What happens once all the available names for .com are used up?
I know this came up years ago and they tried implementing new .(Somethings), but companies complained saying it was too expensive to reserve all their names on the new .(Somethings), so we continue to only use .com.
When will all the names and variations be filled up? What then?
Presumable trademark laywers will get a lot of money.
I think that eventually if all the names are used they will probably start using the .(something) system. If there is no other alternative then I don’t think the companies will complain that much.
Bart
That’s exactly my point. I thought, or remember, that the powers that be were concerned that .com’s were running out. They considered different .(whatevers) but the companies that paid big bucks to reserve their name from ‘brokers’ and ‘speculators’ in the .com realm, balked. Thus, we have the .com conundrum unanswered and unaddressed. I’m curious if someone has figured out when the available name’s will be used up and taken. What then? The issue already has been brought up and shut-down.
And yes I do know about .org, .edu., etc… As far as I can recall, those are for specific causes and shouldn’t run out of options as fast as the .com extension will.
Thanks…
You have a very good question there.
One question that I just thought of is what about the .ca (Canada) and other country names. Couldn’t companies use them? Is there a difference between them and .com or are they just for companies in each region? And if so does the US have a .us type of thing? Just a thought (er, question).
squee
I understand who administers the web and what the .(whatever) represents. I also understand the basics of my local phone company. My local phone company has been pumping out new area codes as fast as I can type this reply. They’re in panic mode.
If my phone company is concerned about running out of prefixes, shouldn’t the same be said of the .com’s? There can only be so many combinations of .com before you run out and need to expand. When you do so, what options do you have?
Obviously, in the .(whatever) realm, you have infinite possibilities, but as far as I can remember, they’ve tried this to no avail. Companies have literally spent millions to reserve or buy their name in a .com and are defiant in their resistance to change and/or make an addition.
What do you say to them when you roll out ten different .(Hmmphh)? Sorry, too bad but your millions were worthlessly spent? That was their complaint then and seems to be now. With this attitude guiding the .com, .org., whoever, realm, it seems evident that it is headed for a crash. Or, are there options that have been considered that I’m not aware of?
Fact is that .com is the most recognisable top-level domain suffix and therefore has more kudos. There is absolutely nothing to stop companies using .ca, .fr, .de etc. and indeed any global company has sites registered under these top-level domains. But it’s all about marketing and .com is the most marketable. Have a look at http://www.afternic.com a domain name auction site. The money being asked for is pretty ludicrous but some people are making a packet from it.
I don’t think we will run out of .com’s anytime soon. Since all top level domains(.com, .net., .org, .mil, .gov, Etc…), have to be resolved(READ:converted) to an IP address to find a webpage, we’ll run out of those before we run out of names.
We currently use IPv4. It has a 32-bit address in the format of xx.xx.xx.xx . IPv6 has a 128-bit address(xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx). Now, you can obviously see the difference in the possibilities of running out of IP addresses.
Currently, groups are lobbying to move to IPv6 soon. It will alleviate much trouble with IP addresses and web address scarcity.
Also, there are approximately 6 or 8 more Top-Level domains which are proposed.
-Sam
Currently, domain names are limited to 28 letters (including the .com, .net, .org, etc). There are plans underway to increase the limit to (IIRC) 64 characters, as well as offer the new .cc designation.
Network solutions doesn’t handle .cc domains yet, but they should start to in the next year. Other registrars do, but not many web hosting providers can handle requests to move .cc domains over to them. Hopefully, that’ll clear up in a few more months.
Hope that helps.
phouka, are you sure? I thought they are now capable with the new software of doing 62 characters. Maybe some mathematician can calculate how many possible names there are & thus see the sillyness in thinking that they could all be taken some day.
Of course, no one wants to be the one left with http://www.bxwryfqqqxcghi-kzz.com for their company 
So the real question is how long will the usable .com addresses last (perhaps then shorter than IP addresses since no one really cares how easy to remember their IP address is). As for the companies worrying about having to buy up yet another domain, does it matter? I mean, provided Network Solutions is still in charge of creating and assigning suffixes (I know they don’t bother checking for .net or .orgs any more) it’s not as though they have to bow to pressure from General Motors, AT&T or Microsoft or else people will somehow punish them.
We’ll run out of english words before we run out of space for the .com TLD. I don’t remember how long the names can get, its at least 28 letters or numbers. As someone already pointed out we’ll be out of IPs by then. At this point though all the 2 letter and 3 letter .com names are taken.
A lot of the new proposed TLD like .banc and .shop have a lot more to do with NSI making money than fixing the clutter. Most companies that would use .banc or .shop already have .com, .org, .net.
Nope. It’s been possible to use 63 character domains for quite some time now. As witnessed by:
http://www.verizonshouldspendmoretimefixingitsnetworkandlessmoneyonlawyers.com
If it doesn’t work it’s your browser that’s causing it.
Well, I did what I should have done the first time 'round - I called my domreg department and checked with them.
Network Solutions is issuing 63 letter domain names (but my employer can’t support them on our DNS servers yet). However, they aren’t offering the .cc domains. Register.com is.
Either way, it’s going to be a long, long while before we run out of domain names.