Associated Press
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Defying the authority that governs Internet names, a California startup began selling Web addresses yesterday based on 20 new and unsanctioned suffixes including ".kids," ".sport," ".travel" and ".xxx."
Although other unsanctioned suffixes exist, none are backed by a group with the apparent economic clout or publicity-generating ability of that involved in yesterday’s announcement.
Offering addresses for $25 apiece as alternatives to .com, .net and other established domains is Pasadena-based New.net, whose investors include Bill Gross of the dot-com incubator idealab!
The startup has partnered with Internet service providers including Earthlink Inc., NetZero Inc. and Excite@Home Corp., which it says will automatically route users to the new Web addresses.
Its 20 suffixes are not sanctioned by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which was selected by the U.S. Commerce Department in 1998 to coordinate Internet names.
ICANN’s duties include determining the top-level domains that go into the 13 computers that hold what amounts to the conventional Web’s master address book.
New.net is effectively adding new addresses to the Web that will not be entered into that master address book.
It creates the potential for balkanizing the Internet so that millions of Web surfers might never see the sites using the unsanctioned suffixes unless modifications are made to computers that direct online traffic.
On the Internet, addresses are standardized by computers known as domain name servers, which keep identical address books.
ICANN has been dogged by criticism that it has been too slow to add new top-level domain names. Critics complain that ICANN decisions are arbitrary and reached in secret, despite the organization’s democratic mandate.
After years of debate, ICANN recently approved seven new category names that will be activated later this year.
Companies such as New.net say that’s still not enough.
"The (ICANN) process has moved too slowly and we want to move quickly to provide domain names that people want now," said Dave Hernand, chief executive of New.net.
But how many people will want to pay New.net’s $25 fee for a domain name based on suffixes outside the ICANN structure remains unclear.
Using an unsanctioned suffix requires changing some numbers in a computer’s network properties. It’s simple to do, but most people either don’t know how or don’t bother.
New.net contends its alternative offering is different because of its partnership with Earthlink, the nation’s No.2 Internet provider, and the other two providers.
New.net also says its technology involves user-friendly plug-ins to enable easy access to its domain name registry from any Web browser running on any kind of operating system.
"It’s great," Milton Mueller, a Syracuse University professor who is writing a book on Internet roots, said of New.net and similar rebel registries. "I like to see this kind of demonstration that we don’t have to rely on this incredibly political and centralized process that ICANN has set up to create new domain name services."
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