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Do we need more top level domains?

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Re: Do we need more top level domains?

#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 Berners-Lee, perhaps?) already admitted that they got this wrong. I'm all for fixing it, but how? There would need to be easily machine- and human-identifiable differences between old- and new-style hostnames, or there's massive potential for confusion and collisions. There's also an unthinkable amount of software out there that understands hostnames in their current form.

2. The TLD system is broken. Hierarchical hostnames make great sense when you want to refer to the host foo, owned by building four of the computer science department of Caltech. The TLDs we're using today are hacks, a valiant attempt by ICANN to conserve the domain namespace. I hate to admit it, but I think that registering TLDs based on trademark really could work. It'd mean the end of fun websites like http://unicodesnowmanforyou.com/, but would bring a huge amount of sanity to the top-level namespace. It would create to a huge new market for private subdomain reselling (whoever gets .www is going to make a killing) where resellers would have the power to be selective about registrations, and to pull domains out from under squatters. Spam-heavy TLDs would lose credibility.

It makes today's internet feel like the Wild West.

Re: Do we need more top level domains?

#8

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?

Re: Do we need more top level domains?

#9

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 freelancers to thicken them with less-than-awe-inspiring content, and slap adsense ads on all of them.

This would quickly be turned into a turnkey solution for parking -- it would cost $50 a domain a year, sure, but that is mouse droppings next to what a decent domain earns in a commercial niche.

Re: Do we need more top level domains?

#10

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…

Yeah. I think if a very top level domain was very expensive (say, $5m) then only people who really needed one would be able to get it. www.ibm etc. Providers could resell under their domains (Verisign or whoever would keep .com) by whatever contract they want. Differing domain legal regimes would allow the "right" set of rules through regime competition. And so on.
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