New Domains Considered Harmful, Says Tim Berners-Lee

from the all-a-big-racket dept

As lots of folks are pushing to get ICANN to expand the number of top level domains (so people an get more than just .com, .net, etc.), Tim Berners-Lee is argung against the idea, saying that current proposals are really just a racket to get more money out of companies. The original idea was that the domain name space (really just the .com space) was getting too crowded and good names were increasingly difficult to come by. However, instead of really expanding the market, adding .biz and .info mostly just made companies feel the need to buy up the same domains they already owned the .com for. If anything, he considers it domain "inflation" - devaluing existing domains. He is particularly against the idea of a .mobi domain name specifically for wireless content, agreeing with us that there's really no need for it and it will make things more confusing. Increasingly, mobile phones and devices are able to access the entire internet without any problems. There's no reason they need a specific separate TLD all their own. He's also against the idea of the .xxx domain, pointing out (as always) that figuring out exactly what is porn is quite subjective. That's true, but as long as no one is forced into the .xxx domain, it might make sense for certain sites that want the domain. He's not entirely against new TLDs, but wants them to have a specific purpose - such as mapping to telephone numbers, which some groups have proposed as well.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    NOBODY, 19 May 2004 @ 10:57am

    No Subject Given

    I don't know why this is such a contraversy. People add new 1800 extensions all the time. I fail to see how this is any different. Now, I have no control over what companies feel they have to do. But I don't think that any of his points are really all that valid.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.