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.Asia Internet Domain Launched 203

Posted by Zonk from the always-room-at-the-top dept.
eldavojohn writes "Expect to see sites ending in .asia pop up soon, as ICANN has allowed DotAsia to recently open bidding on the new domain. A DotAsia representative is quoted as saying, 'Our research has found that Asia is one of the most searched-for terms and by having a .asia website, your ranking on Google or Yahoo will become much higher.' Is there really a need for more top level domains?"
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.Asia Internet Domain Launched More

.Asia Internet Domain Launched

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  • need? (Score:4, Funny)

    by stoolpigeon ( 454276 ) * <bittercode@gmail> on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @08:58AM (#20910799) Homepage Journal
    why does there have to be a need? will too many make the net too heavy or something?

    • Re:need? (Score:5, Funny)

      by aadvancedGIR ( 959466 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:09AM (#20910953)
      Not really a need, but a *.asia will look just fine in my host file.

      • Re: (Score:2, Redundant)

        by Kozar_The_Malignant ( 738483 )

        Not really a need, but a *.asia will look just fine in my host file.
        127.0.0.1 *.biz
        127.0.0.1 *.tv
        127.0.0.1 *.ru
        127.0.0.1 *.asia

        Yep, you're right.

      • Re:need? (Score:5, Informative)

        by Spy der Mann ( 805235 ) <spydermann.slash ... com minus distro> on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @10:23AM (#20912023) Homepage Journal
        Not really a need, but a *.asia will look just fine in my host file.

        I thought the host file didn't accept wildcards...
      • Heh, company firewall now has it banned. Customers' mail filtering now has it banned. Please, guys, keep going. You're making my life as an admin -so- much easier.

        Why is it that such a large section of the planet seemingly churns out nothing but garbage? You would think at some point some of these ISPs (or even the governments of the countries in that region) would get the idea in their heads that if the entire region is flooding the rest of the world with shit, they may find themselves completely cut off f

        • Why is it that such a large section of the planet seemingly churns out nothing but garbage?
          Because it only takes 2% of the population to produce all the food, and the rest of us need to find a way to justify our claim to the fruits (pun intended) of their labor.

        • Why is it that such a large section of the planet seemingly churns out nothing but garbage?

          Kudos, you sound just like that new Pope that was part of the Hitler youth.

          to have any shot at reaching the rest of the world.

          Not everyone is blocking .asia. Try asking the average American consumer of home internet service how to block content of any kind from any domain. They don't know how.

          if the entire region is flooding the rest of the world with shit, they may find themselves completely cut off from the rest of the world by admins who have better things to do than ban individual IPs all day every day.

          I love it when computer administrators like to make it sound like they're going to change the world from their desk. "You just watch ... I'll ban your IP. Then see how you like it when nobody from the 40 employee company I work for reads your spam!"

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by kv9 ( 697238 )
          perhaps you should block "huge netblocks" from the US too as long as they are the number one shit spewer [spamhaus.org] and bot haven.

    • Re:need? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Tetsujin ( 103070 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:28AM (#20911213) Homepage Journal

      why does there have to be a need? will too many make the net too heavy or something?
      The thing that gets me about all these new TLDs is that .com is still by far the most recognized, and so people continue to use it whether it's appropriate or not... But at the same time they scoop up the equivalent name in other TLDs as well to avoid confusion. For instance, a site I go to has a front page on .com - a store site on .biz, and a forum on .net...

      Having more TLDs gives people a bigger namespace to play in, but the problem is people don't generally want a bigger name space for domain names. They want their domain name to be unique, for recognition and to avoid confusion...
      • But is there a real cost? I wasn't trying to be funny so much as ask a real question. So what if there are thousands of top level domain names? I don't care personally - so is there a technical issue?
         
        I don't care if a name is recognizable. I use google when I don't remember exactly where something is at.

        • Re:need? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Tetsujin ( 103070 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @10:06AM (#20911723) Homepage Journal

          I don't care if a name is recognizable. I use google when I don't remember exactly where something is at.
          But the point is, people who create sites do care if their name is recognizable. They have to. Nobody wants to create a popular site, and then have somebody else squat the exact same URL (except with a different TLD) and populate it with a bunch of porn links or ads.

          Put another way, what value are we getting out of more TLDs? More sites can share the same name? Is that really something we want?

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Fozzyuw ( 950608 )

            But the point is, people who create sites do care if their name is recognizable. They have to. Nobody wants to create a popular site, and then have somebody else squat the exact same URL (except with a different TLD) and populate it with a bunch of porn links or ads.

            Your point is taken well. TLD's are not just "TLDs". They've become part and parcel with trademarked names and company names. No,no, no. It's not Expedia... it's Expedia[dot]COM. Etc. Companies scramble to register their business names onl

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by rs79 ( 71822 )
          "So what if there are thousands of top level domain names? I don't care personally - so is there a technical issue?"

          No.

          Karl Denninger and Paul Vixie looked at this in the 80s. There can be a million tlds and it won't make any impace. Keep in mind in the day they were worried about a million names in .com and there are about 40 million names now.

    • The most searched for term on the internet is "asian" not "Asia." I propose a .asian TLD so that the porn surfers (me included) can have maximum search efficiency!

  • In a word... (Score:2, Informative)

    by AltGrendel ( 175092 )

    Is there really a need for more top level domains?

    No!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rs79 ( 71822 )
      "No! "

      You mean "no, Network Solutions should retain its de facto monopoly as a registry" I presume?

  • Our research has found that Asians is one of the most searched-for terms

  • Who can tell? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Funkcikle ( 630170 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:00AM (#20910831)
    "Is there really a need for more top level domains? Find out more and take part in our poll at www.istherereallyaneedformoretoplevel.domains [www.isther...el.domains]!"

  • How about (Score:2, Interesting)

    by damn_registrars ( 1103043 )
    Just pushing for people / companies to actually register in the appropriate TLD's for their country? As it is, there's nothing to prevent you from purchasing a .com domain from a registrar in China, for a website to host in China. If we actually tethered the website domains to the countries they reside in, then we may be able to reign in the never-ending "canadian pharmacy" spam campaign that pushes out zillions of spams per second.

    • Re:How about (Score:5, Informative)

      by JanneM ( 7445 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:16AM (#20911041) Homepage

      Just pushing for people / companies to actually register in the appropriate TLD's for their country? As it is, there's nothing to prevent you from purchasing a .com domain from a registrar in China, for a website to host in China.
      Like having US websites register in the .us domain?

      If it's a commercial website it's fine in .com no matter where it's located.
      • Personally I think .com should be for international companies/entities, with local companies using local domains. In that case .asia would be great for companies who cover the whole of Asia, but aren't known outside it. Quite why .uk is available to everyone I don't know :\

        Unfortunately it would probably get to the point where someone wants a ".africanorthamericaasia" TLD because they're active in all three, but someone else thinks that ".africaeuropeasia" would be better because that's where they cover.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Cyberax ( 705495 )
        Actually, local domains are very popular at some countries. For example,.ru domain is very popular in Russia, .ua is very popular in Ukraine, etc.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by somersault ( 912633 )
          I like to see UK companies with .co.uk addresses too - especially useful when buying stuff because I know there won't be an issue with shipping, I won't have to use an international credit card, etc

      • Like having US websites register in the .us domain?
        If it's a commercial website it's fine in .com no matter where it's located.

        That's pretty much the way it is, but it's not a good system. There's no way of resolving disputes over names, which leads to domain squatting. I'd really like to see the end of all TLDs except for country codes. You want a virtual presence in the US? Register "here-i-am.us". You want to be in China? Register "here-i-am.cn". You want a virtual presence in every country?

        • "From the domain owner's side, it essentially declares in which jurisdiction(s) any disputes are to be resolved. Countries are free to subdivide their own domain space as they see fit, of course, and to impose whatever requirements they deem necessary to register."

          Brilliant! So the next time Pakistan and India get into a diplomatic scuffle bordering on nuclear war, India can invalidate the domain registrations of every Pakistani company, and Pakistan can follow suite, and tens of thousands of businesses and

          • They could keep a neutral party in charge of given TLDs whose only concern is keeping order within the world of the TLD. No, I like your idea better.

            You seem to be under the assumption that there is a neutral third-party somewhere.

            Besides, I don't actually see a problem of "domain wars" where one country invalidates foreign domains within its own country code. Say India gets pissed at Pakistan and revokes all the "pakistani-companies.in" domains. And Pakistan does the same, revoking all "indian-comp

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • ...Rick Wakeman and Bill Bruford that their copyright is being violated.

    Although I would support maybe the following domain names:

    HeatoftheMoment.Asia
    TheSmileHasLeftYourEyes.Asia
    • I just ripped that cd to the hard drive of my laptop not 5 minutes ago. And no - I'm not ashamed.

      • Of course you shouldn't be ashamed... after all, you did it in the heat of the moment...

        • I'm slowly getting all my cds ripped. It's funny that I had just done that one this morning. I'm listening to it as I read all these comments.
           
          They should follow it up with a .europe tld.
          • Well the idea is on the loose but you'd probably be a dreamer or quite supersitious to believe it would be agreed before the final countdown is called on the whole top level domains issue.
            • Very nice.
               
