Porn.xxx and Sex.xxx are now up, working, and ready for the world to see. ICM, the company in control of .xxx registrations, placed generic content on those domains so they are safe for your viewing. The links include generic comment about the .xxx extension, a top-level domain extension dedicated to adult websites.

The .xxx extension is a controversial TLD, debated for almost 11 years before ICANN chose to dismiss the advice of national governments across the world. It is in fact the first time that ICANN has ignored the advice of national governments to approve a domain extension.

What do you think of the newly approved extension dedicated solely to adult websites?

We’re just asking for more trademark infringement claims and disputes. The more TLD’s that are out there, the easier it will be for cybersquatters to get a hold of domain names that infringe on a companies trademark(s). While most people would say that it’s the company’s responsibility to manage their trademark(s) and snatch these types of domain names before others do by cybersquatting, it’ll be nearly impossible for companies to monitor that, and realistically, it’s not fair to expect companies to monitor that.

We shouldn’t be making the internet a vulnerable place for cybersquatters to cybersquat. And that’s exactly what all these new TLD’s are allowing. In my opinion, it’s all a load of crap. We already have too many TLD’s why allow more to be in the making? Make sure to submit your comments below!

My original suggestion to my friend was to sell his auto parts on eBay. When he asked about Craigslist, we decided to check it out because I had never dealt with Craigslist, so I had no experience with it.

As I was typing in Craigslist.com, I typed in Craigslist.cm by accident. It redirected me to a website for funny and sexy videos. My friend turned to his computer and gave me a look and began laughing.

.CM is the TLD for Cameroon. I felt this was a form of trademark infringement or cybersquatting as this website is taking a common typo of the Craigslist domain name and redirecting it to their website for profit. I think I’ll shoot a quick email to Craigslist to inform them of this problem. I’d like to get your comments on this though, so make sure to comment below!

The Pope spoke against the proposal for the new extensions of .catholic, .hindu, .anglican, .orthodox, .islam, .muslim, and a few more. He claims that religious domains will create bitter disputes in the religious community.

Gore on the other hand, as spoken about in one of my last articles, has backed up the proposal of .eco, and says it will be a great extension for websites promoting an envoirmentally friendly intiative.

Now, lets get back to the point of this entire article. Maybe ICANN is going a little overboard in the number of TLD’s they’re allowing to be put on the market, and allowing to be proposed. I’m sure many big businesses agree with me when I say this, it’s just costing everyone more money. For example, before you know it, car companies won’t only have to buy the .com of their domain name, but they’ll have to buy the .eco extension as well to show they’re envoirmentally friendly. New TLD’s create an extra, unnecessary expense that companies need to spend to block cybersquatters.

Lets get to my opinion on this whole situation. I think ICANN should limit the amount of TLD’s they pass. Like the .eco extension happens to be an extension I support, but I agree with the pope that the religious extensions are a terrible proposal. Anyways, I would love to hear your comments on the whole situation, so make sure to comment below.

Recently in the news, Al Gore’s corporation, The Alliance for Climate Protection, partnered up with Dot Eco LLC to make sure the .eco extension would be made possible. Dot Eco LLC quotes their main reason for having the .eco extension below:

“Dot Eco will finance groundbreaking environmental initiatives that have a real, positive impact on our environment. The Dot Eco brand will build an open, ecumenical community around this shared cause, and create a common knowledge base that enables individuals to do their part to help the environment”

I thought I would also share something important that many people don’t know about Al Gore as a side note. A lot of the time, when someone thinks about Al Gore and the internet, they will think back to the rumor that he claimed to have created the internet. No, Al Gore is no idiot, and never claimed to have created the internet. It was a rumor started by a reporter at Wired, and has become one giant spread rumor that is one giant lie. So don’t lose respect for .eco based on Al Gore’s partnership with them. Once again, Al Gore is no idiot.

I think the .eco extension is a great idea, and I am really hoping Dot Eco LLC plays its cards rights, gets approval for the extension and goes through with it. I know I’ll buy a few. Please comment your thoughts on the .eco TLD. I would love to hear them!

