Say hello to .metafilter Or New Generic Top-Level Domains

June 18, 2011 4:09 PM

Imagine a web where domains can end in just about any generic top-level domain (new gTLD), e.g. .metafilter. Well, that's soon a reality:

The organization that oversees the Internet address system is preparing to open the floodgates to a nearly limitless selection of new website suffixes, including ones in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts. That could usher in the most sweeping transformation of the Domain Name System since its creation in the 1980s

Want to apply? The application fee for a new gTLD is $185,000 and there's an annual fee of $25,000. Make sure to read the applicant guidebook.

ICANN has received criticism over the new gTLDs. New gTLDs and: e-mailing, application developers, controversy.

A list of new gTLDs, a blog dedicated to the topic, and more from ICAAN itself.

Some interesting new gTLDs:
.bank
.bike
.eco
.food
.gay
.green
.health
.hiv
.horse
.love
.music
.nyc
.poker
.quebec
.radio
.restaurant
.secure
.shop
.sport
.usa

posted by Foci for Analysis (103 comments total)

moar like

.google
.microsoft
.apple
.hulu
.sony
.mac
.sun
posted by TwelveTwo at 4:13 PM on June 18, 2011 [5 favorites]

Does it matter anymore? Find stuff with google, bookmark.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 4:14 PM on June 18, 2011 [11 favorites]

.exe
.txt
.mp3
.swf
.jpg
posted by Rhaomi at 4:15 PM on June 18, 2011 [17 favorites]

I'm going to register .dotcom, just to screw with people.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:17 PM on June 18, 2011 [25 favorites]

Does it matter anymore? Find stuff with google, bookmark.

If you can believe it, there are people who still use acoustic wave propagation to communicate messages.
posted by TwelveTwo at 4:17 PM on June 18, 2011 [27 favorites]

Faint of Butt: "I'm going to register .dotcom, just to screw with people."

That's probably the best reason I can think of to spend $185,000 on this craziness.
posted by fireoyster at 4:19 PM on June 18, 2011

Oh, this is so 212, 718, 646...
posted by R. Mutt at 4:19 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

FoB, I already have www.wdoubleudoubleyou.com. If you get .dotcom, can I re-register it under that TLD?
posted by adamrice at 4:21 PM on June 18, 2011 [16 favorites]

www.clownpenis.fart?
posted by Mister Moofoo at 4:22 PM on June 18, 2011 [37 favorites]

And yet if you don't have the .com, you'll still be screwed. Adding more top level domains isn't going to change that; we already have a bunch of top level domains and yet .com is still the default.
posted by Justinian at 4:22 PM on June 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

I could see this opening creating a gaping hole in the way we find information. It may stretch the imagination of many users... creating a vast hole that any unsuspecting user could fall into. The .goatse is a prime example of such a dilemma.
posted by Bighappyfunhouse at 4:23 PM on June 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

My dream of being [e-mail] is almost realized
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:24 PM on June 18, 2011 [13 favorites]

I am quite surprised that domains are still a part of the general user's experience.
posted by Ardiril at 4:26 PM on June 18, 2011 [4 favorites]

If you can believe it, there are people who still use acoustic wave propagation to communicate messages.

And this makes that harder or easier?
posted by furiousxgeorge at 4:26 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

It is actually kinda funny that the future's internet is going to be indistinguishable from how people who weren't on the internet in the 90s depicted the internet:

time to just upload down some delicious pizza
what was that domain name? oh yea, it was... internet://pizza.eat.delicious.pizza/www/now.http
now we wait for our delivery from the internet super highways!
posted by TwelveTwo at 4:27 PM on June 18, 2011 [25 favorites]

This is going to make internet safety just that much harder. I can already hear the phone call I'm going to get about my parent's/grandparent's/neighbor's spoofed bank site.
"But the e-mail says that all legitimate banks are using the .bank domain! It's the .com site that's the bad one!"
"Mom, have you heard from the bank that their domain is changing?"
"Yes, they sent me this e-mail!"
"No, mom. They didn't send you that e-mail. That e-mail is from the bad guys."
"But it says it's from my bank!"
"Mom, just call the phone center."
"What if the phone center phone number has been hacked or something?"
"Maybe you should just go to the branch and ask them there..."
"It's all the way across town! That's why I have the internet."
posted by stoneweaver at 4:34 PM on June 18, 2011 [31 favorites]

I believe the .off domain has some potential.

fuck.off

is probably worth $185,000 right there
posted by unSane at 4:36 PM on June 18, 2011 [5 favorites]

