names without extensions

[ctc]

A Dutch technology company has breathed life into a project to rid the Internet of suffixes such as .com, and instead offer single names which can be countries, company names or fantasy words.....more

This was done before and failed badly, by a company called REALNAMES, using microsoft.

Good luck to them, They will need it !! :-D

[Sarcle]

Good luck to them, They will need it !!

TLD Application Fee USD 1000

If your application does not comply with our Terms, we are not obliged to return your application fee.

Um...yeah a lot of luck.

[Rubber Duck]

I think the main market for this is ISPs in developing nations that will probably bundle a subdomain with a Hosting package for free. Using this system they can create millions of them. Bit like having an email address john.smith.sunltd@virgin.net. Functional but not very useful for branding.

The other problem is with this system, is you are going have double resolution, which means that failures are going to increase dramatically and URLs will take much longer to resolve. I also suspect that there will be very little Bandwidth available, which will further slow access times.

You will also need a pluggin to get this to work at all, which means they won't ever work in much of the developed world.

Anybody who goes this route for their main business site, wants their head examining!

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

[QuantumBeam]

....huuummm........

[Acro]

"Those who claim to be able to add new 'suffixes' or 'TLDs' are generally pirates or con men with something to sell," said Paul Vixie, who sits on several committees of the California-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) with day-to-day control of the Web, on his blog.

Look who's talking, ICANNT!

[Sarcle]

I did especially love that part. It's like, "um yeah, and who the hell are you guys? You have a product your trying to sell at a rediculously inflated price."

[denny007]

I would actually LOVE if such system would be implemented. Can You imagine the never-ending possibilities for typos ? Wow !

[Acro]

Actually depending on the setup of your browser, this might be enabled.

Example, using Mozilla Firefox I get

Type:
car --> Edmunds.com
sex --> sxetc.org
domains --> Yahoo domains

That's whatever is #1 in Google for that keyword.

[JMJ]

Seems as though they want to become another new.net aswell.


This e-mail is to inform you how UnifiedRoot, an independent
Amsterdam-based privately held company, is in the process of rolling out a
new premium enhancement to the Internet.

With this initiative UnifiedRoot intends to achieve a free market, user
driven approach to domain names, parallel to the existing ICANN
registration.

Effective the 24th of November it will be possible to register top-level
domains(TLDs) “behind the dot”, such as .airport, .company , or
.soccer. We will also offer country names to the local governments, such
as “.india” or “.brasil”.

Please read our press release that was launched in 17 Central European
countries, on the 24th of November.

You can find the press release attached, or on
www.unifiedroot.com/corporate/pressroom
If you are already resolving the UnifiedRoot, you can go to
pressroom.unifiedroot

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions, please
send your e-mail to info@unifiedroot.com.


Sincerely Yours,

Erik Seeboldt
Managing Director

UnifiedRoot S & M B.V.
P.O. Box 75137
1070 AC Amsterdam

[denny007]

BTW there was many similar attempts in the past, i.e.:
http://www.atlanticroot.com/
http://www.new.net/

[Rubber Duck]

Frankly, I am not sure technically what the distinction between this and the J-Words or 3721 is in Japan and China. These are both keyword systems that circumvent normal use of the toolbar and are sold a bit like domains and are typed directly into the tool bar, due to the use of a plug-in. These work as the lack of browser support for IDN has left the market wide open for this kind of product. Proof if proof were needed the ASCII DNS system is letting down non-English speakers in a big way. It would seem, however, the heyday of Keyword search will be over once IE 7.0 is released, as it should be anticipated that these keyword users will migrate to straight to IDN.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

Actually depending on the setup of your browser, this might be enabled.

Example, using Mozilla Firefox I get

Type:
car --> Edmunds.com
sex --> sxetc.org
domains --> Yahoo domains

That's whatever is #1 in Google for that keyword.

No it isn't. Yes, they are redirections effective in most browsers, but different browsers go to different places. This will require a plug-in that redirects you to their servers, rather than the DNS and then resolves the name against their own registry, which will come up with the IP address. As pointed out below actually nothing new, just a new spin!

The worst thing is that there is nothing to stop 100 other organisations setting up and doing exactly the same thing. Your "domain", which is actually not a domain at all, will only be unique on their system. Your success will depend very much on their success, because if any Wanabee takes a bigger market share, then the small section of the internet your name is valid for will shrink dramatically, thats if it ever gets going in the first place. For this to be of value, everyone needs to adopt. It just won't happen.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

PS apologies regarding double resolution earlier. This should not actually be necessary, as their registry should be able to come up with an IP address directly.

[namewaiter]

we all already have truly unique web addresses once Hosting is set-up, lets all just market our IP addresses ...

eg. http://129.34.23.11 - a great place to hang!

this is nothing more than the new.net gimmick

[Rubber Duck]

Yes, and the silly thing is that in order to make the business strategy even remotely feasible the first thing they do it start adding subdomains, so the keyword immediately reassumes all the properties of an extension.

The other thing that is not clear is should you be unwise enough to invest in such dubious intellectual property, what rights would you actually have to the se Keywords. This aspect of the system is totally unproven. If you wanted to sell and transfer to a new "owner", would this been even feasible or does ownership revert to "registry" for lack of a clear terminology.

Furthermore, do you think this organisation is financial sound enough to have confidence in them anyway. They go down and the Keywords just simply vanish into thin air!!!

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

[ctc]

There is a difference between what They are offering and what alternative domain registries are offering (like new.net).
They are trying to implement what a company "real names" did. No extension keywords. ie. just type the word "example" in your browser instead of "example.com"

[Rubber Duck]

Yes but the basic problem is that they have no fundamental legal status and any me too competitor can do exactly the same thing with a slightly different pluggin that directs you to alternative servers. You could end up with upteen versions of "business" or "sex". The "domain" will onlly be as valuable as each company is:

a) successful

and

b) honest!

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon