ICANN, has approved of Amazon's proposal to run the top level domain name extension ".amazon" after a 7 year dispute with more than a half dozen countries.The dispute was backed by the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO), a group promoting the development of the Amazon Basin. Its member states include Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela. [...]
Amazon had tried for years to get ACTO to drop their complaint. At one point, the company had even offered $5 million in gift cards to Brazil and Peru, the ACTO member states who originally filed the complaint, to no avail. [...]
When Amazon applied to run the ".amazon" domain extension, Brazil and Peru filed a formal complaint with ICANN. The complaint stated that giving Amazon the rights to the extension would "prevent use of this domain for purposes of public interest" and argued that ".amazon" should instead serve regions of the Amazon in South America.
Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.
They offered Brazil and Peru Gift cards?! Jesus H Christ, that's... so completely typical of Amazon the company. And a completely asshole move. These are sovereign nations, not some rubes you've made into your customers.
You are assuming that 'sovereign nation' and 'rube you've made into your customer' are mutually exclusive. That's a very last-decade idea.
Show of hands: How many of you go to websites other than .com, .net, .org, .gov or .edu?
That's what's so stupid about new TLD's. Remember .biz? If I ever see a company with a .biz URL I make a special point not to go there or patronize them. (checks whois for dnalounge.biz)
I divested myself from all things Amazon long ago, but I'm curious what the end game is here. http://www.amazon.amazon?
In my day, we had five, FIVE, TLD's, and we liked it! (shakes fist at clown)
First of all, and arguably most importantly, TLD liberalisation made it possible for http://ibless.therains.downin.africa/ and http://my.lovely.horse/
More sensibly, this opportunity was taken to create IDN TLDs. If your native writing system isn't Latin then it's weird that you have to learn how the Latin writing system works to make an FQDN and this fixes that problem, .рф is the canonical example, for a Cyrillic user it makes at least as much sense for .рф to exist as .ru and so there are a similar registration levels inside .рф as for numerous old-school two letter country TLDs.
There are a few cute value-adds for an entire TLD, I think you can't set CAA for it but you can pre-load HSTS (which Google promptly did for .dev) and thus drag one small part of the Internet into the future.
But mostly it's like yacht insurance. It's a scam that preys on the rich, who cares? I think of better uses for the money, but was Bezos going to spend it on something better? My guess is "No".
I think it's either https://www.amazon/ or even https://amazon/
Moreover, if 'amazon' makes it into the set of top level domains (and therefore into the public suffix list?) it's possible that browsers will end up taking people straight to the amazon website rather than a search engine result for amazon if someone types "amazon" into their address bar.
Also, don't forget about the CCTLDs. I go to a lot of .co.uk and .org.uk (and a few .ac.uk) sites on a regular basis.
"......taking people straight to the amazon website rather than a search engine result for amazon..."
I think you have hit the nail squarely on its head. It's just about the clicks, not even a respectable Machiavellian conspiracy.
Yes, a new TLD will semi-automatically appear in the Public Suffix List.
The browser isn't going to magically assume "Amazon" is no longer a search term, try it now, type horse (an existing TLD which is also a word you might search for). If Amazon wants browsers to take users directly to their web site when the user types Amazon they should probably pay handsomely for this special treatment. I predict if they pay off Safari first the Apple apologists will do most of their work in selling this as a legitimate way to help users avoid phishing.
But yes, https://www.amazon/ will probably take you to the Amazon Web site, why shouldn't it? And that will be cheaper (typical cost to run one of these pointless vanity TLDs is about a million dollars per year).
I am in a minor rage that there is no immediately glorious GIF for the search of "shakes fist at clown".
Well, there was that one website in .cx that I used to go to a lot...
What again is the point for having .com, .net, .org, .gov or .edu. I don't need those.
All I need is ".de"
But then again, I don't live in the center of the universe. ;-)
I'm guessing you live in the US. Because just about everyone outside of the US will regularly use some other TLD than .com, .net, .org, .gov or .edu, namely, the one for their locality.
I had no idea the Internet spilled over the borders of the US. The more you know!
I'm mashing my imaginary "like" button
I had to spend an infuriating amount of energy last year just to make sure that when you try to visit an article on Wikipedia by typing in "The Amazon", that you actually end up at an article for The fucking Amazon and not a page pushing readers towards the article for Amazon.com.
(And the mental gymnastics and intellectual dishonesty that unaccountable Wikipedia bureaucrats employ is as good a reason as any to never donate to Wikimedia. The other big one being that they're already flush with more cash than they know what to do with responsibly.)
[citation needed]
Not very hard to look up a charity's IRS form 990s, but WMF's own financial reports:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/6/60/FY17-18_-_Independent_Auditors%27_Report.pdf
Net assets of $134.8 million as of June 2018, up from $91.8 million in 2016, up from $77 million in 2014. You can see the full history here:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/about/financial-reports/
WMF have more than enough cash to survive for at least a decade. They don't need your money. But they keep spamming those disingenuous "we may have to shut down if you don't give us money" pledge drives, and people keep throwing cash at them.
Didn't the waste a literal fortune on an editing tool that was never finished?
Do you mean the new wysiwyg editing tool? I tried it a couple of weeks and it was brilliant.
Macon, Guy. "Wikipedia Has Cancer". 2017.
ICANN is starting to remind me of New.net. Bet they'll be bundling spyware with uTorrent installers before long.
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The dot-con bubble.
K3n.