I foresee great growth potential in the .sucks domain:

microsoft.sucks
walmart.sucks
delta.sucks
citibank.sucks

etc
posted by dephlogisticated at 4:36 PM on June 18, 2011 [11 favorites]

It is actually kinda funny that the future's internet is going to be indistinguishable from how people who weren't on the internet in the 90s depicted the internet:

Tell me about it. Actually, let me tell you about it. Remember the 1995 movie The Net with Sandra Bullocks? Well I do and I remember thinking how ridiculous it was that The Bad Guys were able to profile Bullock's character based on trivia - her favorite drink, color, food, etc - she had written on the net. Fast forward a decade and you have social networks where people enter even more private information about themselves. Sometimes tech reality is more stupid than stupid tech fiction.

I've been waiting 16 years to write this.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 4:41 PM on June 18, 2011 [29 favorites]

This : IPv6 :: Weinergate : 2.5 wars and a depression
posted by George_Spiggott at 4:42 PM on June 18, 2011 [4 favorites]

I'm planning on registering ".corn", just because I like maize so much. google.corn, msnbc.corn, fox.corn, I've always wanted to work for a dot-corn startup.

how funny this is depends on your font's kerning
posted by AzraelBrown at 4:42 PM on June 18, 2011 [54 favorites]

fuck.off

Laverne and Shirley you mean .fuckoff?
posted by Foci for Analysis at 4:44 PM on June 18, 2011

I'm sure a dedicated person could make a mint off of registering .ocm and setting up every dns request to point to a spam site.
posted by borkencode at 4:46 PM on June 18, 2011 [4 favorites]

and not .youmeanfuckoff?
posted by TwelveTwo at 4:46 PM on June 18, 2011

FFS. I don't really care about TLDs at this point, but if I did, I would disapprove.
posted by ryanrs at 4:49 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

.motherfucker, here I come.
posted by Mikey-San at 4:54 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

I call dibs on .lol
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 4:56 PM on June 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

And they're introducing other alphabets, huh? How does that fare with the whole A looks just like A and A thing?
posted by Sys Rq at 4:56 PM on June 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

All those URL shortener businesses can now finally have .x, .y & .z instead of having to suffer with two-letter TLDs. This will really help me be more eloquent on Twitter.
posted by GuyZero at 4:57 PM on June 18, 2011

If you can believe it, there are people who still use acoustic wave propagation to communicate messages.

And this makes that harder or easier?

It's a useful redundancy.
posted by benito.strauss at 4:57 PM on June 18, 2011

I do care about TLD's, as it's kinda my job now.

No, Sir! I don't like it!
posted by PROD_TPSL at 4:57 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also, .sun? Srsly? More like .oracle that charges you $20 per page view.
posted by GuyZero at 4:57 PM on June 18, 2011 [4 favorites]

Maybe this'll finally destroy the market for vanity domain names.
posted by Afroblanco at 5:01 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

I want .dotdot or the ability to use punctuation like this: metafilter...?
posted by doublehappy at 5:02 PM on June 18, 2011

also... .poker? I hardly .knowher!
posted by doublehappy at 5:03 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Parkers are probably going to go crazy over .con, .orf, etc. That was the first reason I thought of to spend $185k + $25k/yr on something.
posted by penduluum at 5:05 PM on June 18, 2011

I'm going to register .dotcom, just to screw with people.

That's like Slashdot. The only think I still like about that site is its domain name, which you have to read aloud (including http://) to fully appreciate.
posted by jessssse at 5:05 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Just so you know, my plan to claim all the most desirable BLDs and corner the Hebrew internet is suffering from some major implementation problems.
posted by George_Spiggott at 5:07 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Just as Facebook is working so hard (and somewhat successfully) to return us to a version of "AOL keywords" and make the web irrelevant... this is not what's going to stop it.
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:11 PM on June 18, 2011

metafilter.ಠ_ಠ
posted by dephlogisticated at 5:12 PM on June 18, 2011 [12 favorites]

.christwhatanasshole
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 5:14 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wow, this is going to drastically open up Tamar Braxton's ability to communicate. Not sure if that's good or bad. ICANN just started a hot mess dot org.
posted by lesli212 at 5:18 PM on June 18, 2011

QR codes are beginning to feel like the new AOL keywords.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 5:19 PM on June 18, 2011 [4 favorites]

This is a sign of big money winning out big time.

If only websites were assigned to a spot a hierarchy similar to the way scientists assign biological names for organisms.
posted by dunkadunc at 5:22 PM on June 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

I mean, this is just wrong. If you have too many TLDs, it makes TLDs mean nothing.
posted by dunkadunc at 5:25 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

TwelveTwo: "It is actually kinda funny that the future's internet is going to be indistinguishable from how people who weren't on the internet in the 90s depicted the internet:

time to just upload down some delicious pizza
what was that domain name? oh yea, it was... internet://pizza.eat.delicious.pizza/www/now.http
now we wait for our delivery from the internet super highways"

That's silly! They should know better and simply order from Online Pizza. (warning? YouTube link to very old .MOD silliness)
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:26 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

HAHAHAHAHAHA i can't wait to be [e-mail]. .horse! why!

not sure why that one sticks out to me so much, but it's the one that made me spit my water.
posted by millipede at 5:27 PM on June 18, 2011

TwelveTwo: "It is actually kinda funny that the future's internet is going to be indistinguishable from how people who weren't on the internet in the 90s depicted the internet"

And there's going to be lots of rotating animations, even when you're compiling code and all applications will run full-screen with a horribly ugly sci-fi theme.
posted by dunkadunc at 5:36 PM on June 18, 2011

"Remember the 1995 movie The Net with Sandra Bullocks?"

I think you'll find it's pronounced "bollocks"…

"Well I do and I remember thinking how ridiculous it was that The Bad Guys were able to profile Bullock's character based on trivia - her favorite drink, color, food, etc - she had written on the net."

Funny - I got my first PPP account in early 1995 (I'd had telnet access on an ad-hoc basis through work & various 'borrowed' / shared uni accounts for ~10 years previously), and by then I was already worrying my on-line acquaintances by building profiles based purely on their usenet history. It didn't take much work to be startlingly accurate just by putting together bits and pieces they'd let slip in casual conversation - age, relationship status, occupation, employer, pay range, country, city, suburb…
posted by Pinback at 5:40 PM on June 18, 2011

badgerbadgerbadgerbadgermushroom.mushroom
posted by bwg at 5:41 PM on June 18, 2011 [8 favorites]

Finally, our web addresses can be our actual addresses!

http://jimbob.42.somestreet.hobart.tasmania.australia
posted by Jimbob at 5:42 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

badgerbadgerbadgerbadgermushroommushroom.snake!
posted by mikelieman at 5:44 PM on June 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

More like .yawn ammirite?
posted by furtive at 5:53 PM on June 18, 2011

AzraelBrown: "how funny this is depends on your font's kerning"

This is what I'm going to say from now on when I tell a joke and no one laughs.
posted by Riki tiki at 5:58 PM on June 18, 2011 [45 favorites]

Shit, this is the new millennium bug.

Perhaps I'm over reacting.
posted by pmcp at 6:10 PM on June 18, 2011

Why couldn't they have charged $186,282?
posted by b1tr0t at 6:31 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is just a money grab and anything about it helping anything other than those in the business of selling domains is just hype. They've created a new Oklahoma from whole cloth and then effectively blackmail every major brand holder into paying hundreds of thousands of dollars. "Well gee Coca Cola... you already pay us thousands of dollars for .coke.*.*, you don't want someone else to get .coke do you?!? ". Created the product, created the market, created the need, have a monopoly. Nice work if you can get it.
posted by adamt at 6:32 PM on June 18, 2011 [8 favorites]

Since ICANN is hellbent on destroying the Internet, I don't know why they're charging so much. They should just make the price affordable to the common user and be done with it. Everyone should be able to afford a tld, not just the rich!

(As for me, I'm picking up .aseriesoftubes)
posted by narwhal bacon at 6:49 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

It does seem that the biggest problem inherent in this (and it's a big one) is phishing. The fraud potential offered by unlimited TLDs is off the charts. Who could possibly safeguard their legitimate domain against impersonators using near-identical ones when the range of potential attacks is so broad?

Still, I'm not going to lose my crap over this. It hasn't even been approved yet, and even if it does, measures will arise to counteract the danger in time. Y2K wasn't unsolvable, and this too shall pass. Most likely all the big browsers will incorporate some sort of domain authenticity checker, hopefully something that's effective without being too intrusive. 'Cause while I'd like to have peace of mind whenever I click a link to another domain, I don't exactly want Firefox sending every site I visit to Mozilla for analysis.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 6:57 PM on June 18, 2011

This is really, really lame.
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 7:02 PM on June 18, 2011

I don't exactly want Firefox sending every site I visit to Mozilla for analysis.

