ICANN, Strategy Panels, Internet Governance Ecosystem, Vinton Cerf

ICANN Announces Strategy Panel Members | ICANN: "ICANN's Role in the Internet Governance Ecosystem - Chair: Vinton Cerf — VP and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google . . . ."

There's no one better than Vint Cerf to chair that panel.

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Acronyms, Domain Names (video)

OMG! Will Acronyms Take Over English? - Digits - WSJ: "When you get a text message, you may know what LOL means, but how about YOLO, GLHF or IDK? The WSJ’s Eva Tam updates us with the latest tech-inspired acronyms."

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US Control of the Internet Soon Gone Thanks to NSA

ICANN, good or bad, at least had some moderating oversight via US Department of Commerce, and the US internationally has been a steady proponent of internet freedom (vs the censorship of China and other less enlightened nations), but that will most likely change soon thanks to the NSA actions --

What Does It Mean for the U.S. to 'Lose Control of the Internet?' - Robinson Meyer - The Atlantic: " . . . The leaders of 10 organizations signed the statement in Montevideo, Uruguay. They include ICANN, the standards-making IETF and W3C, the Internet Society, and the five regional registries. But of those 10 organizations, the U.S. has oversight powers over only one: ICANN. So if the Uruguay statement concerns the United States, then it really concerns the functioning of ICANN. And three bullet points in the statement imply ICANN. Here’s the main one: [The signatories] called for accelerating the globalization of ICANN and IANA functions, towards an environment in which all stakeholders, including all governments, participate on an equal footing. . . ."

Bottom line: Balkanization, Chaos, and Censorship will be continuing threats to the internet.

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How many websites are registered on each gTLD?

Generic top-level domains (gTLDs), the “.com” or “.net” part of web addresses, are massively expanding soon, but as of June 2012, the existing 21 gTLDs, had the following websites registered, per gTLD (source: CNN):

source: CNNMoney Graphic via link above

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Generic Top-Level Domains, Dot Com Still King

Intellectual Property Bulletin - Spring 2013: Revisiting Generic Top-Level Domains | Fenwick & West LLP - JDSupra: " Few would doubt that no matter how many gTLDs go live, .com will remain king. Prior challengers such as .pro and .mobi have failed to displace the venerable .com, and there is no reason to think any new domain will fare better."

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gTLDs To Hasten End of Domain System or a Rush to Dot Coms?

Intellectual Property Bulletin - Spring 2013: Revisiting Generic Top-Level Domains | Fenwick & West LLP - JDSupra: "We should see, before too long, whether the gTLD expansion of the domain space will serve only to hasten the demise of the domain system. Once the domain space is cluttered with a thousand or more gTLDs, if the result is disinformation, misinformation, and fraud, consumers may rush even more quickly to a platform that they believe gives them more control and less noise." (read more at link above)

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A Dot Com Web Address, A Business Must Do

Before you file anything public, get the Dot Com! --

Julie South; Why A Website Is Still Key For Businesses... | Stuff.co.nz: "It's easy in today's online world of 'social' for business owners to think they only need to be on Facebook as having a website is so last century. After all, why pay for a website when social is free? Sadly, many business owners fail to appreciate that having a dedicated and transferable website is far more important to their future survival than any free social media platform is ever going to be. Let's take that last sentence apart bit by bit: Dedicated - this means the domain name is that of your business. Not your business's name hanging off the end of a third-party address. . . . Having your own domain name is important. . . ." (read more at link above)

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Frank Schilling says Dot Com Will Become Like AM Radio?

Last time I checked, there were 2 commercial radio bands -- AM and FM. Is Frank saying Dot Coms, 20 years from now, will continue with about 50% of internet traffic (and probably the most LUCRATIVE traffic) and the other 10,000 gTLDs will split the other 50% of internet traffic -- twenty years from now? In any event, who buys a domain name based on a hope and prayer of something having value in twenty years? Particularly when the track record of the other gTLDs--dot mobi et al is so pitiful!

Frank Schilling Live From London: “.Com Will Become Like AM Radio” | TheDomains.com: "The Digital Marketing & gTLS Strategy Congress conference kicked off today with Frank Schilling of Unregistry, laying out how he see the future of the domain name space and its the new gTLD program. Mr. Schilling was being interviewed on stage by Kevin Murphy of Domainincite.com As always Mr. Schilling had some interesting observations and bold predictions: Big brands placed their internet presence on .com as it meant commerce smaller brands and companies followed them into .com . . . ."

