Get on with the times already!
In an article from January 12, 2012, Tom Espiner of c|net announced the intention by ICANN to roll out its new gTLD program.
Titled, “ICANN: Time to register your generic domains“, the article concludes that the move “could trigger a dramatic expansion of the Internet”, as stated by ICANN at the time.
It is interesting, to peruse the instant commentary generated 2 1/2 years ago, when the ICANN initiative was made, by people that are most likely not domainers.
Here are some of the comments:
- “Only multinationals would want this, and even so why not resort to branch.company.XX where xx is the headquarters’s country code”
- “Dibs on clownpenis.fart!”
- “That’s not really a good idea as it would get confusing and most people want a .com name anyway.”
- “Lets hope that the trademark owners have first dibs on their names”
- “Looking forward to see how many applications they get, I don’t see any reason for any company, big or small, to have own TLD.”
- “Stop messing with the internet please. more generic TLDs would be nice, not good, but nice. But the way ICANN are blundering about it’s just going to end up in a mess.”
- ” If I were to start a new business, would I want a .com or a .hum or .tag or .til or .peg or .whatever? Oh, so many choices. If people will use those, why do so few use .biz today?”
- “I see this as mostly a money grab. Yea, we are running out of .com names as you now have to invent a new word like “Google” or add 2, 3 or more words together. But don’t think that Google won’t sue you for starting a “google.gTLD”. You will still have trademark and copyright issues that new TLDs won’t fix.”
As expected, the comments reflect plenty of confusion and rejection of the idea, but what has changed in the six months since the gTLD launch? 😀
