Dot what? An inconvenient URL.

By Wes | July 5th, 2009

al-gore-dot-eco-battle So just when Al Gore goes and tries to re-invent the internet some Vancouver internet upstarts issue a global press release that sticks in his craw. I don’t know what a craw is and I don’t care to google it, but imagine that you wanted to spearhead an initiative to have a generic top level domain created to save the planet and then someone else came and stole your thunder; and power point presentation. The storm is around the .eco domain, a proposed hot designation for any company hoping to capitalize on greening its image and making those eco-bucks. And much like .edu there will be stringent standards you must live up to if you wish to be knighted with this rank. So now on one side we have Al Gore and a bunch of fancy Californians and on the other we have David Suzuki, the World Wildlife Fund and Vancouver start up Big Room. And the battle is getting fierce.

Both sides are threatening to donate massive proceeds from the .eco venture to environmental causes; eye to eye in a mexican showdown of global proportion while the ice caps melt. Aaaaand as the planet slowly cooks and chokes both sides are threatening to open the door to massive ecommerce and web hosting changes that will possibly save the planet. And lastly, both sides are betting on one big IF. That companies, and people will be flocking to .eco in a show of support, zeal and fervor for this new designation. And unlike .biz .mobi . and my favorite .info, that it will stick. Can you hear the pitch now directed at countless companies? “We can save you millions on your marketing campaign. A dot-eco domain will only cost you 50 bucks” If they care so much about saving the planet (which According to Al Gore we can’t wait any longer to do, mired in our apathy, and/or maybe legal battles) maybe they’ll meet somewhere between Vancouver and San Francisco and go on some camping trip to reach an important consensus regarding this monumental gTLD. Maybe there’s money and power involved? That seems to make men fight once in a while. Anyhow, best of luck to both of them. May they both win. And maybe everyone else who wants a top level domain will see the floodgates open too. And if so I’ve decided to start a .art TLD and I alone will be the judge of whether your art is good enough to garner this soon to be coveted suffix. Gentlemen, start your crayons.

Tags: Al Gore, David Suzuki, dot eco, eCommerce, environment, Vancouver internet, Web domains

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Couple Things

"on the other we have David Suzuki, the World Wildlife Fund and Vancouver start up Big Room"

To clarify, neither the WWF nor David Suzuki has endorsed Big Room's application. Individuals from those organizations are on the "stakeholder council" that determines the rules for the TLD, but the organizations themselves have not endorsed the effort.

"And unlike .biz .mobi . and my favorite .info, that it will stick."

.biz has sold over 2 million names, .mobi over a million, and .info over 5 million (though that one's a somewhat unique case due to their strategy of giving people the first year at less than a dollar a name).

Wes

Thanks for the comment. While anything numbered in the millions often sounds impressive, those three domains didn't retain the cache that they came out of the gate with. Even combined they still are 1/10th of the 77 million .com sites on the web alone and we're fast approaching 200 million websites total worldwide according to some estimates (Netcraft). One gets the impression that both dot eco teams are dreaming very big with this one and I'm sure they intend to create a TLD with staying power- as the health of the planet so depends. As for the NGOs It's stated in Renewal Partners site that the organizations are all collaborating together to present the bid, and clearly the organizations have lent their brands to the cause as they're on the Big Room dot eco page. Stakeholder Council or whatever other form of involvement, in this day and age no one lends their brand out lightly. One could only gather that this signified either some level of commitment/suport from those NGOs or some conniving on Big Room's part. I'm comfortable deducting the former. Forgive me for taking artistic license and embellishing but if you are involved with either Big Room WWF or DZF I'd very much like to hear more.