Master of your domains?

By Fred McClimans
Network World Fusion, 06/04/01

This may go without saying, but the whole reason for the existence of the new top-level domains is kind of bogus - unless the real reason is to enrich all those new registrars set up to administer them.

All those new domains were supposed to help ease the name crunch in the existing .com, .net and .org TLDs. But with .biz and .info ready to go on sale, and .pro, .museum, .name, .coop and .aero waiting in the wings, many of the names are already effectively locked up. This is because existing trademark holders will be allowed first rights to claim domains in the new TLDs.

Take Ford, for example. You can bet that they will have a .info site for information on Ford cars. And I'm sure the Ford family will nab ford.name. And I can easily see Ford having a .museum site for vintage cars. And I still can't figure out the difference between .biz and .com - they are both businesses, no? So I fully expect every .com firm with a trademark on their name (and every firm should have one) to aggressively tag their .biz equivalent.

Oh, sure, the new TLD registrars have said they will try to limit new names to organizations or people that actually fit the general criteria (so, alas, Steve Tyler won't be able to get a .aero domain, cool as that would be). But where have we heard that before? Oh, yeah, with .org, which was supposed to be just for non-profit organizations and .net, which was supposed to be organizations that actually ran some sort of network?

Setting aside issues of who gets first dibs on certain names (should Delta Airlines, Delta Faucets or Delta Dental Plan get delta.info?), the new TLDs won't resolve trademark issues, anyway. Lost in all the hullaballoo about them is the fact that there are already numerous competing TLDs - how many Pacific micro-states now auction off names in their TLDs? .TV, anyone?

So while you might get lucky and nab that "generic" name you've had your eye on, chances are you'll instead be spending your domain dollars to register counterparts to your existing .com name. And all the problems surrounding domain names today just won't go away.