Stefano Demiliani WeBlog

New Internet Domains

In these days there are lots of discussions about the approval of some new Internet Domains. The most interesting domain under approval are ".mobi" for mobile services and ".xxx" for adult contents.

Internet addresses ending in ".mobi" would allow sites built for the small screens of mobile phones, and are sponsored by a lot of important company such as Microsoft, Nokia, Vodafone, Samsung Electronics, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard.

The ".xxx" domain is sponsored by the International Foundation for Online Responsibility. According to the group's Web site, it would encourage the adoption of the suffix among the "responsible online adult-entertainment community."

I think that these domains could be interesting and useful (personally I hope that the suffix for mobile websites will be adopted soon and .xxx will not adopted), but what about the other domains under discussion?

The other domains that could be approved are: ".asia", ".cat", ".jobs", ".mail", ".post", ".tel" and ".travel". Are really all useful or not? Are all these domains really necessary? Personally, I think that these other domains are not so important...

UPDATE: In an RFC prepared by Donald E. Eastlake 3rd and Declan McCullagh, an analysis is offered for proposals to mandate the use of a special top level name or an IP address bit to flag "adult" or "unsafe" material or the like. This document explains why these ideas are ill considered from legal, philosophical, and technical points of view. Check it!