Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Stop Corporate Takeover of New Internet Names

change.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 85 posts

Re: Stop Corporate Takeover of New Internet Names

#11

Post by wilfra »

Swizec wrote: post #8
wilfra wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be a PR nightmare for Amazon - instead of the PR coup that giving them away for free would be. Would be one helluva promotional tool for AWS if it came with unlimited free .app domains. I don't understand why people are so quick to assume companies are buying these up for nefarious reasons or to harm consumers.

> I don't understand why people are so quick to assume companies are buying these up for nefarious reasons or to harm consumers. Because, historically speaking, that's what big faceless corporations usually create monopolies for. It's not that they're against consumers, it's that they are for themselves. This rarely aligns with what's best for consumers on a small scale.

This is the exact opposite of a monopoly. Everybody and their sister is going to have their own extension and anybody who can afford one can still buy their own.

Re: Stop Corporate Takeover of New Internet Names

#12

Post by jpalomaki »

signed0 wrote: post #5

I somewhat doubt that most of these new domains will catch on. We already have .jobs, .aero, .travel and .mobi which I have yet to run into while browsing the web. Plus people have already gotten used to recognizing a domain name simply by having a string of characters followed by .com or one of the other popular TLDs. Trying to keep them from prefixing the domain with www has been a losing battle. I could see .app t…

I can imagine this could change in the future. Just a matter of educating the people and if companies of this scale decide to do it, they certainly have the resources.

Incentive for corporates could be branding marketing. As we know, .com is crowded. Could be easier to push http://aging.beauty into peoples minds than some clever .com variation.

Currently users solve the problem by using Google or Facebook, but that is not in the interest of businesses. They probably would like to see the customers coming directly to then, instead of going through search engine (where user is bombarded with messages from competitors)

Re: Stop Corporate Takeover of New Internet Names

#13

Post by seanp2k2 »

jpalomaki wrote: post #12
signed0 wrote: post #5

I somewhat doubt that most of these new domains will catch on. We already have .jobs, .aero, .travel and .mobi which I have yet to run into while browsing the web. Plus people have already gotten used to recognizing a domain name simply by having a string of characters followed by .com or one of the other popular TLDs. Trying to keep them from prefixing the domain with www has been a losing battle. I could see .app t…

I can imagine this could change in the future. Just a matter of educating the people and if companies of this scale decide to do it, they certainly have the resources. Incentive for corporates could be branding marketing. As we know, .com is crowded. Could be easier to push http://aging.beauty into peoples minds than some clever .com variation. Currently users solve the problem by using Google or Facebook, but that i…

All of these just sound spammy, but I'm more concerned with what happens when REAL companies start using "aging.beauty" as right now the "weird" TLDs are a big red flag to warn me that it's probably just some SEO junk and not what I'm really after.

Teeth whitening solutions, anyone?

Re: Stop Corporate Takeover of New Internet Names

#14

Post by OGinparadise »

wilfra wrote: post #11
Swizec wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't understand why people are so quick to assume companies are buying these up for nefarious reasons or to harm consumers. Because, historically speaking, that's what big faceless corporations usually create monopolies for. It's not that they're against consumers, it's that they are for themselves. This rarely aligns with what's best for consumers on a small scale.

This is the exact opposite of a monopoly. Everybody and their sister is going to have their own extension and anybody who can afford one can still buy their own.

Everybody and their sister is going to have their own extension and anybody who can afford one can still buy their own.

so I can get a .shop extension too after Google gets the one and only?

Re: Stop Corporate Takeover of New Internet Names

#15

Post by OGinparadise »

signed0 wrote: post #5

I somewhat doubt that most of these new domains will catch on. We already have .jobs, .aero, .travel and .mobi which I have yet to run into while browsing the web. Plus people have already gotten used to recognizing a domain name simply by having a string of characters followed by .com or one of the other popular TLDs. Trying to keep them from prefixing the domain with www has been a losing battle. I could see .app t…

Google has the clout to make it happen by favoring the domains they want to control on search.

Others not so much.

