A new article published today by Wired.com entitled: Domain Name Czar Seeks .OnlineUnity interview Rob Beckstrom CEO of ICANN discusses the proposed gTLD’s and various ICANN and domain issues.
My favorite quote from the article by Beckstrom is in response to the issue about the new gTLD’s and trademark holders complaints that they will have to spend too much to buy domain names in each of the new TLDs.
Beckstrom says its not ICANN’s job to pre-emptively police trademarks.
“Go enforce your trademarks in court,” Beckstrom said.
Beckstrom is also quoted as supporting the new gTLD’s because “new TLDs will lead to innovations that we can’t predict”.
Speaking about the new gTLD’s Mr. Farber says:
“I don’t think that creates innovation, I think that creates rapid confusion.”
Farber is also quoted as saying that “ICANN needs to counter its reputation for holding meetings in fancy places, where members live the high life on fees paid to ICANN through domain registrations.”
Mr. Farber we have a meeting of the minds on that one.
Its an interesting read and you should check out the full article.
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I can only suggest him to cut many of the less useful and used TLDs (the existing domains could be redirected to a .com)
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The new gTLDs will be money makers for the speculators, registrars and ICANN for the short term. They also will create over saturation in the domain space and confusion for those not savvy to navigation. Memory based dot com domains will increase in value in spite of this. Sort of the mountain peaks that stand above the clouds. ICANN has more pressing matters to deal with but it looks like these new names will sooner or later come on line. So which ones will develop and how long will it take to create that perception to their public? IMO, too long. The internet is a virtual place, not just an extention of search, media or advertisement. Dot com has already built the foundation for that world and the new gTLDs will only help inforce it.
I agree Michael, the new gTLDs will probably strengthen .com. It was interesting how domain knowledge some of these trade magazines have. The article did however point me to a video that I must of missed on IDNs (not the one in the article) but this one: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid17699847001?bctid=51199103001 Comments before the approval of IDN.IDNcctlds, very interesting around minute 25.
“money makers for the speculators, registrars and ICANN
they can earn the same money selling the .com at $1 more
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The GAC smelled a rat in the policy creation processes of ICANN some time back I suspect and they have been watching them since.
It will not take take long until hell comes down on ICANN.
I can just see .paris “France” having it out with .paris “hilton” or .paris “Texas”.
.Columbia “Country” getting bombed by .Columbia “pictures”
I see “Party Time” over for ICANN.
I completely agree with Mike Castello. It will be a boom for ICAAN and the registrars but will only make the .com
world that much stronger. The proof is already out there with the other TLDs that already exist. Dot com will rein forever.
“Dot com will rein forever.”
no doubt on that
Every single shred of evidence points to these other extensions being failures.
I think Rod Beckstrom and ICANN only see the dollar sign and not any form of ingenuity.
Rod says “new TLDs will lead to innovations that we can’t predict”….. I say that’s a statement that just gets him off the hook because he does not have to defend something nobody can yet see.
How weak!
Mr Farber has just (correctly) stated that “The Emperor has no clothes.”
I love every minute of it.
More BS websites will be created!!
“Memory based dot com domains will increase in value in spite of this.”
You’d think if new TLDs were going to be such a boon to premium .com holders the Castello brothers wouldn’t be on every new gTLD thread of every last domain blog lobbying against the new gTLD program.
@Peter Y
On the contrary, we’re in favor of the new Tlds. They will be great for dotCom. The problem is that a lot of investors will get burned and that is good for no one. Hence the reason we speak up.
Ah, it’s your selfless concern for TLD investors that prompts your comments. New TLD applicants take note – David Castello believes you are making a mistake, and for your own sake, is seeking to stop the process!
@Peter Y
That’s not what I said, but I wish you the best.
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there is no problem with the TLDs’ inflation since the useless TLDs slowly vanish in tbe fog… e.g. do you own, use, buy, remember the .name domain names?
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I doubt that registrars will make a lot of money from the nTLDs. The registry providers might, the registries themselves might to in some cases but in most cases I doubt it. Some big companies might go after their own extension, just to find out that it will cost too much money to market this extension to the consumers. I don’t think that nTLDs will increase the value of .com or of .ccTLDs, but it once again will demonstrate the power of type in traffic versus the traffic you have to “buy/create” when promoting an extension nobody know and uses.
Good post on summarizing the article by Wired and good comments too.
It seems like professor David Faber hit right on the nail:
1. “ICANN needs to counter its reputation for holding meetings in fancy places, where members live the high life on fees paid to ICANN through domain registrations.”
2. “I don’t think that creates innovation, I think that creates rapid confusion.”
I think the introduction of additional gTLD domain names for anyone who has money pretty much is a bad sign to credibility of ICANN that it has exhausting every day. They need to be more selective on who is chosen to run these new TLDs.
I do think the new CEO of ICANN does have a good argument on how the introduction of new TLDs will generate more new ideas. This is natural, but it looks like his method of execution could probably be tweaked a little.
I am thinking worst case scenario it will probably drive up the prices of .com domain names even more then the way they are already going up.
Its a shame ICANN can’t force some form of price increase for .com domain names to shake up the traders and force all the additional profits to building a better ICANN foundation around the world.
The credibility of Domain “Investors” gets stretched everyday. Clearly the creation of on New TLDs in the past has done little help diversity or generate profits but apart from IDN this has been done at the behest of Domain “Investors”, many of whom have already lost a packet on the likes of Dot Mobi, Dot WS and Dot Name.
The same community also not only whines about the confusion, but also the prices that provide any exclusivity whatsoever. Most cannot even be bothered to appraise themselves on the development of ICANN policies before spouting their drivel. But then if they were all Geniuses then the rest of would have struggled more to make a fortune on the opportunities that have been are still out there.
Lets be 100% clear on BS Development. No amount of restriction on the issuing at top level is ever going to stop this, until Google starts to use algorithms that control “keyword rich” domains.
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months ago, on my ghostNASA.com blog, I’ve proposed the .Space .Moon .Mars TLDs for the space station, the astronauts, the space outposts, the human colonies and the space tourists… 🙂
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