.dret

ICANN just announced that starting next year, you can get your own DNS Top-Level Domain (TLD). TLDs are the rightmost part of DNS names, names like .com and .de; some of them are called generic (gTLD), and others are called country-code (ccTLD). for a long time there were six gTLDs (.com, .edu, .gov, .net, .mil, and .org) and the ccTLDs (one for each country). then ICANN discovered that they can make tons of money by just reselling all .com domain names again as .biz domains. and as .info domains. and as .buyyourownnameoncemore domains...

and now, for just a low six figure sum in US$, you can even buy your name once more as TLD, in the end probably generating tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars for ICANN. imagine that: a virtual space of names where you make the rules, and whatever you make them, people will give you a lot of money for simply buying names in newly created namespaces. it's like second life, but you get real dollars.

maybe i am missing something, but apart from generating money, what is the benefit of all of that? why is it necessary to have a separate TLD for the aviation industry (.aero, which already exists and seems to be very sparsely inhabited) and who knows how many other dubious interest groups claiming to create value by just selling virtual space? to me it's like creating phone books per industry: who would want that, other than the phone book printing industry? but who knows, maybe soon there will be the .tld TLD, where all the companies creating and selling TLDs can find their home...