Let’s say that you got on the Internet anytime in the last 20 years. After a while, you had the grand idea of getting a domain name all for yourself. However, by the time you got around to purchasing it, the one you wanted was already taken. It’s too bad that AWESOME.COM, AWESOME.NET, AWESOME.ORG, AWESOME.US, and AWESOME.CO weren’t available for your, erm, awesome idea, but that’s life.
Well, OK, it was, until recently. Up until three years ago, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) policy dictated that all domain names had to fall under a rigid set of TLDs (top level domains). There were several generic ones – for example, .COM for companies and .EDU for academic institutions – as well as many two-letter entries for the various officially-recognized countries around the world, such as .UK for the United Kingdom and .JP for Japan, to name a few. Even the former Soviet Union is still in the global domain name system (.SU)! All of these have varying requirements depending on local registrar, and some of the more permissive national registries permit domain hacks – such as BONUS.LY, LAST.FM, and DEJA.VU – but there wasn’t a system for more generic top level domains (gTLDs) in place yet.
After an ICANN conference in 2011, the wheels were set in motion for gTLDs to become reality, and in 2013, the first ones were unveiled to the Internet. Two were in Cyrillic (Russian words for “online” and “site”), one in Arabic (for “web” or “network”), and one in Chinese (meaning “game”). The first English-language ones issued as a result of this new gTLD program were seen shortly thereafter. Today, the list totals more than 1,000 gTLDs, and new ones are being released on a regular basis. These include names like .TECH, .SCIENCE, .WORK, and so forth. This means that you have a much greater chance of getting a domain name that you want using a newer gTLD than if you stuck to the traditional ones. How does AWESOME.NINJA sound? It was available at the time this article was written, so if you want it, go get it! (We don’t have any use for it right now.)
On a more serious note, if you’re leading a new startup and find it fairly difficult to get a domain name that is representative of your organization’s name or branding, or even one that has anything to do with your chosen vertical market(s), while still being less than 10-15 characters, you may have better luck now that there are more than just .COM, .ORG, .BIZ, .INFO, and the other traditional TLDs from which to choose.
However, there are several groups that are opposed to this program. Unsurprisingly, Verisign (who operates the .COM and .GOV registries, as well as two of the thirteen root DNS servers that provide domain name service to everyone on the Internet) has come out against these new gTLDs, but not for reasons of commerce or marketing. In an October 2015 US SEC filing, it classed ICANN’s gTLD program as being a significant risk factor for their business from a technical angle, stating in the filing that they “face increased risks should ICANN’s delegation of these new gTLDs, which represent unprecedented changes to the root zone in volume and frequency, cause security and stability problems within the DNS [domain name system], and/or for parties who rely on the DNS.” Their concerns appear to be that the DNS system stands to see a sharp rise in traffic volumes, and without adding more infrastructure to the domain name system, it could begin to crumble under the added weight of all of these additional requests.
Other individuals and organizations aren’t loving the recent changes to the fundamentals of DNS; for instance, Paul Vixie (who wrote and currently maintains the BIND domain name service software that is widely used on the Internet, and who also runs another one of the root domain name servers) was quoted last October as labeling ICANN’s gTLD program a “money grab” perpetuated by “the industry that [ICANN] are regulating.” Many brand owners also expressed concern that these new gTLDs could become vehicles for trademark infringement; however, ICANN implements a Trademark Clearing House (TMCH) and Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS); with these, most potential infringements are blocked before registration (via the TMCH), and for those that do get through, there is a means to have offending domain registrations removed from service (via URS – though it is viewed as more of a failsafe, not so much a primary strategy, by those who have used it to defend and protect their brand identities).
Another common complaint shared by the other groups is that some of the names may not be favorable to existing organizations and individuals, even with trademark protection being a fundamental part of ICANN’s gTLD program strategy as discussed above. With one of the newer gTLDs being .SUCKS, one can certainly see the validity of such thinking.
Regardless, it doesn’t appear that generic top level domains are going away anytime soon. A quick Google search for “gTLDs” yields many results, with many different domain name vendors willing to sell you a vanity domain with the newest gTLD appended. As time progresses, will we see this new market crystallize to a point where only a few of these gTLDs are going to have any worth in the next 5+ years? It happened with video game consoles in the early 1980s, home computers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and even mobile phones in the mid to late 2000s; it stands to reason that even intangible possessions such as domain names would not be excluded from this phenomenon.
But, here’s the burning question of the day: Did you register AWESOME.NINJA yet?!
Links:
https://www.icann.org/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/27/verisign_warns_new_gtlds_could_destabilize_internet
http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=6253eb33-f243-43d7-9bef-821c55e1720d