Yes, there should be more gTLDs. Expanding the number of TLDs will increase consumer choice, and create opportunities for entities that have been shut out under the current name structure. It doesn't make sense to continue a situation in which huge segments of the general public view .com as the only "real" TLD, but every word in a typical English- language dictionary is already registered as an SLD there. This situation is currently requiring companies to register increasingly unwieldy domain names for themselves, and is inflating the value of the secondary (speculators') market in .com domain names.(posted 8903 days ago)Right now, .com stands astride the name space as the dominant commercial TLD. Companies that currently have a domain name in the form of
have an extremely important marketing and name-recognition tool. They have an advantage over all other companies that do not have addresses in that form, because they are the ones that consumers, surfing the Net, will be able to find most easily. If the name space is expanded, companies will be able to get easy-to-remember domain names more easily, and the entry barriers to successful participation in electronic commerce will be lowered. Similarly, addition of new gTLDs could enlarge noncommercial name space. Addition of new gTLDs will allow different companies to have the same second-level domain name in different TLDs. That is (to pick an arbitrary example), shopping.com might face competition from shopping.biz and shopping.store. Those businesses will have to compete based on price, quality and service, rather than on the happenstance of which company locked up the most desirable domain name first.
Indeed, expanding the name space could help solve one of our most intractable problems relating to trademark and domain names. Currently, when multiple unrelated companies have the same or similar names (such as United Airlines and United Van Lines), there is no good way to resolve the question of who gets the valuable domain name
. But if the domain name space were expanded, so that one firm could have, say, and another could have , many of these disputes could be avoided. Consumers, understanding that a given SLD string can belong to different companies in different TLDs, would be less likely to jump to the conclusion that any given domain name was associated with a given company. In choosing and allocating new gTLDs, ICANN can take one of two approaches. Under the first approach, ICANN would select new gTLDs to be added, and then solicit applications from would-be registries to run those gTLDs. Under the second, ICANN would accredit registries by reference to criteria including the applicants' technical abilities to perform registry services and financial stability, and the registries would then decide for themselves what the names of their gTLDs would be (subject to a process under which ICANN could resolve conflicts, and could deem certain gTLD strings out of bounds).
Notwithstanding that these two approaches are often presented as radically different, they are more similar than they appear. Under either approach, a relatively small group of people will choose the names of the new gTLDs. Under the first, the decision will be made by ICANN decision-makers, on the basis of their views as to which new gTLDs would be most beneficial to the community. Under the second, the decision will be made by registry operators, on the basis of their views as to which new gTLDs are most desired by the community (that being the course that will generate the most registration dollars). These are similar considerations, and will likely result in similar sets of names.
Under either approach, if ICANN lets *enough* new TLDs into the root, it will be the Internet users themselves who ultimately decide which gTLDs succeed and which will not. Users will make their own choices as to which top-level domains to register names in; as a result, some new gTLDs will thrive, and some will stagnate. It will be the community that decides.
In that respect, ICANN's choice between these two approaches is not crucial. What is most important is that ICANN adopt a policy under which it is relatively easy to get new gTLDs into the root (whether operated by a newly created registry or an already-existing one). That is, ICANN's criteria for the qualification of new registries should not be unreasonably burdensome. Moreover, to the extent ICANN passes directly on the content of a proposed new TLD string, its processes should be geared towards approval without extensive delays. Finally, aside from its reasonable limitation on the *pace* of gTLD expansion during the phased rollout period, ICANN should not seek to limit the total number of gTLDs short of the bounds of the technically feasible and operationally stable. If ICANN's process satisfies these criteria, then either of the selection processes described above will work.
Some people argue that new gTLDs should be predominantly or entirely limited-purpose domains (that is, .airline rather than .firm). Their arguments are that limited-purpose TLDs give more information to the consumer (a consumer can expect that united.airlines is an airline, not a trucking company) and will be less threatening to trademark interests opposed to the expansion of the name space (because United Airlines will not feel threatened by the registration, say, of united.books). Some even argue that ICANN should map out, at the start, a framework of limited-purpose TLDs, such as .transp and .health, so that users could rely on the structure of the DNS in seeking the URLs associated with particular businesses or content providers.
Limited-purpose TLDs can be useful. They should not, however, be the *only* new gTLDs. For the reasons stated above, .com is currently the 500- pound gorilla of TLDs, and domain names in .com have tremendous (artificial) market value. Adding a set of limited-purpose TLDs would not change that: there would remain .com (and to a lesser extent .net and .org) atop the TLD pyramid, and a mass of special-purpose TLDs below. Alternative *general-purpose* top-level domains, by contrast, could provide effective competition to .com. This would more nearly level the playing field for individuals and businesses seeking attractive domain names, and would diminish the ability of a minority of e- businesses to collect rents based simply on their registration of good names in the "best" TLD. This suggests that the ideal system would be one that mixes new limited-purpose gTLDs with new general-purpose ones.