Green Taxi

I have had the pleasure of being involved in a discussion with an ICANN employee, Kieren, over the last several days.  I would like to encourage everyone to read the article and the ensuing comments on TheDomains.  Kieren has been the first public persona I have seen out on the general public Internet forums from such a big governing body.

ICANN basically decides the structure of the Internet.  This is incredibly important because they are in charge of which platforms, in terms of domains or extensions (such as “.com”), will be available for innovation on the Internet in the future.

ICANN most recently is reviewing the creation of many new extensions (for instance, .berlin, .google, .jobs, etc.).  I believe they have completed a majority of the testing and now are weighing in on many of the final decisions before they allow applications.  The expensive application for a next extension costs somewhere between $150-200k. 

I oppose these new extensions in general.  In agreement with Elliot, these extensions will not directly effect my business in the near term.  However, I do think it is important that I get involved. I have a decent understanding of the issues.  I also represent many friends and family by voicing my opinion.  Most importantly, I care for the future of the Internet and our world economic growth, much of which will be affected by these decisions.

Here are several of the reasons why I oppose these changes right now.

1. Demand- I do not think the demand for these new extensions comes from the end user.  The companies that want to push out these extensions are merely middlemen who make a profit from selling domains on these new extensions.  I have yet to see any new big extension (ie. .name, .mobi, .travel, .asia) turn out any quality domains and it is my belief that a majority of the holders of these domains are speculative.  Thus the end user demand comes from speculators not developers or consumers.
2. Security- I personally think ICANN should put more effort into security on current extensions.  It has been proven that a majority of phishing fraud (those fake emails claiming they are your bank and ask you to update your account info) come from domains in the Hong Kong (.hk or .co.hk extension).  Yet as far as I know, ICANN has done nothing to punish or penalize this extension.  Yet ICANN was responsible for the creation of this extension.  So, what will happen if these new extensions cause problems?  Will they police them?  Do they have the power?  Do they have the means?  I worry they are pushing these through too quickly without properly cleaning up the other bad areas of the net to start with.  I liken this to creating many more storefronts and playgrounds in bad neighborhoods just because you hope they will clean up the area and drive local business.  In time, some of those will surely house drug dealers and crackheads.  I say, why create the neighborhood at all when there are plenty of neighborhoods for everyone to currently operate from?
3. Trademark risk – I see this as a minor issue.  I do not think the extensions will work, so I do not think that trademark holders need to protect their products by purchasing the domains with these new extensions.  However, the new extensions create a platform for fraud.  It is like a Coca-cola warehouse being built in the middle of nowhere with Coca-cola signs plastered all over the outside.  Coca-cola does not need to use the warehouse because they have plenty others, but if they do not purchase the warehouse there is risk that troublemakers go in there and start selling drugs out of a warehouse with their name on it.  It is costly for Coca-cola to buy all those warehouses just to protect their brand image.

Now, I do not oppose to these changes longer term.  I am in favor of allowing or creating change to feed innovation and growth.  However, I do not think these are groundbreaking changes considering they already have been tried and failed over the past 8 years.  In time if there is real interest for these new extensions then it could be worth adding them.

There is also a real reason to add the IDN TLD’s now.  This means instead of seeing .jp for Japan’s domain extensions, you see the actual Japanese characters such as .日本.  Language issues like this should be the primary focus for true growth of the extensions for now.  It will enable billions across the world to understand in their own language how they are navigating on the web.

Now, I am curious what your thoughts are in regards to Internet extensions.  Do you think they are good for growth?  Is this a concern to you at all?

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