I thought many browsers already did this to detect harmful sites? (Likely tapping the same database as Google's "this site may harm your computer" warnings.)
posted by ryanrs at 7:06 PM on June 18, 2011

Dibs on .cat.
posted by rtha at 7:24 PM on June 18, 2011 [4 favorites]

.beans
posted by Mister_A at 7:50 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

mikelieman:

badgerbadgerbadgerbadgermushroommushroomsnakeohit'sasnake.ooooooh
posted by bwg at 7:50 PM on June 18, 2011

Oh great, now we can get even more websites with names split across the domain name and the TLD (eg del.iciou.us. Or de.liciou.us. Or deli.ciou.us. Or something). So:

goo.gl [oh, wait. Already done]
go.ogle
g.oogle

Rinse, repeat. I'd register .smith, .johnson, .chen... and then charge people to get [e-mail], etc.

Also, I'd snap up .om and .m, and give out .c.om and .co.m addresses. Also, now that we're allowing unicode...

.cóm
.côm
.ġov
.eďu

.✝
.✡
.❤
.▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█
.✈
.✉
.𝅘𝅥𝅮

Whee!
posted by BungaDunga at 7:57 PM on June 18, 2011 [4 favorites]

www.clownpenis.fart?

Well done. That's playing the long con, paying off on a 15 year old joke.
posted by gjc at 8:03 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Is there any reason not to just let people register any damn dotted combination of words they want and don't be dicks and make people pay a pile of cash? I mean I guess in theory the TLDs make lookups faster, but since most of the internet is just in .com anyway would it really make a massive difference (that's a genuine question for people who work in DNS and lookups, how much speedup to TLDs give us)? Just let anyone go to their registrar of choice and register my.sweet.ass.internet.site for 10 bucks.
posted by markr at 8:05 PM on June 18, 2011

Fuck it, let's just shut down DNS and IPv4 at the same time.

It's all on my blog, conveniently named 0000:ffd4:a5e0:134a
posted by gjc at 8:06 PM on June 18, 2011

I'm just imagining telling somebody about metafilter.▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ in person, and the great WHOOSHING noise that would come after, "metafilter dot whhhhwUSUUUUUUUHHSHSHSHHS". You're not doing it right if at the end you're not yelling at the other person's face WUUSH. Or maybe "Metafilter dot two point underline four point underline six point underline eight point underline ten point underline".
posted by kiltedtaco at 8:08 PM on June 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

Is there any reason not to just let people register any damn dotted combination of words they want and don't be dicks and make people pay a pile of cash? I mean I guess in theory the TLDs make lookups faster, but since most of the internet is just in .com anyway would it really make a massive difference (that's a genuine question for people who work in DNS and lookups, how much speedup to TLDs give us)? Just let anyone go to their registrar of choice and register my.sweet.ass.internet.site for 10 bucks.

DNS works because the TLD is a known entity. They know that if they don't have an address cached, they can go to the ICANN-type people for that TLD and get the address. Without having that known TLD-to-root-DNS provider, every uncached DNS lookup would have to go to every root dns server there is until an answer came back.
posted by gjc at 8:16 PM on June 18, 2011

.off

.ass is funnier, if you say it out loud.
posted by rokusan at 8:26 PM on June 18, 2011

So, is the idea here that the people who pay the $185k can then have total control over what happens under the TLD, just like a domain registrar can have total control over subdomains?
posted by odinsdream at 8:37 PM on June 18, 2011

And there's going to be lots of rotating animations, even when you're compiling code and all applications will run full-screen with a horribly ugly sci-fi theme.

You know that shit is gonna be stylish soon enough. Irony twice over is sincerity.
posted by TwelveTwo at 8:38 PM on June 18, 2011

From the article:

The thinking is that new businesses setting up shop online might prefer a simple name that ends in ".bank" rather than "TheBankDownTheStreetFromTheSupermarket.com."

Worst. Strawman. Ever.
posted by odinsdream at 8:38 PM on June 18, 2011 [4 favorites]

You know why they did this?













because ICANN.
posted by goethean at 8:42 PM on June 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

.dash
posted by orme at 8:45 PM on June 18, 2011

Maybe each town could have it's own tld, hmm pity the welsh

bank.inthecenter of.lanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
posted by sammyo at 8:53 PM on June 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

.nonbozo
.bozo
.megabozo
VISUALIZE .happynet!
posted by hangashore at 9:12 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

You'll pay big money for ɹəʇlıɟɐʇəɯ˙ɯoɔ
posted by Bonzai at 9:35 PM on June 18, 2011

