Vint Cerf Answering Questions on Top-Level Domains 191
penciling_in writes "Over at CircleID, Vint Cerf is taking question from the community Slashdot-style with regards to top level domains. 'As most readers are no doubt aware, when it comes to the topic of Top-Level
Domains (TLDs), Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
takes center stage. From the existing .com and .net TLDs to the newly introduced and future releases, in the past years we witnessed the increasing level of discussions around Top-Level Domains painted -- ever so often -- with political, legal and technical debates. Vint Cerf, Google's VP and Chief Internet Evangelist, who has served as chairman of the board of ICANN since the November of 1999 has accepted CircleID's invitation to directly respond to your questions on the topic. This is your opportunity to have your Top-Level Domain related questions responded by Vint Cerf.'"
Like... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Like... (Score:2)
Re:Like... (Score:4, Interesting)
Hmm, google VP must have some power then... (Score:4, Funny)
and while were at it... lets get www./
(Worst that can happen, they say no...)
Re:Hmm, google VP must have some power then... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Hmm, google VP must have some power then... (Score:2)
Firefox quick searches (Score:3, Interesting)
Step 1: Type "google" into URL bar. Watch as www.google.com appears (thanks to a Google I Feel Lucky search).
Step 2: Right click on the search text field, and choose "Add a Keyword for this Search".
Step 3: Enter "gg" into the Keyword field in the dialog that appears (and whatever you want in the Name field).
Step 4: You can now type "gg foobar" to Google for "foobar".
Konqueror does something similar with "gg:", not "gg ".
I believe that Firefox ships default with "google" as a Google search keyw
Re:Hmm, google VP must have some power then... (Score:3)
But instead, you just type in 'g' and a space followed by the search terms.
Re:Hmm, google VP must have some power then... (Score:2)
In fact, usually goes, ctrl+t, ctrl+k, clickity click, enter
The only way it could get faster is if I was to rebind keys.
Re:Hmm, google VP must have some power then... (Score:2)
Am I the only person... (Score:3, Funny)
There's a lot of dissatisfaction there in comment 5 of TFA...
my first question would have to be... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:2)
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:3, Interesting)
Another local example: Portland Community College is pcc.edu [pcc.edu]. PCC isn't a 4-year school, so it properly should be cc.portland.or.us
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:2)
But they all are assigned to educational, governmental, and military organizations in the United States, and yet they're global TLDs. That's a failure to enforce proper naming convention that long predates NetSol and others' decision to maximize profits by throwing the
Why wasn't there more of a push Way Back When to compel US-based groups to register under the
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:3, Insightful)
I take it you have no idea how DNS works. Without TLDs, we'd have to come up with an entirely new way to resolve DNS, and I very much doubt it'd be as quick or as reliable as what we have now.
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:2)
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:2)
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:3, Insightful)
Not much detail needed. Think of how big a domain name database is [whois.sc]. If anything, the TLD can narrow the search within the database immensly. Instead of looking for one item in 62,473,494 you could narrow it down to one in 6,809,016 just by knowing it
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:3, Informative)
If you notice, the example I cited also does not list all TLDs. I cited it to give an idea of how big the DNS database can be. According to this [verisign.com] recent quarterly report form Verisign, .com is actually only 47% of the TLD landsacpe after including country codes (37%!) and the other non-previously-cited TLDs.
So, to further my previous example, knowing a domain is .com cuts the number of records to search by more than half. Can't do that with alpha nu
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:2)
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:2)
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:2)
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:2)
Re:my first question would have to be... (Score:2)
OK, I can agree with that. I do think the perfomrance hit would be worse than you think, but that's just quibbling about the details.
.org is catch-all, not specific to non-profits (Score:2)
I think you might have missed this reply where it's stated that .org is a catch-all and isn't specific to non-profit [slashdot.org]. Think of org standing for just "organization", not "non-profit organization".
TLD abuse. (Score:2, Funny)
What can we do about people like Rodona Garst and her abuse of the
Thank you.
Re:TLD abuse. (Score:2)
Clicky! [rhi.hi.is]
Top level domains for secure software updates (Score:2, Informative)
Software security is a very hot topic these days. Keeping up with a constant stream of security updates and patches is a tough enough job, but an added layer of risk and complexity is caused by
Re:Top level domains for secure software updates (Score:2)
LMAO..... I just can't get enough of this guy's comments.
Re:Top level domains for secure software updates (Score:3, Insightful)
Cryptographically secure digital signatures solves this problem. If the patch isn't signed by someone / some organisation that you trust, don't install it.
