Brad Templeton has a canny solution to the domain-name fiasco: Let almost anyone create their own top-level domain, as long as they’re able to maintain it and contribute to the maintenance of the overall domain name system (DNS).
Instead of just a few TLDs, like .com, .gov, and .biz, we’d have zillions: .yahoo, .yellowpages, .banjo, .whatever. Whoever owned each TLD owner would decide how to handle registration of domain names with that extension–and what rules to enforce. Voila: Instead of unethical monopoly and impotent bureacracy, we’d have competition, more compatibility with trademark law, and more options.
My only reservation is that this might just shift the locus of the battle. Instead of people squatting on domain names, they’d squat on TLDs instead. But it would still offer options — if I’ve got tweney.website, you could still register tweney.online and try to convince people that .online is a better address anyway.
