What do you mean, this rules out news.yc? That already works:
$ ping news.yc
PING news.yc (174.132.225.106): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 174.132.225.106: icmp_seq=0 ttl=47 time=204.946 ms
In fact if I was PG I'd deny access to any other host in the request headers .. that'll keep out the proles.
Anyway, I think the new gTLD scheme will be a (qualified) success. Just not quite for everyone. But a lot of people will snap them up. http://www.ibm/ will be irresistable, and there's a lot of interest already from cities, etc (.paris, .roma, etc).
On the subject of domain squatting - all I wish they'd do is massively raise the prices on .coms. It is ridiculous for people to be able to squat on them for $7 a year. And if they are sold, or for sale, the owner should have to pay property tax at the sale price for the duration of his ownership.
I don't mind people owning and trading "investment grade" .coms - what I can't stand is people buying tens of thousands of the damn things and then just sitting on them because they're so cheap.
How about the price depends on how many names you have? That way the little guy can have his $7 domain but if you want to buy thousands of domains each successive one is more expensive and having millions of domains is prohibitive (as there is really no good reason to have them anyway).
That's a neat idea but might be a hassle to enforce, since people could use different registrars, etc. I really like the idea of making domains taxable like property, simply because the tax system already exists and is ruthlessly effective.
Combine that with, say, a price rise to $100/yr minimum charge per domain; that could include, say, hosting services or an ssh cert or something, the point is you cannot pay less than $100 per year per domain you own. That would hit the domainsquatting industry like a nuclear bomb.
Anyway, I think the new gTLD scheme will be a (qualified) success. Just not quite for everyone. But a lot of people will snap them up. http://www.ibm/ will be irresistable, and there's a lot of interest already from cities, etc (.paris, .roma, etc).
On the subject of domain squatting - all I wish they'd do is massively raise the prices on .coms. It is ridiculous for people to be able to squat on them for $7 a year. And if they are sold, or for sale, the owner should have to pay property tax at the sale price for the duration of his ownership.
I don't mind people owning and trading "investment grade" .coms - what I can't stand is people buying tens of thousands of the damn things and then just sitting on them because they're so cheap.