ICANN: Give Us .sex!

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) votes today on expanding domain name endings from .org, .net, .com, and a few others to include any combination of letters and numbers. Computerworld explains:

If ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, relaxes those rules, then companies will be able to buy generic top-level domain names ending in whatever they want...That means, for example, that eBay Inc. could add its company name to the end of its URL and become eBay.ebay and Microsoft Corp. could become Microsoft.microsoft...

According to the report, when asked about the possibility of an .xxx domain name, [ICANN CEO Paul Twomey] said the new system would be "open to anyone."

I hope that the forward thinking members of ICANN convince their squeamish peers to open up domain restrictions for the good of the world. Editor Jesse Walker listed the many advantages of myriad domain names in a 2001 reason article:

Surfing would be easier, with shorter addresses to remember; cybersquatting would be less of a problem, since it would be harder to buy up all the possible permutations of a person's or company's name; and domains themselves would be cheaper.

UPDATE: The ICANN conference is over, and I'm on the prowl for resolutions and whatnot. What I found thus far suggests that the attendees implemented (or are implementing) a system for the creation of new top-level domains (TLD)—.org, .net, .sex, etc., etc.

Comments

LOLcat | June 26, 2008, 12:16pm | #

ICANN has .sex?

Dog's New CLothes | June 26, 2008, 12:17pm | #

ICANN HAZ .SEX?

Dog's New Clothes | June 26, 2008, 12:17pm | #

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!1

Dello | June 26, 2008, 12:22pm | #

This could also solve the problem of children going to porn sites by accident: Instead of forcing porn to .xxx or .sex, simply force kid content sites to .kid (or better still; .g, .pg, .pg13, .m, etc.) and punish HARSHLY any porn site that tries to set up there. In other words, protect the children, don't punish the masses.

Chuck | June 26, 2008, 12:23pm | #

So does this mean I can now register heywood.jablome and DEA.sucks as domain names? Sweet!!!!

Come to think of it, .sucks will probably become a pretty popular top level name.

♪ | June 26, 2008, 12:37pm | #

What's the point of domain name endings then, if you can have reason.reason?

Episiarch | June 26, 2008, 12:51pm | #

You would change to stuff like hitandrun.reason, brickbats.reason, etc. It just gives more choice, which is good.

Rimfax | June 26, 2008, 12:59pm | #

So, will they open it up to all unicode characters? Good luck visiting זוויג.זוויג.

Rhywun | June 26, 2008, 1:05pm | #

Surfing would be easier, with shorter addresses to remember

Like the way phone numbers got easier to remember after the number of area codes ballooned recently?

Sure, more choice is better but let's not pretend it's going to make anything "easier" for the average person. What's going to make it easier is better technology to handle the increased complexity (like the cell phone did for phone numbers). Better search, better browser "guessing", that sort of thing.

Sam Grove | June 26, 2008, 1:40pm | #

firstname.lastname

Episiarch | June 26, 2008, 1:49pm | #

rhywun.crankyoldmanwhohatesareacodes

Audrey B | June 26, 2008, 1:57pm | #

boobies.boobies

Jesse Walker | June 26, 2008, 1:59pm | #

Like the way phone numbers got easier to remember after the number of area codes ballooned recently?

Well, no. The phone numbers got longer, not shorter.

dot obama? | June 26, 2008, 2:15pm | #

YES, ICANN!

Kwix | June 26, 2008, 2:21pm | #

Uhh Jesse,
I think that was the cranky old man's point.

John | June 26, 2008, 2:26pm | #

clownpenis.fart might someday be an actual website.

Patrick Melody | June 26, 2008, 3:09pm | #

This proposal should get more attention, especially amongst the free market types:

http://www.templetons.com/brad/dns/fix.html

P.G. | June 26, 2008, 3:58pm | #

[e-mail]??? Yossarian would start smoking weed through an apple.

Hmmm | June 26, 2008, 4:25pm | #

It probably won't solve anything unless you think that ICANN is a good global trademark/IP arbritrator. Apple Computers owning .apple globally? What about apple.sex, apple.ebay, apple.ford? Be prepared for reason.ebay, reason.sex, reason.movies, reason.??? for all TLDs.

All this arbitrated by ICANN, aka bureaucracy.

Jesse Walker | June 26, 2008, 4:26pm | #

Uhh Jesse,
I think that was the cranky old man's point.

The cranky old man's comparison breaks down, because the new top-level domains will not necessarily increase, and indeed will often decrease, the lengths of URLs.

Though he has a good point about improved search technology ultimately being more important.

Rhywun | June 26, 2008, 8:38pm | #

Well, whether the length increases or not, the more important point is the larger number of available address. There've been lots of times I tried to get a name on .com that was already taken.

Jacob | June 26, 2008, 10:21pm | #

I don't know... could be a problem when google.ocm pops up a video of 2 girls 1 cup.