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The curious tale of ICANN, Verisign, claims of subterfuge, and the $135m .Web dot-word
An ugly struggle over the .Web top-level domain may soon spill into public view again, after one of the companies vying for control of the dot-word demanded an independent review of DNS overlord ICANN's handling of the saga.
More than two years ago, the internet infrastructure industry was agape when an unknown company paid $135m for the rights to sell .web internet addresses: the sum paid was three times the previous record paid for a new dot-word, and seven times the average auction price for a top-level domain.
All that money went directly into the coffers of ICANN, a financial sum that was more than double its annual budget. That was unusual since the vast majority of previous similar dot-word auctions had been decided in private between the bidders themselves with the proceeds split among them.
It soon emerged that the unknown winner – a company called Nu Dot Co – had been secretly funded by the owner of the dot-com registry, Verisign. But before that information emerged, many in the industry were astonished when Nu Dot Co refused to agree to a private auction and insisted all the money go to ICANN.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @03:12AM (2 children)
When there were only a few TLDs, it made sense to register them all to yourself so you could protect your website and brand.
Thus, the customer was effectively held up at gunpoint by the registrars and paid protection money in the form of redundant domain name registrations : one per TLD.
But now there are so many, it seems too expensive and not worth the hassle. Who is going to think a legitimate website is registered under .web anyway? I would consider these new TLDs to be ghettos where scammy websites would register. Probably trying to pass themselves off as the real website which is on .com or .org (or .co.uk if it's British).
Who even wants these crappy new TLDs? Has registrar greed exceed expected returns from customers?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @05:27AM (1 child)
They also hit people heavily with the "build a brand" or "differentiate yourself" or "inspire confidence."
One of my friends fell for those. He is a partner in an accounting firm, name changed to protect the innocent "Miller & Smith Accountants." They paid over $100 for MillerAndSmith.Accountants and his first reaction when someone asked for his website and he told them was, "No really. What is your website?" Took them a few months of that reaction to finally get MillerAndSmithAccountants.com domain. Now they get to pay for both in perpetuity to prevent squatters.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday December 12 2018, @09:45AM
I'd be surprised if there isn't eventually a ".www" TLD.
Personally, I have 4 .orgs (me + my g/f's personal sites, a shared personal site, one hobby-related domain) and 2 matching ones under relevant ccTLDs for our business (which operates primarily in 2 countries, natch) (not coincidentally the business ones the same 2LD as the shared personal site, which was named first). Never going to touch any of the .modern .crap. ".biz"? .wtf, wasn't that what ".com" was defined to be?!!?!
You youngsters, please lapse your registration from my .lawn!
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