Dot Coms will continue to dominate the percentage of internet traffic for the foreseeable future. However, Schilling is right that registrars will make a lot of money selling next to worthless names with the new gTLDs, and of course fortunes will be spent trying to protect trademarks (ICANN's new gTLDS are a lawyer full-employment scheme), and further billions (US dollars) sucked out of the economy to fraudsters and scammers utilizing new gTLDs -- all as ICANN was warned, or maybe this is what they intended?

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ICANN, internet abuse

ICANN and Your Internet Abuse: "There seems to have been a purge of critical compliance staff at the end of 2012 which coincides with the general decline of performance. Meanwhile, a minority of players are using the DNS as a weapon against consumers all under ICANN's watchful eye. There cannot be consumer trust in an environment of skullduggery. It is part of the reason why sites like the Rape Tube are allowed to endure." (read more at link above)

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Domain Name Aftermarket, Liquidity, Afternic

The Changing Face of the Domain Name Aftermarket - 'Net Features - Website Magazine: " . . . Afternic's DLS (Domain Listing Servie) displays domain names at more than 100 different registrars - including 18 of the top 20. . . . GoDaddy plans to incorporate the DLS into its own domain search results and add its aftermarket domain name inventory to the DLS in the coming months. It may come as a surprise, but Web.com (operator of Network Solutions), Register.com, and Tucows.com are supportive of GoDaddy’s new registrar-led model. . . ." (Read more at link above.)

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ICANN's ill-conceived new gTLDs now a failure in execution

What a mess ICANN has made in their rush for the unnecessary expansion of  gTLDs (generic top level domains). After disregarding and ignoring complaints, protests, warnings, and wise advice, ICANN plunged ahead and now it is even getting worse -- nothing less that a slow motion train wreck -- read more:

Radix, TLDH & Westerdal Asks ICANN To Suspend All Pending Expert Panels In New gTLD Process | TheDomains.com

Congress should hold hearings on ICANN and its new gTLDs program which is designed to maximize profits for ICANN and its contractors, as well as fraudsters, scammers, lawyers, and others, and consider reforming the entire management of the Domain Name system -- but, please, don't give it to the ITU or any other UN bureaucacy!

And remember, ICANN brought this on itself -- it was warned, even by its founding chairman --

What's in a domain name? – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs: " . . . Most of the people active in setting ICANN’s policies are involved somehow in the domain-name business, and they would be in control of the new TLDs as well. It’s worth it to them to spend their time at ICANN meetings (or to send staffers), whereas domain names are just a small part of customers’ and user’ lives. And that means that the new TLDs are likely to create money for ICANN’s primary constituents, but only add costs and confusion for companies and the public at large. . . ." -- ICANN’s founding chairman Esther Dyson

But did ICANN listen? No, ICANN is arrogant, ignorant, and incompetent, and Congress needs to do something about it!

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Domain Names, Honesty, Transparency

What Laurel And Hardy Have In Common With Digital Marketing - Forbes: " . . . today the domain name traders that are prospering the most are those who have a policy of complete transparency with their clients, showing them exactly how much a specific domain name is being bought or sold for. Taking some cues from Stuart Diamond, author of “Getting More” and Donald Trump, savvy domain broker and CEO of Media Options Andrew Rosener has found the Gold Standard in domain name sales is that old catch phrase: “Honesty is the best policy.” Rosener said, “Negotiations are about meeting goals and helping both sides achieve their goals.  Trying to outmaneuver, out smart or over power the other party is most often counter productive to closing a deal.”. . . . "

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How many of the now 63 TLDs can you name?

There are now 63 TLDs -- dot com being the only gold, dot net and dot org now diminished by the new gTLDs and having only marginal value, and the rest next to worthless without the dot com. As others have said, if you are in business and you do not have the dot com, you will bleed traffic to the dot com, always.

More info:

Registry Agreements | ICANN

Stephane Van Gelder

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New gTLDs, Useless Jobs, Waste of Resources

What's in a domain name? – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs: "Handling the profusion of names and TLDs is a relatively simple problem for a computer, even though it will require extra work to redirect hundreds of new names (when someone types them in) back to the same old Web site. It will also create lots of work for lawyers, marketers of search-engine optimization, registries, and registrars. All of this will create jobs, but little extra value. To me, useless jobs are, well, useless. And, while redundant domain names are not evil, I do think that they are a waste of resources." (read more at link above)

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