              I was driving to the grocery store the other night, listening to a classic rock radio station, all the while thinking, "They shouldn't be playing music that I remember being brand new, what seemed not that long ago." Middle age - it's an odd sensation.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Fred_A ( 10934 )

            They should follow it up with a .europe tld.
            Good idea, let's call it .eu [eurid.eu] for short !

    • HeatoftheMoment.Asia
      TheSmileHasLeftYourEyes.Asia
      You beat me to it, good sir. Well played.

  • quick (Score:3, Funny)

    by circletimessquare ( 444983 ) <circletimessquar ... m ['gma' in gap]> on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:01AM (#20910861) Homepage Journal
    someone register these:

    Heat-of-the-Moment.Asia

    Dont-Cry.Asia

    Alpha.Asia

    and perhaps:

    Carrera.Asia

    Argento.Asia

    you can thank me later

  • Is there really a need to avoid proliferation of top level domains? Outside of the old chestnut: "I want to own every domain that could be tied to X"?

    Is there some sort of limit where too many top level domains break something?

    Because if not, I really don't see the point in worrying about whether we 'need' another top level domain or not. Having more top level domains means more chances that when you look at something, having its domain name can actually tell you something.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Rob T Firefly ( 844560 )

      Having more top level domains means more chances that when you look at something, having its domain name can actually tell you something.
      Yes, it can tell you "I'm paying someone for this domain because shady text-ransoming brokers and spammers have bought up every damn last text combination in my country's assigned .com/.co, .net, and .org TLDs."
    • The main reason not to add more TLDs is because they make phishing easier. It's like the old whitehouse.com versus whitehouse.gov thing; people are more likely to go to the wrong site if the link differs only by a TLD.

      This likely won't be an issue with dot-asia domains, but it is a reason not to add a bunch more TLDs to the already fairly meaningless list.

  • In other news. . . (Score:5, Funny)

    by Seumas ( 6865 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:03AM (#20910885)
    In other news, the western half of the globe now opens ".westernhemisphere" TLD.

    or . . .

    In other news, insensitive clods still refer to new TLD as "dot-orientals".

    Stupid.

    • In other news, the western half of the globe now opens ".westernhemisphere" TLD.
      Maybe they'll launch that one by occident! Get it?

      I hate life :-(

  • First dibs (Score:4, Funny)

    by James_Duncan8181 ( 588316 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:03AM (#20910887) Homepage
    mal.asia?

    Also relatively rapid post!

  • The possibilities! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by PlatyPaul ( 690601 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:03AM (#20910891) Homepage Journal
    fant.asia, your.asia, anast.asia... the list goes on and on.

    More interestingly, though, will be the issue when countries fail to establish control over things like india.asia, china.asia, etc. I have to wonder, though: given the "worldwide" attitude of the web, do we really need to make geographic distinctions at the TLD?

    • You know Disney will want fant.asia...

    • I have to wonder, though: given the "worldwide" attitude of the web, do we really need to make geographic distinctions at the TLD?
      Apart from looking up the whois for every site you hit, it's the first indicator of the physical location of a person or persons you may be interested in contacting. That could be important information if you're looking to do business, look for dates, or.. er... whatever it is people do over the web that isn't buying, selling, or flirting.

  • Hmmm.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Otter ( 3800 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:05AM (#20910907) Journal
    I immediately ran out to grab euthan.asia, but registration seems to be limited to trademark holders right now.

    Then came back here figuring the same comment had already been made, but people seem to have jumped on references to the 80's band instead.

    And now you find yourself in 82. The disco hot spots hold no charm for you.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Billosaur ( 927319 ) *

      I immediately ran out to grab euthan.asia, but registration seems to be limited to trademark holders right now.

      Change your name to Euthan and become "Euthan the Magnificent, Master of Technology." Voila! Trademark and you're done.

    • I immediately ran out to grab euthan.asia, but registration seems to be limited to trademark holders right now.
      I hope that when you do setup your .asia site, you follow the appropriate formating and layout rules, as it is a requirement that all the .asia sites look the same.

  • meh... (Score:5, Funny)

    by cosmocain ( 1060326 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:17AM (#20911055)
    ...first they cut off the xxx-tld and now - now they open up one for special interests? i demand .midget

    • ...first they cut off the xxx-tld and now - now they open up one for special interests? i demand .midget

      Sorry, not at this time, but check back shortly.

    • ...first they cut off the xxx-tld and now - now they open up one for special interests? i demand .midget

      But where would midget porn go? .xxx or .midget? I think we'll need a .midget-xxx TLD before too long.

