About a year ago I read that ICANN had decided to create seven new upper level domain names: .AERO, .BIZ, .COOP, .INFO, .MUSEUM, .NAME and .PRO. There was a huge amount of controversy about this list as apparently many people wanted more of them or they didn't agree with the choices. I thought it was all kind of silly, as there is a huge myth that domain names are somehow in short supply. And that's all it is, is a myth. There are actually plenty of domain names, it's just that many of the "good" ones have been taken. You know, the easy, single words and such.
ICANN created a lot of controversy by the way that they asked for suggestions about domain names. They decided that any person or group could suggest a domain name for $50,000 a pop. There was no guarantee attached to the suggestion - ICANN may or many not choose the name. Personally, I have no idea why anyone would spend $50,000 in this way, but several hundred others apparently thought it had value.
Only those seven were chosen. ICANN decided to limit it to that many because they were, for some reason, afraid of possible stress on the internet itself. I find this a little hard to believe myself, as there are actually several hundred country domains currently. How could adding a few more add stress to the internet?
Anyway, one of the domains that was to be created is known as .NAME. This domain is intended for individuals, a way to make a very personal web site.
This is a very unusual domain name. Every other domain is "two level", meaning you've got the domain (say, ".COM") and the lower-domain (say "MICROSOFT") as in "microsoft.com". The .NAME domain name is set up as a three-level name, "first.last.name" or "last.first.name". It's obvious why this was done - that's the way that names are defined (at least in the United States).
The associated email address is even more interesting. Most domains are set up as "name@domain.com", for example "bill@microsoft.com". The .NAME domain assigns the address as "first@last.name" or "last@first.name".
The way all seven of these new domains work is there is a period of time which you can indicate the domain names that you want. These are all thrown on a list, then when the period is over the names are given out. Any conflicts are handled by random choice - and you can put in your choice more than once. For example, you could put in for "joe.joe.name" one hundred times if you want, which would give you one hundred chances. Your registrar charges a small fee for each chance. Obviously if you think the domain name is going to be popular you would purchase more chances.
I think it's pretty cool myself, especially since we were awarded my name and my wife's name. It's an interesting way to make a nice personal web site.
One of the big down-sides, though, is there is only one domain name for each name. In other words, there is only one "tim.timmy.name". So even though there might be a million people with that name, the first who gets the domain is it.
Another down side is it might be easier for spammers to find you. After all, all they need to do is get the phone book and start emailing...
So why buy a .NAME domain name? Well, it's a pretty good way to identify your own unique web site and email address. I like it.
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