# Domain names to expand: .law, .coke, .hitachi, .nyc, etc. - good idea? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 20, 2011, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146 "2011-06-20T13:09:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/1 "2011-06-20T13:09:40Z")
> **[Forget .com, here's .coke](https://money.cnn.com/2011/06/20/technology/dot_brand_domain_name_icann/index.htm?iid=Lead&hpt=hp_t1)** > > Internet regulators approved rules Monday that will allow new "generic top-level domains" like .law, .coke and .nyc. Seems like a good idea to me. What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/2 "2011-06-20T13:34:06Z")
Seems like an awful idea for me. Absolutely no need for it and no reason beyond forcing companies to register more domains to “cover all bases” and hence make more money for the registrars. Seriously, why does Coke need .coke? What does it achieve that [coke.com](http://coke.com) doesn’t? How do you factor in the regional variations (coke.se, [coke.co.uk](http://coke.co.uk) …)? Should a user go to [coke.com](http://coke.com), something.coke, something.cocacola? What should that “something” be as a default? ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/3 "2011-06-20T13:37:10Z")
I’da thought “.coke” was the drug-dealers’ domain. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/4 "2011-06-20T13:46:43Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > coke.se I accidentally a whole coca cola bottle! ---
**Author:** ![GSV\_Consolation\_of\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f1d935/32.png) [@GSV\_Consolation\_of\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GSV_Consolation_of_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/5 "2011-06-20T14:14:14Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > Seems like an awful idea for me. > > Absolutely no need for it and no reason beyond forcing companies to register more domains to “cover all bases” and hence make more money for the registrars. > > Seriously, why does Coke need .coke? What does it achieve that [coke.com](http://coke.com) doesn’t? How do you factor in the regional variations (coke.se, [coke.co.uk](http://coke.co.uk) …)? Should a user go to [coke.com](http://coke.com), something.coke, something.cocacola? What should that “something” be as a default? Well, in some ways it will have the opposite effect: by massively inflating the amount of virtual real estate, each little bit of it becomes suddenly less valuable and worth squatting. For your regional variations (assuming your site actually bothers with that at all anymore) you could just point British people to uk.coke and americans to us.coke. Most big websites will detect your country of origin and direct you accordingly automatically these days anyway, so this point is pretty much moot. As to what goes at the beginning, it could be literally anything. “Www” is itself just a traditional name, servers can be called any damn thing you like. Maybe even just “.coke” would work in a browser, I can certainly imagine that blaring out of TV during the ads… My guess is you will see ads on coke cans pointing to www.coke, which is no longer or harder to remember than [www.coke.com](http://www.coke.com) ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/6 "2011-06-20T14:38:18Z")
> [@GSV\_Consolation\_of\_Dreams](#): > > Well, in some ways it will have the opposite effect: by massively inflating the amount of virtual real estate, each little bit of it becomes suddenly less valuable and worth squatting. I’m not talking about squatting. Companies don’t want people to expect to find their site and it just not work. It kind of looks bad. But you are right, the same argument works regarding squatting as well. > [@GSV\_Consolation\_of\_Dreams](#): > > For your regional variations (assuming your site actually bothers with that at all anymore) you could just point British people to uk.coke and americans to us.coke. Most big websites will detect your country of origin and direct you accordingly automatically these days anyway, so this point is pretty much moot. Believe me, they do. And people like me prefer it. I’m an Brit in Sweden, I prefer to go to an English site if I go to .com or .co.uk and a Swedish one if I go to .se. Depending on how the ISP for work is feeling, sometimes they think I am in Norway or Finland and often I get websites in that language as a .com address has decided that is what I want. Bloody irritating. Maybe you’re lucky and it doesn’t happen to you. Unfortunately for other people, especially those on international corporate networks, it happens all too often. As to what goes at the beginning, it could be literally anything. “Www” is itself just a traditional name, servers can be called any damn thing you like. Maybe even just “.coke” would work in a browser, I can certainly imagine that blaring out of TV during the ads… > [@GSV\_Consolation\_of\_Dreams](#): > > My guess is you will see ads on coke cans pointing to www.coke, which is no longer or harder to remember than [www.coke.com](http://www.coke.com) Except it has no identifier for the country. Remember that we are not talking about massive corporations. Companies can have similar names in different countries and now they have to compete for a TLD? Example: [http://www.dfs.se/](http://www.dfs.se/) - A computer education company [http://www.dfs.co.uk/](http://www.dfs.co.uk/) - A leading furniture chain Remove the country identifier and … stupidity ensues. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/7 "2011-06-20T14:39:26Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > > [@amanset](#): > > > > coke.se > > I accidentally a whole coca cola bottle! You can imagine how the Swedish Goat Breeders Association must feel! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/8 "2011-06-20T14:50:46Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > Except it has no identifier for the country. Remember that we are not talking about massive corporations. That should have been “just talking” but I have missed the edit window. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/9 "2011-06-20T14:55:02Z")
