Personally, I think this is interesting, but ultimately will have little impact. For individual companies and websites, .something is going to be economically out of reach for most of them (a dot domain costs ~$200,000). For those that can afford it, I don’t really see the point. .com is in the lexicon, and anyone who wants to see Nike’s website knows it is nike.com. I don’t see how .nike is more convenient.
There are some interesting top level domains, like .app or .today where they would be domains for specific topics. Like if the dope had an app, they could have straightdope.app where you would be able to download the app, or .today would be what’s new today. But like .xxx, I don’t see too much use for them. People look for .com, and straightdope.app isn’t much more convenient than app.straightdope.com.
I literally laughed out loud when I read that .SUCKS was a new domain. That is hilarious and if I were (was?) an eccentric millionaire, I’d be trying my damnedest to pick it up.
It will make things easier to remember, if this is how it will work.
Taking Nike for example, if you want to see what shoes Nike currently has to offer, you could just go to shoes.nike, end of story. Right now however, you have to go to Nike. Just Do It. Nike.com
Of course this ends up being kind of a bad example due to how Nike’s website is currently setup, there is no one shoes section, but still.
There is absolutely no practical reason for such TLDs. None.
This is a financial grab, pure and simple. And it’s not just ICANN.
Verisign is reported to be getting control of 220 of the new TLDs. Which means that Amazon, eBay, etc. will all have to pony up 220 new registration fees to make sure “their” sub-domain is protected.
The fees involved will add up to an amazingly pile of money.
Again, it’s an attempt to extort serious cash from companies. Fuckin’ internet needs a new slogan: “The Internet: Destroying Value and Wealth since 1994!”
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