ICANN and Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Tilde-Backflip

The Background

On June 26th, ICANN decided that the world needs more top-level domain names. Instead of the big three: .com, .org, and .net, we can now look forward to top-level domains such as .pepsi, .nyc, and .travel.

This plan wasn’t forged from malice. There are quite a few benefits to the proposal. For example, users of non-Roman alphabets will find new support for native-language domain names. However, I found my gut reaction strongly critical the idea, so I ended up putting a little bit of time into thinking through the (negative) consequences of the move.

Expectations and Security

A lot of my initial concerned boiled down to the following question:

Is it wise to change one of the foundations of the internet this late in the game?

I don’t mean this from a technical standpoint, but rather a human standpoint. Unlike most of the technical organization of the internet, people actually interact with top level domains directly in multiple ways.

First is the grouping idea behind the expansion: even though usage is currently very limited, there is a practical difference between google.com and google.cn: without even looking at the sites, I know that I am far more likely to understand the content on the first domain than the second domain. After looking at the sites, I am 100% sure I can’t understand the content at google.cn, and am mystified about the goofy hover-animations at the bottom of the page. Obviously, the proposal aides this human interaction with the internet.

Second is the simple issue of memory: At the moment, I can’t think of a site that I regularly use that has a domain other than .com, .net, .edu, and .org. That really limits the amount that concerns me when I memorize a new location on the web. Is this a big deal? Not really. Is it a factor? Absolutely.

Last is the security of top-level domain names. We all know that we shouldn’t go to www.mybank.com.info. That’s not to say nobody ever goes to phishing sites, but it’s a simple and useful safeguard against the faceless evil on the internet.

The security aspect of the top-level domain switch had me worried for a while. Let’s say that the newly formed .travel domain allows anybody to nab a new travel account. After all, a lot of people like to travel. Why not let them create their own .travel blogs about travelling?

Unfortuantely, this opens up an unfortunate can of worms. Can you trust a visit to orbitz.travel, a seemingly innocuous domain at the nascent .travel top-level domain? Was it account.orbitz.com, account.orbitz.travel, or account.travel.orbitz?

This is not to say that any new top-level domain registrar will actually implement any of these measures. However, this will force a shift for a new mental security model.

What Actually Concerns Me

Soon, I realized that my concern over the proposal was just a defense of my boundless love of keyboard shortcuts! In Firefox, I’ve been using the domain completion keyboard shortcuts for a few years now, so much so that they have grown to be a necessary part of my browsing experience.

As my girlfriend can attest, a normal browsing session is not complete without the following exclamation/keyboard interaction:

“I wonder how the crazies are doing!” <Ctrl>-t, reddit, <Ctrl>-<Enter>.

It takes me literally less than a second to find out why Ron Paul thinks C++ is worse than Haskell’s type system (with benchmarks), and I will be crushed when I am forced to navigate to other websites without my precious keyboard completions. I will either have to <god forbid> type out the whole domain, or find a Firefox plugin that will let me use archaic shortcuts like <Ctrl>-<Alt>-<Shift>-~-<Backflip> in order to properly navigate to the .travel domain.

Keyboard Shortcuts? Are You Serious?

Absolutely not! The above section is triple-underlining my belief that the top-level domain switch will not be a technical issue, but will create extra people problems. Once the new top-level domains are activated, all internet users will have to go through a new adjustment (good and bad) on their conceptual models of organization and security of information on the internet.

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