back to article Fate of dot-word bids decided by ICANN archery shoot-out

Who should own .web? Will the internet get a .porn address? What does Google plan to do with 50 new top-level domains? Why is ICANN putting companies through an online "archery game" that requires millisecond timing? These questions and more will be asked and answered tomorrow as domain name policy overlord ICANN reveals the …

COMMENTS

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  1. johnnytruant

    what a load of nonsense

    clearly the process should be based around some kind of dance-off.

    1. frank ly

      Re: what a load of nonsense

      I suggest mud-wrestling matches (or knife fights) between the registered CEO's of the companies concerned. I'd pay to watch them.

  2. Lockwood

    What does Google plan to do with 50 new top-level domains?

    Simple.

    http://google.google

    Wow. I had to fight off putting .com at the end of that.

    1. The Original Cactus

      Re: What does Google plan to do with 50 new top-level domains?

      Maybe they're thinking of something like this?

      google.mail

      google.maps

      google.search

      google.etc

      1. terlan

        Re: What does Google plan to do with 50 new top-level domains?

        you forgot the only suffix that google actual needs to register

        google.justtheporn

        but some others that would be worth chucking some cash at

        google.skynet

        google.bingsux

        google.facebookwontlast

  3. Andrew Jones 2
    Thumb Down

    So.... rather than doing things the way they are and for instance allowing .search and .lol to be a TLD that anyone can register for - eg lol.lol and funny.lol etc - someone will own .lol and no-one else will be able to register a site under that TLD?

    Surely ICANN would get much more money by operating the new TLD's the way the existing ones work? I could for instance have borders.weather. I'm sure there are thousands of sites that would love xxxxx.science etc? even www.theregister.tech ?

    1. The Man Who Fell To Earth Silver badge
      Boffin

      The TLD owner can decide

      Basically, if the owner of the TLD .lol wants to, they can sell registrations for .lol domains.

    2. Daemon Byte

      it does work that way

      Andrew Jones, that's basically what will happen. Some companies will register names like .microsoft and keep them for themselves. Others will register names like .cymru then sell it off in the same way as .uk or .com

  4. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Wild West

    It's the wild west, and ICANN is the biggest of the cowboys.

    Are they running an organisation, a business, or a social club raffle? I don't think they have demonstrated that they're qualified to run any of those. Make up your mind what you are, and do things with a little more forethought, and less "yeah, that could be fun".

    1. PyLETS
      Mushroom

      Re: Wild West

      I agree, and this to me signals the time when it's more appropriate for ICANN to come under control of the ITU. The idea that a company registered in California can dictate global naming issues to every government in the world bar the US which has higher authority isn't diplomatically sustainable once ICANN sets a foot wrong, and now they have. BTW, the ITU are the group responsible for deciding national telephone prefixes, and they wouldn't get away with the equivalent behaviour in that namespace.

  5. Pete the not so great
    Thumb Down

    ghost town TLDs

    after the rush

  6. terlan
    Angel

    archery shoot-out??? surely its track and field stuff

    at last... all those so called "wasted" hours playing track and field in the arcades in the 80s is about to pay off dividends

    1. johnnytruant

      Re: archery shoot-out??? surely its track and field stuff

      QWOP tournament.

  7. Kubla Cant
    Happy

    Digital Archery?

    Left a bit...down a bit... Bernie - the bolt!

    (Actually, "international law expert Alain Pellet" sounds more like digital air-gun shooting.)

  8. druck Silver badge
    Stop

    Lets object to all of them

    As soon as ICANN reveals the public portions of these applications – confidential financial information and some sensitive technical data will be redacted – a 60-day comment period begins. This is every internet user's chance to put their oar in: if you don't like any specific application for whatever reason, you can file an informal objection at no charge.

    Lets object to every single last one of them, and try to put an end to the TLD racket which will be used to extort defensive registrations from every business on the internet over and over again.

  9. Benjamin 4

    This is absolutely ridiculous. .com websites will still exist, it'll make life harder for people to remeber what suffix they want. The only reason ICANN are doing this is money. ICANN should be an international standards body (under UN or something) not a profit making enterprise in the US.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Actually I admire ICANN for this...

    For so long they've sat as an almost passive target for ridicule, just making periodic astonishingly stupid and arrogant decisions to keep it fueled. We were becoming positively blasé, but this initiative boldly ups their game.

    With any luck they'll concede that with "digital archery" there's too much randomness and opt for the pure skill & raw talent of a Han Solo dance-off:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OnDizZ7UT0&feature=player_embedded#t=1m30s

  11. AdamWill

    Worth expanding on that 'favoured but legally risky option of random selection' bit

    There's an illuminating comment on Slashdot (all credit to the author) pointing to http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/advisory-12oct01-en.htm .

    Apparently, you can't have people paying for the TLDs and use random selection to batch them, according to Californian lottery law. This 'digital archery' thing is essentially a legal wheeze to get around the lottery law, like those ridiculous 'skill testing questions' you get in newspaper contests and the like.

    It still comes off as ridiculous, but there is apparently a decent reason for it.

    1. Filippo Silver badge

      Re: Worth expanding on that 'favoured but legally risky option of random selection' bit

      That's not a decent reason for having an archery contest. That's a decent reason for getting rid of ICANN and hand over TLDs to the ITU.

      1. AdamWill

        Re: Worth expanding on that 'favoured but legally risky option of random selection' bit

        You can hardly expect ICANN to look at it that way.

  12. Graham Marsden
    Devil

    "notable domain name investor Frank Schilling"

    "domain name investor"?

    I'm sure there's another name for that...

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