Two domain name articles worth reading.
There are a couple recent articles about the domain name industry that are worth reading.
The first is Kevin Murphy’s report for The Register about Nominet’s alleged “Plan G”. Under the alleged plan, the .uk registry sought government protection to save itself from a domainer takeover of its board. It’s very intriguing corporate espionage kind of stuff. The report is based on an employment tribunal with its former policy chief. For what it’s worth, Nominet denies the claims.
Second is Wade Roush’s article for MIT’s Technology Review about “ICANN’s Boondoggle“, i.e. its new top level domain name program. The article is largely colored by the thoughts of ex-ICANN chair and new TLD critic Esther Dyson. Although I’m sure many people won’t agree with the entire article, I agree 100% with the article’s first claim: there’s not shortage of web addresses.
I slap my forehead every time I hear someone say that new TLDs are needed because we’re out of domain names. There are plenty of them out there; they just aren’t on .com. And the new TLD program won’t free up any space on .com.
Tom G says
Maybe the shortage is in good, inexpensive names.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Tom G – again, I don’t think new TLDs will change that. The only thing I can see is the cost of domains that would be $1,000 on .info or .biz now going for closer to $100-$200. But the idea that you’ll be able to go register mortgage.newtld at registration fee seems highly unlikely.
Russ says
I had to lol at Plan G.
Most “domainers” don’t plan ahead and can’t get organized enough to keep up with their own renewals, let alone stage a coup for control of the board of a registry.