Today according to a press release, The National Retail Federation (NRF) asked the Commerce Department to delay implementation of the new gTLD program
“The single comment we are hearing most often from retailers is that they wish they had more time,” NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan said. “Whether they’re for it or against it, everybody agrees that there has been too much uncertainty around this process. Right now, uncertainty reigns.”
Reading through the Press Release some of the statements contained in it seem to be inaccurate and certainly doesn’t layout a reason of why the Commerce Department should delay a process of it has been involved in.
The PR says:
“The plan has been under consideration since 2009”
No actually since 2008 in its present form but was discussed at ICANN prior to that.
but “its scope and consequences have largely flown under the radar of most commercial businesses,”
There have been thousands of stories written about the new gTLD program over the years, and 9 or more ICANN meetings were largely dedicated to the topic, with each having plenty of time for public comment, even by the NRF and its members. Moreover many versions of the guidebook have been published with comment periods for each.
“Duncan warned in a letter to Lawrence Strickling, head of the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration. “To adequately plan, businesses need some level of clarity,” Duncan said. “To date, that guidance is lacking.”
No its not.
There are almost 400 pages that guide anyone interested through the process.
I’m not saying the guidebook is an easy read, nor is this going to be a quick and easy process but its inaccurate to say there is “no guidance”
“ICANN has been unclear on information as basic as how many names will be available, citing numbers ranging 300 to 1,500. In addition, the organization has told some businesses the new domains assigned in 2012 will be all that will be available for the foreseeable future, while telling others new rounds of assignments will be made every few years. Such details are important so businesses will know whether they need to move quickly or will be able to wait, Duncan said.”
There is no limit to the number of applications that will be accepted in the first round.
Clear enough.
Doesn’t matter if there are 300 or 3,000 application received.
“”While some retailers believe the plan will offer new marketing opportunities, others are concerned that they could be forced to spend millions of dollars to protect themselves against “cyber-squatting” by registering multiple variations of their names to keep competitors, critics or unauthorized users from doing so. Application fees for each of the new domains have been set by ICANN at $185,000, but NRF expects most companies to spend $250,000 per name when legal fees and consultants are included, plus another $50,000 to $100,000 a year to manage the domains thereafter. In some cases, assignment of a domain sought by more than one party would be decided by auction, further driving up costs.””
Well that’s business.
Its just another business decision.
Cost Vs. Reward.
They seems to know the costs, now they just have to weight the risks of applying or not applying.
Yes you have to make a decision and no you don’t have 3 more years to do it.
The whole introduction of more gTLDs really is just patently unfair to retail commerce in general.
Most folks (even in business) in the U.S. have never heard of .TV or .info, so there is no real reason for them to catch on even after countless ICANN meetings, papers, guide books, etc…..
Remember, almost all businesses missed out of .com in the 90’s and still most don’t understand the importance some 15 + years later.
The Commerce Department should have decided this instead of being administered by ICANN.
ICANN just vomited/urinated, IMO, on all businesses worldwide with these new extensions, regardless of how much they informed anyone.
Truth is, in the long run, after countless billions have been spent, most will revert back to .com once the sun shines on the futility of chasing these other extensions and insignificance of chasing “ghost town” domains that nobody will direct navigate to and will be even harder to get folks to go to without massive marketing dollars, and even still might be failures. Smart money will flow back to .com., again, IMO.
it sure looks like blackmail.
the reason many participating businesses will participate is out of fear not opportunity. it’s quite clear the real opportunity lies with icann and those of us who know the system. they will make money no matter what happens. they have very little uncertainty to deal with.
sure, we’ve seen this issue of new tlds debated for a long time. we. but we’re nerds. we know who wanted the new tld’s and why. and we know who’s going to make a play now that icann has decided to try it once more.
but we can’t expect businesses to want new tld’s the same way. smart people do not invest in things they don’t understand. and it’s probably not unreasonable to think some of these businesses voicing complaints are being smart. unless and until they understand how things work, they should not be expected to invest.
the domain name system has not been reviewed by that many people outside of a small number of nerds and domainers who know it well. do not forget this. all it takes is some sensible people to crack it open and have a hard look and things could change quickly. it’s very possible to design a better system.
and any argument that new tld’s are good for consumers is weak. this is going to make the web more confusing and more susceptible to scams than ever before.
by all means, go forth and profit from new gtld’s, but have some compassion for these businesses.
In reality the new gTLD was not passed by popular demand. It was not like business and consumers were demanding it.
It was an artificial program. A solution to a problem that did not exist. It was created to benefit the financial interest of a few.
When you have members of ICANN passing this program, then leaving to join private industry in this field right after, it is clear the game is rigged.
Brad
Yes, a whole big can of worms is about to be open. A wild west scenario of a web address system is headed our way. No one asked for these new extensions but ICANN in all its wisdom has deemed them necessary. While legitimate businesses will continue to use .com and other established extensions, the new suffixes will be a whole new playground for unscrupulous players to conduct fraud and create confusion for Internet users.
Legitimate businesses would be wise to avoid getting involved in these new extensions.
The proponents are hoping that a critical mass will coalesce around the new TLDs. It won’t happen and all the investment in them will be for nothing. Yes, fear and uncertainty are driving the scant interest being expressed. There’s no need to fear missing out on this as just about all the other gTLDs launched in the past since the original three are now basically afterthoughts.
Let ICANN have its fun and go through the motions of launching this silly program and just stand back and watch it flounder.
Don’t play the game. Don’t waste your money.
“No one asked for these new extensions but ICANN in all its wisdom has deemed them necessary.”
ICANN has been chartered to develop a new TLD policy since it began more than a decade ago. One of the consequences of starting an organization to do things, is that those things might eventually get done.
I haven’t the foggiest notion how all of this is going to play out, but I don’t understand why, if the new TLDs are going to largely be ‘failures’ by some measure, people should be prevented from trying and failing.
The current gTLD system locks in a small club of privately operated registries. Maybe that’s all that are needed, and they are doing the best possible job. Maybe the notion of competition in registries doesn’t work, because unique labels are not interchangeable commodities.
I don’t think the world is going to end either way, but I’m curious about the thinking that says, “These people over here are allowed to do X, and you are not.”
It’s not as if anyone every asked for .com, .net and .org either.
The new top level domains will be the best & biggest thing thats happened to the internet in years.
The ANA/CRIDO have had more then enough time to add to the debate during the many years the discussion proces has been going on. Theyve only now decided to protest by mounting whats really an unsubstantiated scare mongering campaign.
The new domains will actually be good for business and free up the rapidly limiting choice of the domain extensions currently available.
Apart from that theres no way the ANA can actually derail the release of the new domains especially with the flimsy base of their arguments.
Welcome to the new top level domains. Theyll be here to stay and provide a real choice for businesses.