ICANN voted today to extend the right to third-parties to set up any top-level domain they want, so long as they can afford it.
The new guidelines could lead to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Internet addresses to join β.com,β including β.latβ for Latin America and a Bulgarian address in the Cyrillic script. New names will not start appearing for at least several months, and the Internet agency, called Icann, will not be deciding on specific ones quite yet.
Of course, the existing top-level domains make very little sense. “.com”, “.net” and “.org” are open to registration by just about anyone, and the suffixes no longer mean much. Many country specific top-level domains are also open to just about anyone - including the begging for it .ck. If so many of the existing TLDs hold no real meaning, why bother pretending they do?
But the proposal, as approved, is bullshit. The cost of establishing your own TLD is exorbitant, leaving small-businesses and personal sites left to play in the existing sandbox, or new ones created by entities who may or not be benevolent. Larger companies will of course rush to establish their own TLDs, effectively creating a tiered internet. Custom .name’s for the big boys, regular one’s for everyone else.
Of course, the fact someone can finally get “.xxx” setup and running is great. And yes, the availability of shorter domains will also be a boon to companies struggling with the horseshit that is domain squatters snagging every good domain left. That’s not what worries me.
The internet used to be flat. It was the great equalizer. “www.apple.com” and “www.jackshedd.com” are, for all intents and purposes, equal; Equal until you hit return. With this new proposal, Apple will obviously seek to get “store.apple” running. Because frankly, that’s just a better URL than www.apple.com/store. But little-oh-non-billions having me is gonna be stuck with www.jackshedd.com, and mark my words, the day will come when .com is looked down at just as .ru is now.
“.com? Are those guys legit?”
The barrier to reputation will get higher.
A simple neutrality clause, stating that any newly-minted TLD provider must accept public registrations at a reasonable cost would have made the proposal golden. As it stands, it’s just ICANN begging for money from folks with deep pockets.