"ICANN has previously said it wants to "unleash the global human imagination" by extending the number of top level domains in operation."
More like unleash a way to make money...
A trade mark owner has won the right to stop its mark being adopted as a new generic top-level domain (gTLD) by a rival company. Del Monte International (DMI) of Monaco had applied to register '.delmonte' as a new gTLD under an expanded system of domains being set up by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and …
Apart from massaging the egos of those running the companies who are successful in aquiring a gTLD under these rules, who in his right mind will use them?
I suppose fanboys and their like might but if you were a competitor without such a gTLD of your own would you use one?
No, another stunt designed to fill ICANNS' coffers, or have we run out of .COM names yet?
"No, another stunt designed to fill ICANNS' coffers, or have we run out of .COM names yet?"
The whole problem is the gTLD. COM, NET and the rest should have been shutdown to new entries years - decades - ago. They're a relic from when the Internet was US-only. Now that it isn't, domains should specify the country (and maybe state/region at the second level). As the number of names grows the number of needed namespaces increases, but they need to be organized properly to work,
ICANN needs to get a grip. .org, .net. com etc...these are all cool. They make (some) sense.
.co.uk, .co.us etc...also good. One is a UK company, the other a USA one. They make sense.
Of course borders change, companies move (probably to avoid tax) so locking yourself into geographic domain might be a bit short-sighted. Back to the TLDs.
.bank? Yeah, that makes good sense. Especially if they have strict rules on security, who can join etc. I am sure you can think of more.
.coke? No. .cola? No. .buttplug? Ah...no; no thanks.
The increasing number of TLDs will make it harder on users as well. Should they go to creditcard.com? creditcard.co.au? credit.card? Or my.creditcard? "creditcard" will also have to register everything to prevent domain squatters and abuse. A nice money spinner for ICANN.
ICANN - defenders of ICANN's wallet!
Also, if DMC can object to DMI wanting .delmonte; can I object to a company using my family surname as a TLD? Heck, there's a money spinner right there. Register surnames and then sell off big.yin etc. ICANN won't complain too much, more money for them!
".co.uk, .co.us etc...also good. One is a UK company, the other a USA one. They make sense."
This kind of thinking led us to create .co.ck without realising what we'd done until it was too late (it was later unilaterally changed to .com.ck, but most of the locals thought it was bloody funny - understandable if you take a look at their statues - see http://www.burfitt.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album12&id=IMG_3487 (even depicted on the banknotes - see http://www.trademe.co.nz/antiques-collectables/banknotes/australia-pacific-islands/auction-619282500.htm)
(Tall, upright European in a white suite but lives in Latin America. Hmmm)
Old Nazi war criminal?
NB given the involvement of the United Fruit company in payrolling soldiers to kill union activists (hence the term "Bannan republic.") who better to put in charge of the local operation?
IRL The Man from Del Monte says "Ja."
To be fair, Uruguay, Argentina, Southern Brazil and large parts of Chile are populated almost exclusively by those of European descent who were there long before the war. The Spanish, Basque, French and Germans have been there longer than most 'American' families have been in the US. The natives were all killed off and displaced long ago. The huge Japanese colonies (that's what they call them, not my term) and the Jewish settlers did come with WWII though.
My wife is Uruguayan and you'd never think, from looking, her family has been in South America since Uruguay's independence in the early 19th century.
"My wife is Uruguayan and you'd never think, from looking, her family has been in South America since Uruguay's independence in the early 19th century."
Actually I was aware of this peripherally. When Peru elected a Peruvian of Japanese descent and of course Pinochets planned successor was one Eric Strosser, who did not sound particularly Spanish or Portugese (the other great colonial power in that area before the US decide to treat it as their back yard).
What was the old line about Argentinians? Dress like Italians, cook like the Spanish and think their English?
It's a bit more diverse than perhaps people think.
It is very diverse. I always find it odd how the US and Europe kind of ignore most of South America, but Asia has so much trade with them. Uruguay is a leading provider of beef, lamb, citrus fruit and rice to Japan. Aregentina provides Japan and China with iron, beef, wood and paper.
Uruguay also has a growing technology sector and provides enterprise CRM and supply chain management software to Asia as well as, oddly enough, robotics tech. I've done a little business down there but they're very wary of anything from the US (including me). They've still got a really bad taste in their mouth from the dictatorships... and they'll just flat out tell you they don't like the fact Europe ignores them.
"ICANN has previously said it wants to "unleash the global human imagination" by extending the number of top level domains in operation."
They will have finally defeated themselves. Originally, the TLDs like .org and .com were intended to mean something; but they have become useless as a guide as to the nature of the website. For example a multi-national will use eg "mobil.co.uk", while my local plumber is like "bloggs.com". With this new wave, the TLD reaches a new low as merely part of the site owner's name.
So instead of "delmonte.com" will we have "delmonte.delmonte"? What was the point again?