Having competing systems for TLDs makes about as much sense as having competing systems for what side of the road to drive on.
From EWORLDWIRE:
“LONDON/EWORLDWIRE/March 25, 2004 — Internet users around the world now have the tools to create any domain name with any extension, and are no longer limited to ‘.com’, ‘.net’, or other previous extensions. This breakthrough offers the end user much more relevancy, with domain names that are easier to handle, remember and use. Implementation of these domain names requires no more than a simple configuration, and none of the complicated delegation and name server manipulation required for old domain names. ”
This strikes me as a very bad idea. And it reminds me of the now defunct AlterNIC.net, which set up a “competing” root DNS sever in the mid 1990s to protests NSI’s monopoly over the domain name space. We now have competing registrars, which is good, but they must all agree to use the same top-level DNS server system. New top-level domain names (TLDs) come along every once in a while (like the oh-so-lovely “.biz” and “.info” newcomers) and this process is governed (if that is the right word) by ICANN.
In any event, having competing systems for TLDs makes about as much sense as having competing systems for what side of the road to drive on – in the same country. What the press release doesn’t say is that you (thankfully) have to install software on your computer for the dotWORLDS system to work.
I give it two months.
