interesting reversal

No, it was just the creation of a .xxx domain, there was never any realistic talk about forcing all pornographic material on there (defining what is pornographic for the entire world would be impossible anyway). It was going to be completely self selected. The reason they didn't want to make it is because they didn't want to create a "red light" district on the internet, an idea I still find baffling given the current nature of the internet.

Slashdot can finally be what it wants

http://slashdot.dot/ [slashdot.dot]

Woohoo!

Re:Slashdot can finally be what it wants

http://slashdot.dot/ [slashdot.dot]

Woohoo!

H t t p colon slash slash slash dot dot dot...?

Hm. You could develop this into some sort of morse code.

So, since geek.com is already registered, we can register --. . . -.-, or

http://dotdotdotslash.slash/ [dotdotdotslash.slash]

Followed by

2. ???

And

3. Profit!

Re:Slashdot can finally be what it wants

But http://slashdot.dot/ [slashdot.dot] leads to an equal number of slashes and dots (not to mention maximizing the number of slashes and dots with out making the URL tedious). Surely this is a good thing?

Those're gonna be some fun router tables

I, personally, intend to try for the ".nsfw" domain.

So wait....

Let's say Apple registers .apple or .ipod. Do they automatically get ALL of the possible domains within that TLD? If not, who controls the TLD? If .apple is a TLD, can I go to GoDaddy and register porcupine.apple? If they do control it, do they have to pay to register domains within their own TLD? Or does this deal come with free unlimited domains?

Re:So wait....

If they register the TLD then they will become the registrar. If you want to get a domain on that TLD then you will have to go through them.

Re:So wait....

Close. They will become the registRY. The registRAR must be one of the ICANN-approved ones (you can't require a non-ICANN registrar). It isn't clear from what I've read whether you can refuse to work with any registrar and make it a closed TLD. I would assume you can, though.

Abuse of TLDs

I hope they have good oversight...

Imagine the chaos of tlds with: .exe .dll .prg .php .c0m (or other foreign symbol for o .txt .pdf .conf .doc .txt .xls .ppt .jpg .gif .tif .mp3 .mpg .htm(l) .png ...then again slashdot could have a slashdot.slashdot domain.

Why not just languages?

I'd be happy with a TLD system based on language. Why do we need the com/net/org thing anyway. Lets just have something like

http://google.en/ [google.en]
http://google.it/ [google.it]
http://.name.language/ [.name.language]

Re:Why not just languages?

"Lets just have something like http://google.en/ [google.en]"

I think you mean: http://google.en_us/ [google.enus]

Woohoo

A flat DNS. Just the way it was always meant to be.

 

God help us

This will only cause more confusion, especially to the average person.

But they get more $ out of the extra registrations, so we know why it *really* happened.

So if McDonald's wanted a TLD...

...then ICANN has .chzbrgr?

I'm sorry, I'll show myself out now.

I can think of many companies

that should be restricted to the .con domain.

Oh no...

From a technical point of view I see this as a failure. It's putting more weight on on the root name servers, how long until there are 10,000 TLDs, 100,000 of them? a million? Then there's all the people running the TLDs who may or may not have the infrastructure, technical expertise or long-term stability to properly run one.

"free market" != stable, there will be thousands of different ways to register sub-domains, some where registrations will not be allowed, some which cost excessive amounts of money and eventually whole TLDs setup to Google-bomb.

Sure it means people will be able to type in "apple", but what gives one specific company the right over a global use of that trademark name? What about "apple" print design services, "apple" car mechanics all of whom have their own trademarks in that industry.

I'm just an idealist, and would much prefer ".uk.org.mycompany.www" style domains (remember, thats how it was supposed to work in the beginning but somebody fucked up), but all I can see happening from opening up TLDs is annoyance and instability.

I'm not even going to comment on ICANN doing this for the money, capitalist pigs.

I like the idea, frankly

I don't care if it makes the Internet work like AOL keywords. I don't care if Google, Yahoo!, et al. have to spider inf() more TLDs. I don't care if idiot corporations think they have to buy every version of .m1kr0s0ft and .msf7 out there "just in case". If we can finally get .fuck and .suck, .lol and .is.gay the Internet will finally release its full scientific potential.

More porn.
-l

P.s., Karl Auerbach did experiments showing even BIND could handle umpteen million TLDs.