Hmm www.Bostondealers.coke www.howtofindawhorein.nyc www.theworstproductsarefrom.hitachi www.howtobreakthe.law/EludingPolice.html ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/10 "2011-06-20T17:16:31Z")
I think I should be able to register any string of characters that isn’t already claimed as a domain. Opening up more TLDs is like the Homestead Act. Yeah, yeah, the real estate is infinite either way, but artificial restrictions are just that – artificial. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/11 "2011-06-20T17:22:10Z")
So long as Google finds them, who cares? I haven’t typed in a full url in years. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/12 "2011-06-20T21:03:59Z")
Well, you need to have some way of making the string of characters recognizable as a URL. Right now, if you just flash “[www.nameofmysite.com](http://www.nameofmysite.com)” up on the screen during a commercial, viewers will know that you’re giving them the address of a Web site. If you just flash up “nameofmysite”, then people won’t realize that you’re telling them a Web address. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/13 "2011-06-20T21:27:17Z")
I don’t know - flashing the name of a website is kind of 1990’s, isn’t it? Of course there’s a website. \*Everything \*has a website. If I want a product’s official website, I just Google its name. The actual url could be a string of numbers for all I care - I never look at it. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/14 "2011-06-20T23:22:28Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > So long as Google finds them, who cares? I haven’t typed in a full url in years. But what if you have a website and Google doesn’t find it. As Gracie Allen said, > [@](#): > > _A chicken in every pot sounds like a good idea, unless you happen to be the chicken_ It’s way too late now, but I’d do away with generic TLDs and go to country level TLD. Instead of .com have companies based in the USA use .com.us. Every time the introduce new generic TLDs they usually result in just people sitting on the domain doing nothing with it anyway. I’m sitting on at least 10 domains I would like to do something with but haven’t gotten around to yet. ---
**Author:** ![LilShieste](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@LilShieste](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilShieste)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/15 "2011-06-21T00:46:35Z")
I think this is a horrible, horrible idea. What problem is it supposed to solve? The article linked to in the OP suggests that it will help with security problems, but I call BS: [ > [@](#): > > Crawford thinks dot-brand sites will be a hit with major companies. In addition to marketing benefits, they could help on the security front: HSBC, for example, could tell customers that a purported HSBC site isn’t legitimate unless it ends in .hsbc. ]([http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/20/technology/dot\_brand\_domain\_name\_icann/index.htm?iid=Lead&hpt=hp\_t1](http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/20/technology/dot_brand_domain_name_icann/index.htm?iid=Lead&hpt=hp_t1)) So, the target is major companies. How many major companies outsource certain tasks (e.g., surveys, subscriptions, etc.) to other companies? So, say, Microsoft couldn’t just issue a blanket statement saying “if it doesn’t end in Microsoft, then it’s not legitimate” - they could be working with a partner that has a completely different domain (I just had this experience getting my TechNet subscription set up). As mentioned above: I’m just glad we have Google et al. around, otherwise this could really turn things into a big mess. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/16 "2011-06-21T00:58:00Z")
> [@](#): > > But these benefits don’t come cheaply – or easily. ICANN charges at $185,000 per domain application, which Crawford says typically must include about 150 pages of policy documents. > > Technical setup takes another $100,000 or so, he says, and upkeep can cost an additional $100,000 each year. > > ICANN is slated to begin reviewing applications in November or December, and says that new domains should roll out in July 2012. ICANN.loot 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/17 "2011-06-21T01:25:39Z")
icann.has.cheezburger ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/18 "2011-06-21T01:36:29Z")
DotDot.Dot or > **[Web Page Under Construction](http://www.dotcom.com)** > > Network Solutions - Original domain name registration and reservation services with variety of internet-related business offerings. Quick, dependable and reliable. ---
**Author:** ![SanibelMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@SanibelMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanibelMan)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/19 "2011-06-21T01:38:36Z")
So who will be the first to register [clownpenis.fart?](http://www.dula.tv/watch.php?file=clown-penis-dot-fart.flv) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146/20 "2011-06-21T04:54:27Z")
> [@SanibelMan](#): > > So who will be the first to register [clownpenis.fart?](http://www.dula.tv/watch.php?file=clown-penis-dot-fart.flv) Dibs!!! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domain-names-to-expand-law-coke-hitachi-nyc-etc-good-idea/586146.md?page=2)