MikeNoLastName - 12:57 am on Jun 21, 2011 (gmt 0)

The original article is ambiguous. At one point it mentions the drink and shoe companies, but then says ONLY public or non-profit organizations can apply? That would rule out public or private COMPANIES or private organizations. No?

1. I agree with the others who think noone will be able to remember them properly anyway. They'll be about as valuable as .net, .info, etc.

2. They should not allow anyone without a provable brand name ownership or copyright buy them. a. This will eliminate cybersquatting and artificially bidding up the TLD's b. This will eliminate claims on city, state and country names (you can't copyright these, at least in the US).

3. The only way I see this working is if, like with other TLDs, the owner is REQUIRED to register domains for anyone who wants one FOR A REASONABLE maximum price set by ICAAN across ALL TLDs. And maybe require that netsol and godaddy, etc be allowed to also if they choose (with a royalty to the owner of course). The intent should be to EXPLOIT the TLD, NOT to hog it! So if I want to buy domain www.ihate.anycompany the owner of the .anycompany TLD HAS to allow me, or the first requesting buyer, to do it, just like all the other TLDs. Plus every TLD should be up for auction EVERY 1-4 years. Either way, this begins to put the internet out of the range of the average developer and you are going to have big businesses or conglomerates buying up key TLDs (.newyork, .airfares, .hotels, .realestate, .government, .#*$!) to use exclusively for themselves, just so others can't.

4. Search engines are going to have headaches trying to determine how many domains in a TLD belong to the same owner, or others. Unlike with subdomains where you can assume they all belong to the same owner.

5. What is going to be the "standard" domain for the TLD? www.index.TLD? www.tld.tld? www..tld (will you be allowed to do that? Hmmmm)
Repeat step 1... It's just a longer name for potential visitors to remember.

[edited by: MikeNoLastName at 1:08 am (utc) on Jun 21, 2011]