[ALAC] Google Chrome and domain names

[Evan Leibovitch]

Hello everyone,

Back in July I had an email dialogue with fellow NARALO member John
Levine on the general subject  "Domains don't matter". The debate was
over whether the whole importance of having a premium domain name even
matters anymore, given the improving ability for people to use search
engines to find appropriate web destinations. I now am interested to
find out what others believe on this issue given recent developments.

I've played with the beta of the new Google "Chrome" browser, which has
made a significant move from the perspective from the user. The search
window is now merged with the one used to type in URL names. So, if you
type in "flowers" you're not just taken to flowers.com, but to
search-engine suggested matches.

(Obviously Chrome defaults to Google as the search engine but that can
be changed.)

This is especially helpful for organizations that were not able to
aquire their most obvious domain name (likely these days because it's in
the hands of squatters). It will also have the potential to reduce
phishing and typosquatting by pointing out misspellings and unintended
redirections before the page is obtained.

Even if Chrome is not dominant as a browser I believe that this
direction will eventually be followed by other implementations. I raise
this issue here to ask what implications this this trend has to ICANN.
Especially from an end-user At-Large point of view, does it affect our
approaches to gTLD creation, to the RAA and to IDNs?

- Evan