Do we need more top level domains? • Hacker News Board

Re: Do we need more top level domains?

#11

Post by JacobAldridge » Fri, May 07, 2010, 4:01 AM UTC

mcav wrote: post #8

Sidnicious wrote: post #5

This article makes a few good (but separate) points. 1. Hostnames are backwards. com.ycombinator.news makes much more sense than news.ycombinator.com, because the rest of a URL goes from least specific (protocol) to most specific (path components, query, fragment). The only case where the current form of hostname works is email addresses (user at sub dot domain dot tld). IIRC, one of the founders of the WWW (Tim Bern…

What about the situations where you have two different companies operating in two different industries with the same trademark? Apple Records v. Apple Computer?

Similar question to mine about different global locations where similar business have similar names.

Getting the domain name is an important aspect of choosing your business name - how much harder will that be when you want to open "Computer Solutions" in Kalgoorlie and can't get the domain because of an equally small "Computer Solutions" in Timbuktu?

Re: Do we need more top level domains?

#12

Post by ericz » Fri, May 07, 2010, 4:11 AM UTC

Definitely agree. Java's packaging does it right. Unfortunately large changes like this are just not going to happen without some drastic event. Changing around the order of TLDs would be no easier than switching the US to metric system.

Re: Do we need more top level domains?

#13

Post by benologist » Fri, May 07, 2010, 4:18 AM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #9

benologist wrote: post #3

If they fucked the squatters and parked domains off then we'd probably never need another top or other domain again. It's just stupid trying to find an unregistered domain now.

Be careful what you wish for. While that would kill off third-tier domaining, most domains worth owning are worth pulling a Demand Media type strategy on if you have no other option. If I had a hundred thousand domains like, I don't know, clevelandcars.com, I'd get myself something conceptually similar to Wordpress MultiUser (WPMU) installed so that they could all be administered centrally, hire swarms of low-wage fr…

That's true. Maybe policing domains would be a better strategy - use it and use it within specific guidelines or lose it.

Re: Do we need more top level domains?

#14

Post by cjy » Fri, May 07, 2010, 4:20 AM UTC

Why don't we just raise the price of domain names? If you doubled the price you'd make a lot of domain squatting unprofitable.

How is it that you need baekdal.dk but not baekdal.cn? Don't they pose the same security threat when it comes to phishing? It's really not necessary to own 20 different tlds to protect your brand. How many people mistakenly go to baekdal.biz?

Re: Do we need more top level domains?

#15

Post by jarek » Fri, May 07, 2010, 4:45 AM UTC

As just one example, who gets "era", and why?

http://www.era.com/ ?

Re: Do we need more top level domains?

#16

Post by ck2 » Fri, May 07, 2010, 4:52 AM UTC

I am starting to believe most new TLDs are simply a scam by registries to force trademark holders to re-buy their trademarks every time. They serve little other purpose.

Re: Do we need more top level domains?

#17

Post by zefhous » Fri, May 07, 2010, 5:03 AM UTC

jarin wrote: post #4

I've been saying we need a .app TLD for years!

Yeah, I've looked into this a couple times. I would really love to see this happen. In my (biased) opinion this would be much more meaningful/useful than some of the others that exist.

I don't know that anyone is actually trying to make this happen, but I've come across a lot of people who think it's a great idea.

For anyone who's interested, here is some info from ICANN describing the application process and status of recent TLD applications:

http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/ http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtld-program.htm

It would be sweet if Google or someone big tried to get this done...

Re: Do we need more top level domains?

#18

Post by zefhous » Fri, May 07, 2010, 5:06 AM UTC

cjy wrote: post #14

Why don't we just raise the price of domain names? If you doubled the price you'd make a lot of domain squatting unprofitable. How is it that you need baekdal.dk but not baekdal.cn? Don't they pose the same security threat when it comes to phishing? It's really not necessary to own 20 different tlds to protect your brand. How many people mistakenly go to baekdal.biz?

The fact that it's so cheap to get a site up online is one of the best things about the internet. I would hate to see the price of domain names go up in an attempt to fix this type of problem. I think it would do much more harm than good.

Re: Do we need more top level domains?

#19

Post by makecheck » Fri, May 07, 2010, 5:16 AM UTC

Sidnicious wrote: post #5

This article makes a few good (but separate) points. 1. Hostnames are backwards. com.ycombinator.news makes much more sense than news.ycombinator.com, because the rest of a URL goes from least specific (protocol) to most specific (path components, query, fragment). The only case where the current form of hostname works is email addresses (user at sub dot domain dot tld). IIRC, one of the founders of the WWW (Tim Bern…

"whoever gets .www is going to make a killing"

I think that they'd have to make an exception for historical reasons, and simply pre-register "www.". (This kind of reservation is not unprecedented; "example.com" and similar names are off-limits, according to the original RFC 2606.) So "www." could be introduced as a giant no-op in the modified domain name system, and browsers would simply learn to ignore it.

Re: Do we need more top level domains?

#20

Post by patio11 » Fri, May 07, 2010, 5:26 AM UTC

benologist wrote: post #13

patio11 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be careful what you wish for. While that would kill off third-tier domaining, most domains worth owning are worth pulling a Demand Media type strategy on if you have no other option. If I had a hundred thousand domains like, I don't know, clevelandcars.com, I'd get myself something conceptually similar to Wordpress MultiUser (WPMU) installed so that they could all be administered centrally, hire swarms of low-wage fr…

That's true. Maybe policing domains would be a better strategy - use it and use it within specific guidelines or lose it.

I would be very, very pissed off if Scholastic Publishing convinced the Proper Domain Use Authority to bump the squatter off of bingocardcreator.com and let them put their shiny new multi-million dollar product launch there.

Again, be careful what you wish for. Any sort of recurring regulatory process puts hoops in front of us little guys more than it does for anybody else. We're the ones who don't have squads of lawyers sitting on standby with nothing better to do than push paperwork through the process.