News
Analyst: New Top-Level Domains A Bad System
- By Scott Bekker
- November 22, 2000
Seven new top-level domains have been added to the
Internet’s naming scheme, but one analyst says it may well do more harm than
good.
The new domains are: .info (general use), .biz (general use),
.pro (professionals), .name (personal Web sites), .aero (airlines), .museum
(museums) and .coop (business cooperatives), with one company in each category
chosen by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to be the registry operator.
But David Curle, senior industry analyst with Outsell, Inc., says ICANN dropped the
ball on this one. “It seems crazy, because the criteria for what goes into what
category is not very specific, [and categories] overlap a bit. Now that there’s
.com and .biz, how will people know which is specific for a company? There’s a
.aero, but why not a .rail or .auto?”
In addition, Curle says the new classifications will only serve
to further confuse users. “From a user’s point of view, it doesn’t help me find
what I want to find. Is the company in a .com or .biz?” Curle says.
That’s why analyst organization GartnerGroup suggests that “any enterprise
that has or plans to have an Internet presence should develop a domain naming
strategy that goes beyond .com -- with multiple names registered in a subset of
available registries, including generic top-level domains (old and new),
country code domains, and in the new support for multilingual domain
registration.”
This strategy could cost enterprises $70,000 up front,
Gartner estimates, with about a $20,000 yearly outlay for additional domains
related to new products, mergers and acquisitions.
Curle also sees more litigation, as companies scramble to
add their names to even more top-level
domains. “If you grab new domain similar to another companies, the company
could challenge you. What you’ll see is that companies will register new
domains and see what happens,” Curle says. For instance, what happens when one
outfit gets yourcompany.com and another lands yourcompany.biz?
The new top-level domains aren’t expected to be in use until
mid-next year, and more could be added. According to a report on ICANN’s Web
site, future top-level domains could be added, but only after careful
evaluation of the first seven. Some of the initial top-level domains not added
were .kids, .mall., .cash and .health. – Keith
Ward
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.