  • And if you think .asia is a bad domain name... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rdwald ( 831442 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:19AM (#20911089)
    Just wait until .berlin [wikipedia.org] and .nyc [wikipedia.org] come online. I mean, at least the culture-based domains (.cat [wikipedia.org] for Catalan culture, and the proposed .bzh [wikipedia.org], .cym [wikipedia.org], and .gal [wikipedia.org]) are for areas not already defined by the underutilized country code TLDs.
  • Check that you are connected to the internet, and that the address is correct.

    If this page used to exist, you may find an archived version:

  • No thanks (Score:3, Funny)

    by Billosaur ( 927319 ) * <wgrother AT optonline DOT net> on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:21AM (#20911117) Journal

    I'll wait for .antarctica to become available.

  • Great, next we need. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Usefull Idiot ( 202445 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:27AM (#20911195)
    .na - North America .ca - Central America .car - Caribbean .sa - South America .eu - Europe .me - Middle East .ar - Arctic .an - Antarctic .af - Africa .nh - Northern Hemisphere .sh - Southern Hemisphere .eh - Eastern Hemisphere .wh - Western Hemisphere .eq - Equator .tcn - Tropic of Cancer .tcp - Tropic of Capricorn .np - North Pole .sp - South Pole .mn - Magnetic North .pm - Prime Meridian .isl - Miscellaneous Islands

    Anything else I'm missing? Why not just start using degrees latitude and longitude in the tlds as well, just because we want as many as possible, right?

    • Then we could have http://slashdot.slash/ [slashdot.slash]

      Jolyon
      • I'd be careful. Slashdot would probably then end up on a TLD with a load of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash_fiction]gay porn story[/url] sites ;)

        It's worrying what you find out people write when your wife is involved in Harry Potter fanfiction 8|

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rs79 ( 71822 )
        "Then we could have http://slashdot.slash/ [slashdot.slash]"

        Point of trivia: ".dot" was the very first alternative TLD, it came up on the usenet II (nee BOFH) newsgroup mailing list. I pointed slash.dot to slashdot for ages but nobody ever used it. This was about 10 years ago

        % dig dot. ns

        ; <<>> DiG 9.3.0 <<>> dot. ns
        ;; global options: printcmd
        ;; Got answer:
        ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 55770
        ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL:

    • Pretty sure .ca is already taken...

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by KayakFun ( 720628 )
      Actually, .eu already exists.

      Maybe the people who live between .ca and .mx can start using .us instead of poluting .com with non-commercial or non-USA websites (if you care about using the most meaningful TLD)

    • Oh dear, that screws Namibia, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Montenegro out of their TLDs from the first six alone! :D Plus one is already in existence, so you've got the first six TLDs with four taken by nations and one that's already there.

  • search / TLD (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Sparr0 ( 451780 ) <sparr0@gmail.com> on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:32AM (#20911265) Homepage Journal
    Who told them that TLDs have any effect on search with regards to keywords? I don't get more .net sites just by having "net" in my search terms (just had to go verify that).
    • They just need an excuse to have their TLD and a way to market it. Just because it's an untruth that it increases a site's ranking does not mean that it still not useful for selling those sites a worthless domain.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rs79 ( 71822 )
      No, but (with google at least) you can restrct searchs to a domain and all domains are treated equally.

      So, "foo site:asia" as a google search term would find occurences of "foo" in sites with a .asia tld.

      (This is handy and fun when you look at "site:gov" stuff)

  • Search Terms... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Androclese ( 627848 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:35AM (#20911301)
    What they fail to tell us is that the matching search term was "girls"...

  • Obligatory (Score:3, Funny)

    by Jedi Alec ( 258881 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:58AM (#20911619)
    http://never.fight.a.landwar.in.asia/ [in.asia] !
  • ...to sell the same obvious domain names over and over and over again. You know the drill:

    - Create new TLD.

    - Sell domain names to corporations again.

    - ???

    - Profit!

    It's a good thing. For someone else.

    My captcha for this post: 'proffer'. Damn, but he's good.
  • That isn't a good precedent. Soon it will be total chaos.. 3 letters is bad enough.

    Whats next 5? How about an entire sentence..
    • How about six [about.museum]?
  • ... and introduce a ".foriegn" domain. Then all those other people would have their own domain, and we would have .com, .net, .org, .gov, and .edu. The grouping makes logical sense... they are all foriegn.
  • Of course there is need for new TLD's. Not stupid ones like .asia though, more like .xxx and .porn
  • www.hentai-tentacles.asia

    Eh, it's just a joke, it's not a real domain. Yet.

  • Is there really a need for more top level domains

    Yes, there can always be more. We like MORE TLD's so domain squatters can spend MORE of their money on pointless domains up to the point it doesn't become profitable enough. Next to that, it's also easier to filter the net if you can tell Amavis to always add +5 to domains coming from asia, russia and china without having to query a freakin' GeoIP database.

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