[NA-Discuss] FW: The European Commission Papers on ICANN

[Evan Leibovitch]

> One thing that really impressed me at our recent INET was Vint Cerf's
continued emphasis, and he should know better than anyone, that the Internet
is a dynamically changing entity driven by its users

Part of that dynamism is an evolving ability to work around obstacles. The
Internet-using public has already found a way around domain names --
efficient search engines.

It's no coincidence that the Chrome browser combines the search and URL
areas into one. If you're looking for a specific website, chances are you'll
more likely to find it -- rather than those of name speculators and
typosquatters who have taken what-you-want.com <http://something.com> and
similar names -- by doing a search on Google or Bing. The search engines
will automatically find you, more often then not, what you really want.

This increasing use of search engines is one more reason why the new gTLD
boom is pointless. If you needed a domain name by now, chances are your
first choice -- or maybe even your first 50 choices -- were taken. But you
finally found something workable; your stationary and promotion uses it, and
the public can find you using that and search engines. Will the new
availability of "your-fourth-choice.newTLD" (the first three were already
scooped up by squatters during the sunrise period) really make you want to
uproot? Some will, most won't -- but they may still have to do it anyway as
a defensive measure.

- Evan