New Yorker says he already uses 118 top level domains.
I thought I had heard it all about new TLDs until I read this article in The Villager. Now that a new process for top level domain names is underway, Paul Garrin and his company Name.Space claims that it already “owns” many top level domain names including .nyc, .food, .sex, .movies, and .hotel.
Garrin and his company wanted to launch over nearly 500 top level domain names before ICANN even existed. He then tried to get 118 of them approved by ICANN in 2000, but couldn’t get ICANN to budge. Name.Space says it has an alternate root computer system where these top level domain names are used. (Practically speaking, it’s easy for anyone to set up an alternate root that supersedes existing top level domains on the network.)
Jobs, cash flow and tax revenues would all rise when — and if — these domain names are given the official O.K., he said; his company, NAME.SPACE would become a billion-dollar business pouring millions into New York’s economy.
Although it’s easy to laugh this off, I wonder if other alternate route and non-ICANN approved top level domain services, such as New.net, will challenge the issuance of new TLDs.
Patrick McDermott says
“New Yorker says he already uses 118 top level domains.”
Andrew,
Do you know if .CRAZY is among the 118?
Andrew Allemann says
“Do you know if .CRAZY is among the 118?”
No, but .sucks is
🙂
Tim Davids says
Extra butter on my popcorn please
Kevin Ohashi says
My root is better than your root.
Andy says
There are also others who could mount similar complaints, e.g. the original applicant for .web.
jp says
I may be a litte surprised if other root dns start popping up and becoming popular, however I wouldn’t be shocked. There is defintely a fortune to be made on alternate dns path’s. Its a cool job to be the guy that controls root dns too, you essentially control the internet. I wanted to do this for a while and make a “family friendly” internet that would eliminate all DNS entries for domains used for viruses, adult sites, and so on based on a user’s preferences. Too bad a company called opendns.com figured it out before I could make it happen.
Steve M says
Oh wow!
Sounds like he’s positioned his company perfectly for…their very own…BBSs.
Can’t wait to sign up.
Adam says
His a peek at some history domain history : http://web.archive.org/web/20010710010253/http://www.new.net/
Remember new.net and their alternative root with domains like?
.shop
.family
.club
.inc
.kids
.xxx
EVEN .travel was on their list
At least they had a commercially released product with some ISPs like earthlink, juno etc supporting it.
These guys also had people involved that spun out in to another domain company . . .
Andrew Allemann says
Adam, you don’t have to go to Wayback for that. Have you seen New.net these days?
Frank Michlick says
Operating an alternative root that is hooked into ISPs like Earthlink also gives you lots of interesting data about domains that are not registered (yet), but would get traffic if they were. Not entirely hypothetical 😉
Andrew Allemann says
“Not entirely hypothetical”
Yeah, how many times have they been sued?
Jenkins says
a billion dollar profit!!! wow !
David J Castello says
“…his company, NAME.SPACE would become a billion-dollar business pouring millions into New York’s economy.”
Yeah, OK. And while he’s on a roll, can he give us the latest price to buy the Brooklyn Bridge?
Chris says
anyone who is anyone knows I have the rights to .hotel
🙂
Adam says
Andrew was just pointing out that they go “wayback” with their own little “project” of domains. Notice .travel and .kids are missing but .xxx is still there ? I believe there’s a tm on that extension too isn’t there ? memory might be mixing things up.
Francis Simisim says
That’s crazy, I wonder how this whole thing would do. so much TLD’s are gonna be crazy
M. Menius says
Exactly. When the right side of the dot is as common as the left side, ICANN will have officially nullified their “non-profit” status. And the rotation of the earth will reverse. 🙂
Candy T. says
Thanks for your help, this is really informative stuff! Can’t wait to read some more.