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ICANN Haz .ChzBrgr?

You think Internet domain namespace is an unwieldy, unnavigable mess now? Just wait. ICANN, the Internet’s body for domain-name management–and I use that term loosely–today approved a domain-name system that permits an unlimited number of top-level domains.

Under the new system, anyone can register as a TLD any combination of letters and numbers they like, their range limited only by the breadth of their own imaginations and the $100,000 and $500,000 fee ICANN plans to charge. So, ICANN’s domain, for example, could become MassiveTechnical.Problems, Total.Chaos, Utter.Confusion or Cluster.F … well, you see my point.

“We are opening up a new world, and I think this cannot be underestimated,” said ICANN member Roberto Gaetano. And that’s an understatement if I ever heard one. Because, when the adult-entertainment industry catches wind of this … well, let’s just hope .xxx will be the least of our worries. How many slang terms for sexual anatomy can you think of?

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  • So this is how the web ends, not with a bang, but with a .bang.

    good.grief!
  • And I thought having an international body take things over from us evil money grubbing Americans was supposed to be a GOOD thing.

    Fooled.Again
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John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »

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