Wiki! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Wiki! (Score:2)
Re:Wiki! (Score:3, Insightful)
I mean, there are many geocities pages out there too, but we don't introduct a
If you have a hierarchical system like DNS, you introduce a new child to the root when none of the existing children are appropriate for storing said item. Wikis seem to be doing okay where they are.
Re:Wiki!.. Forget Wiki, think ".blog" (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wiki!.. Forget Wiki, think ".blog" (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not sure that search engines might be able to do a better job of identifying blogs than blog
Re:Wiki!.. Forget Wiki, think ".blog" (Score:2)
You have valid point that weblogs are often not dedicated. However, isn't the purpose of a TLD to provide effective categorization? Isn't the fact that weblogs are c
Re:Wiki!.. Forget Wiki, think ".blog" (Score:2)
TLDs are either national identifiers or topical groups (com, org). The second use is an aberration caused by American domains omitting the
Re:Wiki!.. Forget Wiki, think ".blog" (Score:2)
God yes! Here's an idea that is a bit
Lets make a new
Pretend I am Jon Postel... (Score:4, Interesting)
Defend to me, on grounds that you know I (Jon Postel) would accept, the decision to kill the
Remember (and I am not reminding you, sir) that registration in that domain is not mandatory for ANYONE.
Yes, we've met (at IETF), and no, I will not tell you who I am.
--Red
Re:Pretend I am Jon Postel... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Pretend I am Jon Postel... (Score:3, Interesting)
That's fallacious.
Any porn site will have a
If sites block them, that saves the porn sites that are wholly within
Frankly, there's no reason grounded in anything other than sheer
Re:Pretend I am Jon Postel... (Score:2)
So we should introduce a new TLD so porn webmasters don't have to have a "proceed" button?
Frankly, there's no reason grounded in anything other than sheer bloody-mindedness to deny any TLD the light of day.
There's no reason to introduce such a content-based TLD except to give registrars another opportunity to bill all the trademark-holders yet
Re:Pretend I am Jon Postel... (Score:2)
1. There's no reason not to introduce any TLD anyone requests. Period.
2. Nobody's forced to buy URLs in any particular TLD.
3. Registrations are dow
Re:Pretend I am Jon Postel... (Score:2)
You're American, right?
5b. .com has no obvious porn implication, but guess what: all porn sites use it now without compunction anyway.
So any attempt to herd them inot .xxx will be futile.
7. Any business organized as a registrar for a TLD should be a nonprofit, anyway.
If they were, I might trust them more, but they're not.
Re:Pretend I am Jon Postel... (Score:2)
Re:Pretend I am Jon Postel... (Score:2)
>So, following your logic, this would mean that they would be able show the Good Stuff on the front page instead of having to use stars to cover up the naughty bits?
Um, that's not "following my logic," that's just "reading what I just wrote..."
Re:Pretend I am Jon Postel... (Score:2)
Re:Pretend I am Jon Postel... (Score:2)
Why even have .com? (Score:2)
"Cerfing" the net (Score:3, Informative)
A few years ago, I saw an interview where the reporter asked whether the term "Surfing the net" was based on his name. Rather than correct the reporter, he acted coy and suggested that "cerfing the net" could indeed be related to him. Geesh.
Hi-Jacking of small states .tld (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hi-Jacking of small states .tld (Score:2)
Re:Hi-Jacking of small states .tld (Score:4, Insightful)
If the adminstrators of
I have cell phone service registered in three foreign countries. I pay for the privilege. Why is it a problem to you that someone calling one of those numbers overseas instead rings a phone located in the USA, especially since I pay for the cost of transferring the call here?
Re:Hi-Jacking of small states .tld (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hi-Jacking of small states .tld (Score:2)
What are countries that have sold off their top-level domain going to do in 50 or 100 years when they want a national TLD? Are they going to be issued a new one? If so, what stops them from selling it again? Isn't allowing sales like .tv a failure to consider long-term consequences for the Internet and its users? (You could argue that disallowing the sale would have been inhumanitar
Re:Hi-Jacking of small states .tld (Score:2)
In the case of Tuvalu, they are half way through a 12 year lease. In 50 or 100 years time, climate change may well have made the country uninhabitable, anyway, so it may be a moot point.
As for the others, I would need to be convinced they had sold the rights in perpetuity before getting too worried.
Re:Hi-Jacking of small states .tld (Score:2)
$20 million for an entire TLD with the appeal of '.tv' is absolute peanuts.
