New TLDs Need Sanity

The much vaunted launch of the new TLDs as announced at the ICANN Paris meeting last year is probably a bit of a damp squid in many respects.

Don’t expect to see any actual progress there until next year at the earliest.

In the meantime you can read all about the plans people have for launching their “solutions”.

The problem with some of the proposed “solutions” is simply that they rectify non-existent issues.

If politicians get their own TLD, then why not butchers? Or taxi drivers? Or fishermen?

The biggest issue with any of these TLDs is going to be reaching a mass that will allow them to survive. Some will probably be very successful on more than one level, but if people are going to propose TLDs they really need to think the entire process through.

Just because there is a perceived issue at present does not mean that creating a new TLD is going to do anything to solve it.

There are many cool ideas for new TLDs out there, don’t get me wrong. But for every sane concept there are probably a few really badly thought out ones.

Unfortunately for the people pushing their new TLD projects it’s not them who gets to decide which TLDs will be given a chance.