In typical Idealab! fashion, they’re patenting this bogus “method” (prior art with Alternic?).
Why didn’t they just submit an application to ICANN to become a registrar for a Top Level Domain? Isn’t that easier (and cheaper) than trying to seed the entire world with a new DNS client?
How will they get it onto peoples’ machines? People already have their web browsers. The number of new web browsers being installed these days is flatlining, so even if they OEM with Netscape and IE they’ll miss 80% of the market. In fact, the number of operating systems is proliferating, too, and the number of people upgrading from Win95 or Win98 is pathetically low, to the dismay of Microsoft.
Yet another johnny-come-lately Idealab! startup. They always seem to pick business which have fundamental chicken-egg problems. They can never get any momentum because of the barriers they throw up around themselves.
Plus, with other TLDs on the way in, the value of the real estate they’re trying to claim is at an all-time low.
I just can’t believe that people this stupid continues to get money from banks and investment institutions.
-Ian.
On 3/12/01 9:43 AM, “Darren Gibbons”
> Has anyone taken a look at new.net?
>
> They’re trying to do an end-run around ICANN, offering alternative top-level
> domain names (ie .family, .mp3, .hola etc.). However, because none of the
> root DNS servers recognize them, you’ve got to change your system
> configuration to use their service.
>
> They advertise it as a “plugin” but (to my understanding) it’s just a
> program that adds their DNS server to your list of DNS servers on your
> machine. Alternic has been offering a similar service for some time now,
> but they’ve been targetting DNS server operators (rather than end users) to
> upgrade their configuration.
>
> Interesting to note that there is overlap between TLDs on both Alternic and
> New.net. They both offer .xxx, .ltd, and .med as domain names, so there’s
> good odds of conflicting regstrations on the two services.
>
>
> Once ICANN gets their act together, I’m sure we’ll see some of these TLD’s
> officially supported. Then we’ll have all the legal wrangling over who
> *really* owns which domains…