_That_ is exactly what I mean by taking advantage of a small and naive nation-state. I think the verb Hi_Jacking is actually most appropriate in this particular case. The fact that the money pa
Re:Hi-Jacking of small states .tld (Score:2)
Furthermore, if you're going to look at this from an anti-capita
Re:Hi-Jacking of small states .tld (Score:2)
Re:Hi-Jacking of small states .tld (Score:2)
-david
Half right (Score:2)
Domain name scarcity isn't artificial either. There are an essentially infinite number of domains, but they vary in desirability, and each individual domain name is unique. Domain names
Kind of not totally on topic, but must be asked... (Score:4, Interesting)
.biz, .info, .museum, .aero - phase out? (Score:5, Interesting)
When considering any new TLDs, it's worth looking at how these TLDs, from ICANN's first wave of expansion, worked out.
Re:.biz, .info, .museum, .aero - phase out? (Score:2)
Re:.biz, .info, .museum, .aero - phase out? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:.biz, .info, .museum, .aero - phase out? (Score:2)
Re:.biz, .info, .museum, .aero - phase out? (Score:2)
Re:.biz, .info, .museum, .aero - phase out? (Score:2)
Of those, I don't think I ever saw a
Re:.biz, .info, .museum, .aero - phase out? (Score:2)
www.google.info
www.wikipedia.info
but they are registered!
More TLDs == bad (Score:2)
That was what led to the *current* problem.
There *was* no problem when
Of the new TLDs, the only two that I've
Seriously (Score:2, Funny)
Control (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Control (Score:2)
Editors on that website take weeks (more realistically months) reviewing websites carefully submitted to the different sections to be posted. Now the ODP is run for free by volunteers, but there is a point.
Think about what would happen if this exact same process took place for TLDs. Why would a c
Re:Control (Score:3, Informative)
It's because Netscape Navigator decided to fill in "www.foobar.com" for "foobar". That meant that if you wanted a short, memorable URL, you needed a
A reasonable decision at the time, but with unfortunate consequences down the line.
Also, ".com" is two characters shorter than ".co.us".
MCI (Score:3, Interesting)
BTW, it's great to be rid of the MCI name now that we're Verizon Business, and I wish you luck at Google.
Re:MCI (Score:2)
You misspelled "Worldcom" somewhere there...
Why have TLD? (Score:2)
Dylan Edwards? (Score:3, Funny)
Will that be possible in the coming years?
Dear mr Cerf (Score:2, Informative)
-koft
The Cost of Domains (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The Cost of Domains (Score:2)
Forget Top Level Domains, Tell Us About 2nd Level (Score:5, Interesting)
I've got to think that, when purchased in bulk, it costs pennies, or perhaps tenths or even hundredths of pennies, in actual administrative costs to keep these domains registered each year.
Since costs of maintaining registration for expired domains can approach nothing, are we at risk of these re-registration companies eventually having permanent ownership of nearly every domain a person might think to register? Might it not be in the public interest to have a minimum annual registration fee per domain (say, three dollars), to help ensure that domains aren't held in perpetuity by speculators?
Content-based address schemes (Score:2)
Currently, the most common scheme for addressing a document is a URL, which includes the location of that document (or, more likely, the location of the most recent revision of that document) on a server. This scheme has the drawback that URLs tend to break over time as organizations shift and directory structures change. This is a problem for those compiling bibliographies, where a valid reference to the origin
Re:Content-based address schemes (Score:2)
Re:Content-based address schemes (Score:2)
A letter hierarchy based scheme for arbitrary TLDs (Score:2)
I once tried to discuss this on the DNSO mailing list, but finally could not find a right place:
"A letter hierarchy based scheme for arbitrary TLDs"
http://www.cafax.se/dnsop/maillist/2001-05/msg0006 [cafax.se] 8.html
Let's first set up top level domains for all single letters a., b.,...z
Re:A letter hierarchy based scheme for arbitrary T (Score:2)
Letter hierarchy based scheme for arbitrary DNS (Score:2)
Besides, nobody actually reads or expects to read any info from relation of the sub-domain names in "namex.namey.namez".
On the other way, in my system you would be free to set up any "logical" hierarchy or hierachies you wish, and anybody could register there, if you make it yo
Domain for Ogres (Score:2)
I somehow keep trying to get to slashdor.ogr, as if drawn by some unseen force.
If there were a TLD for ogres, at least the slashdot ogres - or moderators - would at last have recognition.
How about "local" domains? (Score:2)
Re:Why ask Vint Cerf anything? (Score:2)
Actually, Vint is quite influential (Score:2)
Re:Why (Score:2)