According to this article on The Register some new top level domains (TLDs) are close to being introduced. The 4 closest to getting accepted are .post, .travel, .mobi & .jobs
I can understand why .post, .travel & .jobs have gotten through but I have a real problem with .mobi which has been proposed by Microsoft, Vodafone & Nokia as a place for all content for mobile devices. If new TLDs are to be introduced then surely they should describe the sort of content that should be contained within them (e.g. .travel for travel related content), not the sort of device that you're going to need to view it. By introducing .mobi you're saying "That's a place for content for mobile devices" whereas isn't web content supposed to be viewable on any device in any place at any time? Shouldn't it be device independent? Shouldn't it be platform independent? Shouldn't it be browser independent? It seems to me that introducing .mobi negates these crucial guielines for the web that the World Wide Web Consortium have been championing for years.
I also don't really see why new TLDs are needed anyway. Surely everyone remembers the stuff that comes between the "www." and ".com" rather than the whole address itself. By opening up these new TLDs suddenly we're going to have (for example) lastminute.com, lastminute.co.uk, lastminute.travel... Which one do I go to? Are they all the same thing and if they are...what's the flipping point?
Lastly, I don't agree with The Register's view that "... the Internet is finally getting bigger". How is it getting bigger? The potential number of websites hasn't increased...only the complexity of finding the site that you're looking for! The size of the internet is effectively limited by the number of possible IP addresses, not the number of domains.
Pointless if you ask me. Grrr..
What do you think? I don't mind being told that I'm wrong!
- Jamie