Top Level Domain Names Add to Confusion — Yes, Multiple
Duh. More TLDs cause confusion. Perhaps it’s outweighed by the innovation?
This morning I read Wired’s article on ICANN, which discusses fresh top level domain names.
It quotes David Farber saying “I don’t think that [adding fresh TLDs] creates innovation. I think that creates rapid confusion.â€
Antony Van Couvering with fresh TLD service provider Minds + Machines, responded in the comments:
There’s no evidence whatever that people will be confused by fresh top-level domains. We by now have more than 270 top-level domain today (all the gTLDs and ccTLDs) and no-one seems to be confused. People are smart and adaptable and quickly gravitate toward Internet services that improve their lives…
Really? Look, I agree with a lot of what Antony has to say regarding fresh TLDs, but to say that no one seems confused by having more than one top level domain name is just bunk.
Just the prior week, Michael Berkens received 27,000 web visitors in a single day to his .com from people looking for the .info of the same domain. A number of firms with ccTLDs (the majority of those 270 tlds Antony is referring to) have filed UDRPs or bought the .com version of their ccTLD since many of their clients go to .com instead.
So the argument isn’t whether increasing the number of fresh TLDs increases confusion or not. Instead, the argument ought to be that the possible innovation from adding fresh TLDs outweighs the cost of confusion.
It’s true that fresh TLDs may lead to innovation. (I assume some of the people Antony refers to in his comment regarding being “in a bit of a time-warp” would be someone like Tim Berners-Lee.)
Sadly, everything that has been publicly disclosed regarding fresh TLDs isn’t innovative; it’s just attaching a fresh label to the end of a domain name. It makes sense that someone who has an innovative idea doesn’t want to tell the world regarding it, but so far when I ask for examples all I hear are cases where someone wants to bundle services with the TLD or something else that can be done today with any other TLD or web site.
If anyone is working on a truly innovative TLD — something that can’t be done with today’s existing structure — I’d love to hear regarding it off the record.