Re: Stop Corporate Takeover of New Internet Names

#16

Post by seanp2k2 »

jpalomaki wrote: post #12
signed0 wrote: post #5

I somewhat doubt that most of these new domains will catch on. We already have .jobs, .aero, .travel and .mobi which I have yet to run into while browsing the web. Plus people have already gotten used to recognizing a domain name simply by having a string of characters followed by .com or one of the other popular TLDs. Trying to keep them from prefixing the domain with www has been a losing battle. I could see .app t…

I can imagine this could change in the future. Just a matter of educating the people and if companies of this scale decide to do it, they certainly have the resources. Incentive for corporates could be branding marketing. As we know, .com is crowded. Could be easier to push http://aging.beauty into peoples minds than some clever .com variation. Currently users solve the problem by using Google or Facebook, but that i…

>" Just a matter of educating the people and if companies of this scale decide to do it, they certainly have the resources."

As others have pointed out, we've had things like "travel", "biz", "pro", "me", "mobi", etc for some time now. Not many legit sites operate under these, so I don't really think that these new ones have a big chance. Consumers are already confused about what "www" really is and there is a lot of bad / not-quite-correct / flat-wrong info about what "www" is if you ask even folks who self-identify as "tech savvy".

I sense a lot of consumer confusion coming up, a lot of malware / marketeers using these things, snakeoil SEO firms insisting on them, brands buying up tons because they're scared, and generally a bad time for domains.

Re: Stop Corporate Takeover of New Internet Names

#17

Post by hdra »

signed0 wrote: post #5

I somewhat doubt that most of these new domains will catch on. We already have .jobs, .aero, .travel and .mobi which I have yet to run into while browsing the web. Plus people have already gotten used to recognizing a domain name simply by having a string of characters followed by .com or one of the other popular TLDs. Trying to keep them from prefixing the domain with www has been a losing battle. I could see .app t…

I don't know what to expect if all those new TLDs start to catch on. Even today, with all these startups using TLDs such as .io, .ly, .it, etc, I have trouble remembering their exact domains.

Re: Stop Corporate Takeover of New Internet Names

#18

Post by seanp2k2 »

jacoblyles wrote: post #2

This is why we need something like namecoin to take off: http://dot-bit.org/Main_Page

Yup; let us know when ya'll are done with the ICANN shenanigans so we can start implementing P2P DNS more widely, start publishing worthy content on it to draw people to it, then take back what is rightfully ours:

The Internet.

Re: Stop Corporate Takeover of New Internet Names

#19

Post by wilfra »

OGinparadise wrote: post #14
wilfra wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the exact opposite of a monopoly. Everybody and their sister is going to have their own extension and anybody who can afford one can still buy their own.

Everybody and their sister is going to have their own extension and anybody who can afford one can still buy their own. so I can get a .shop extension too after Google gets the one and only?

think about them like really expensive .com's and this will be easier to swallow. you can't get google.com or sex.com because they are taken - but you can get any other .com that is available. or you can get on somebody elses domain for free like .blogspot.com .wordpress.com .tumblr.com etc.

there are a lot of reasons i don't like that ICANN is doing this but fear that these companies are going to employ abusive monopolistic tactics is not one of them. and i think ICANN is likely to just ignore such complaints, because they don't make any sense. this is the opposite of a monopoly and these companies would be dumb not to share the extensions.

Re: Stop Corporate Takeover of New Internet Names

#20

Post by OGinparadise »

wilfra wrote: post #19
OGinparadise wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody and their sister is going to have their own extension and anybody who can afford one can still buy their own. so I can get a .shop extension too after Google gets the one and only?

think about them like really expensive .com's and this will be easier to swallow. you can't get google.com or sex.com because they are taken - but you can get any other .com that is available. or you can get on somebody elses domain for free like .blogspot.com .wordpress.com .tumblr.com etc. there are a lot of reasons i don't like that ICANN is doing this but fear that these companies are going to employ abusive mono…

edit: his comment was edited after I typed mine and I'm too lazy to change it back and forth-

for $1 million plus in costs. You are confusing the extension with a domain name. The point is not to have ONE company own and control an extension (like .com) and all the domains in it. ICAAN should control them and then allow people and corps to register domains within that extension.

Post reply on HN