.c̴̡̗̜͇͎̳͚͖̅͊̏ͭ͆̀̓ͯ͌̅̃̆ͭ̓͜͞o̸͚͍̠̗͔͛ͭͪ̊̽͘͢m̢̅̎̊͛͂̈́͋̈́̈́̏̑ͪ͊͠͏̰͉̰̪̰̩̘̳̰̼̦̝̩͍ͅͅͅ
posted by Flunkie at 9:36 PM on June 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

tl.dr
posted by Hello, I'm David McGahan at 10:26 PM on June 18, 2011 [9 favorites]

tld.r
posted by wayland at 11:45 PM on June 18, 2011

.product

Is the net finally entering it's .age?
posted by fizban at 12:07 AM on June 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

dot.dot
posted by team lowkey at 1:04 AM on June 19, 2011

duckduckduckduckduckduckduckduckduck.goose
posted by wemayfreeze at 2:21 AM on June 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'd register some Usenet group name suffixes, and sell off alt.binaries.pictures.erotica
posted by nonspecialist at 2:35 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

rtha: "Dibs on .cat"

The Catalans already have it... puntCAT
posted by benzo8 at 2:39 AM on June 19, 2011

wellshit.son
posted by sophistrie at 3:54 AM on June 19, 2011

Welcome to metafilter.zombocom.
posted by noyb42 at 4:08 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Flunkie, might I propose .zalgo for that domain?
posted by sigma7 at 6:01 AM on June 19, 2011

I enjoy both suspense and trailing off, so dibs on .dotdot, please.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:06 AM on June 19, 2011

www.mr-t.atemyballs

we've come a long way, baby
posted by codacorolla at 8:39 AM on June 19, 2011 [6 favorites]

For those of us who have to maintain URL auto-linking regexes, this is the worst thing ever.
posted by ph00dz at 9:21 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

.wtc

so people will NEVER FORGET your web address.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 9:30 AM on June 19, 2011 [4 favorites]

too soon
posted by Bonzai at 9:35 AM on June 19, 2011

I don’t think that’s a good idea. For instance, when this is implemented, my local DNS records could suddenly shadow some domains on the Internet without warning.
posted by wachhundfisch at 10:13 AM on June 19, 2011

I also want .localdomain so I can redirect localhost.localdomain to somewhere comical.
posted by narwhal bacon at 10:29 AM on June 19, 2011

fuck.icann

Although I think this will actually end up reducing ICANN's and the DNS systems importance and power. First, like furiousxgeorge said, many people are reaching sites through search and links now.

This is a smart short-term move by ICANN, they can squeeze the big corporations into registering new domains for themselves. But long term, this is just going to dilute the top-level namespace. Wait, do I go to the .com or .shop or Amazon? Oh, it doesn't matter? And it will open up the marketplace to a competitor to DNS, since there will be a lot of invested participants who are not happy about the current strong-arming by ICANN.

There's been talk about distributed or p2p DNS in the cypherpunk community for years, going on decades now. Since we're finally seeing cypherpunk technologies (Wikileaks, bitcoin, etc.) enter the public lexicon, maybe we'll finally see a p2p DNS system + trust network get adopted.

As an aside, it's kind of amazing to see how any really large new social network brings with it the same race to claim your unique identifier. Twitter handles, Facebook Pages, etc. It's a sign your tech is successful, but also an indicator that maybe we finally need a true federated identity system.

And that could actually be the incentive to adoption by a large corporation that may not like the distributed nature of a p2p DNS system. They'll need to or a squatter will grab it for them.

Maybe the key is building another incentive system into the new p2p dns to promote adoption by early participants, similar to bitcoin's mining strategy. Then, after enough early adoption, the "name claim" race would kick in.
posted by formless at 1:39 PM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Bonzai: "too soon"

You could use it to sell "I ✈ NY" t-shirts.
posted by dunkadunc at 1:40 PM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Welcome to metafilter.zombocom.

You know, you've really got to admire the guy who's been paying that bandwidth bill for 12 years without any interruption, or source of revenue.
posted by schmod at 2:04 PM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

with a first tier, why couldn't someone just do something like

http://zombocom
posted by TwelveTwo at 11:57 PM on June 19, 2011

Somebody help me out here and just tell me who to punch in the goddamned face here, and I'll see if I can't get to work.

Because I'm getting tired of oligarchs without punched faces.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:57 AM on June 20, 2011

I'm hearing a lot of negative comments about this, but keep in mind that the common TLDs imposed an artificial scarcity into domain names. Apple just bought icloud.com for over 4 million dollars. While the .com TLD will continue to be primary for a while the upside is that diluting the domain name space decreases this sort of land grab behavior and cybersquatting. There is no technical reason that I'm aware of for limiting TLDs and their scarcity has plenty of social implications too.
posted by dgran at 6:58 AM on June 21, 2011