Established Namespaces like DNS are not Infinitely Divisible

If you own any domain names such as yourdomain.com, you've surely received emails telling you to register the equivalent names in the new top-level domains (TLDs) .INFO and .BIZ such as yourdomain.info and yourdomain.biz. Quick! Register the new domain names to protect your online identity!



Anyone else see the irony here? The .INFO and .BIZ domains were ostensibly set up to give legitimate businesses a domain name to match their real-world business name. There is only one problem. If the business that already owns yourdomain.com registers yourdomain.info and yourdomain.biz, it simply splinters its brand recognition. If a different business registers the new domains, it causes even greater recognition problems.



A namespace like DNS isn't infinitely extensible simply because a standards body can add new TLDs. The .EDU, .MIL, and .GOV TLDs work mainly because there are a limited number of institutions that use them and the institutions tend to have unique names. But .COM, .ORG, .NET, .INFO, and .BIZ, suffer from too many entities with similar names in the same geographic area (the entire world for the purposes of the Web). For example, I own the domain names zeusprod.com and zeusproductions.com. I get some interesting phone calls and emails from people who confuse my multimedia consultancy, Zeus Productions, with the porn video company of the same name (I think they're at femalewrestling.com).



Unless the public magically distinguishes between the new .INFO and .BIZ domains--which they won't--the new TLDs simply add another yearly expense for existing domain name holders looking to "protect" their identity. I've chosen to ignore the new TLDs because they are meaningless to my customers.



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Have you registered any new .INFO or .BIZ domains? Have you ever visited a .INFO or .BIZ site?