The internet was started by the United States Department of Defense and it spread quickly throughout the entire world. However, the first few tld’s to be proposed for commerical use were .com, .net and .org being the most common today. All of a sudden, these new ccTlds are being put in use, and I think they are useless. Without analyzing specifics, as I will later on in this article, let’s look at some ccTlds:

.ac  .ad  .ae  .af  .ag  .ai  .al  .am  .an  .ao  .aq  .ar  .as  .at  .au  .aw  .ax  .az  .ba  .bb  .bd  .be  .bf  .bg  .bh  .bi  .bj  .bm  .bn  .bo  .br  .bs  .bt  .bw  .by  .bz  .ca  .cc  .cd  .cf  .cg  .ch  .ci  .ck  .cl  .cm  .cn  .co  .cr  .cu  .cv  .cx  .cy  .cz  .de  .dj  .dk  .dm  .do  .dz  .ec  .ee  .eg  .er  .es  .et  .eu  .fi  .fj  .fk  .fm  .fo  .fr  .ga  .gd  .ge  .gf  .gg  .gh  .gi  .gl  .gm  .gn  .gp  .gq  .gr  .gs  .gt  .gu  .gw  .gy  .hk  .hm  .hn  .hr  .ht  .hu  .id  .ie  .il  .im  .in  .io  .iq  .ir  .is  .it  .je  .jm  .jo  .jp  .ke  .kg  .kh  .ki  .km  .kn  .kp  .kr  .kw  .ky  .kz  .la  .lb  .lc  .li  .lk  .lr  .ls  .lt  .lu  .lv  .ly  .ma  .mc  .md  .me  .mg  .mh  .mk  .ml  .mm  .mn  .mo  .mp  .mq  .mr  .ms  .mt  .mu  .mv  .mw  .mx  .my  .mz  .na  .nc  .ne  .nf  .ng  .ni  .nl  .no  .np  .nr  .nu  .nz  .om  .pa  .pe  .pf  .pg  .ph  .pk  .pl  .pn  .pr  .ps  .pt  .pw  .py  .qa  .re  .ro  .rs  .ru  .rw  .sa  .sb  .sc  .sd  .se  .sg  .sh  .si  .sk  .sl  .sm  .sn  .sr  .st  .su  .sv  .sy  .sz  .tc  .td  .tf  .tg  .th  .tj  .tk  .tl  .tm  .tn  .to  .tr  .tt  .tv  .tw  .tz  .ua  .ug  .uk  .us  .uy  .uz  .va  .vc  .ve  .vg  .vi  .vn  .vu  .wf  .ws  .ye  .za  .zm  .zw

Complete list of definitions and regions can be accessed at: http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/

Obviously because the IANA allowed these ccTLDs to be put into circulation, they must have thought they may have some use. But it could have been to just be equal to all other countries. In reality, these domains are nothing more than just showcase domains to make everyone happy, and of course google has google regged at almost all of these ccTLDs.

As a domainer, I was once offered to buy Darfur.in. I instantly was interested in this domain considering the huge genocide going on in Darfur, and how this domain could be developed to help everyone and possibly sell it. (I thought this was ethical because I would be using the domain for good, and not exploiting the genocide.)  But back to the point, I loved the idea and the price of $13. Then I thought to myself, oh wait, it was .in domain. Why would I want to buy a domain with the subject of a location in Africa, with a ccTLd of India, thousands of miles away.

I asked the seller why I should buy this domain, testing the seller’s salesman skills, and he said that some people in India will be concerned. Not the answer for me. I never bought the domain.

If a company is going to start a website, I see no reason to use a ccTLD when the main TLD is .com. In the event that the name of their company isn’t available in the .com, go .net or modify your name. The actual name of domain matters much less, in most cases, than the content of the website. However most people are most prone to type in .com at the end. A government agency, or a big organization may want to have their ccTLD dependant on their country, but it is also important to secure the .com.

With all of this in mind, I see no reasoning to ccTlds in general.

For the past week, I have been interviewing a few friends and family members of mine about how internet savvy they are, all of whom own a computer. I asked them, “If I were to tell you to go to a website called DNUnderground, what would be the domain you would type into the search bar?”. 100% of them answered that they would type in “DNUnderground.com” at first. Then surprisingly enough, here was their second answer choice when I asked them the question again, just requesting a different answer: 38% said “DNUnderground.org” and the other 62% said “DNUnderground.net”.

Although my true opinion is that .com and .org are the best, .net is definitely known among the average human being. But the other TLD’s, they are not what the average person knows or could remember easily. This was just an interesting statistic. So my overall suggestion, stop registering your .info’s or .tv domains, and start trying to find some more .com’s, .org’s or .net’s!