The problem isn’t that this action, in itself, is a problem. There are 2 problems. What TLD they want to buy (not sure if it’s been OK’d by ICANN), .dev, a very generic and not Google specific TLD at all. They make this explicit, too, in the application. They want a TLD they can use for in-development projects. This leads to the 2nd problem: it’ll be a closed domain, not an open one. If you are not part of Google (employee, contractor, whatever), you can not use .dev as a public TLD. This is contrary to the well-established practice of using .dev internally for developers to test their applications using friendlier names rather than RFC1918 IP addresses.
Of course, you can try to continue using .dev internally even if Google is given the public TLD. But that complicates matters – what if you typo a URL and send data to a website from Google? Of course there are ways to counter that, but that’s just a lot of hassle.
So the problem is that Google wants to own a TLD that applies to the entire development community, but keep it all to itself. This is symbolic as if that Google is saying that development is only done by Google. Of course this is hyperbolic, but what would it mean that if you are a business and can not – absolutely at all – get a .com domain? “That you aren’t a commercial business at all?” Ridiculous, but it is how it looks that causes this outrage.
It would be fine if Google wants to own the TLD .google and keep it private, they have the trademark. But .dev? That should be for everybody, I argue.
Note to self: keep use of cowsay to a minimum to maintain reputation. Perhaps that should be a FAQ. As far as I know this is my first downvoted comment. (Is there a way to get a list?)
As an aside, did I hit a nerve with this comment? I’m sure I’ve seen comments contributing equally little value judged less harshly than this. (Also: SPAM? That’s hard to fathom. What is the above comment trying to sell?)
Bonus points rant: The death of Talk and the lack of openness for Hangouts.
Their
.lolapplication:https://gtldresult.icann.org/applicationstatus/applicationdetails/516
Can someone explain the controversy to me? Google bought a TLD and want to use it privately.
The problem isn’t that this action, in itself, is a problem. There are 2 problems. What TLD they want to buy (not sure if it’s been OK’d by ICANN),
.dev, a very generic and not Google specific TLD at all. They make this explicit, too, in the application. They want a TLD they can use for in-development projects. This leads to the 2nd problem: it’ll be a closed domain, not an open one. If you are not part of Google (employee, contractor, whatever), you can not use.devas a public TLD. This is contrary to the well-established practice of using.devinternally for developers to test their applications using friendlier names rather than RFC1918 IP addresses.Of course, you can try to continue using
.devinternally even if Google is given the public TLD. But that complicates matters – what if you typo a URL and send data to a website from Google? Of course there are ways to counter that, but that’s just a lot of hassle.So the problem is that Google wants to own a TLD that applies to the entire development community, but keep it all to itself. This is symbolic as if that Google is saying that development is only done by Google. Of course this is hyperbolic, but what would it mean that if you are a business and can not – absolutely at all – get a
.comdomain? “That you aren’t a commercial business at all?” Ridiculous, but it is how it looks that causes this outrage.It would be fine if Google wants to own the TLD
.googleand keep it private, they have the trademark. But.dev? That should be for everybody, I argue.Note to self: keep use of cowsay to a minimum to maintain reputation. Perhaps that should be a FAQ. As far as I know this is my first downvoted comment. (Is there a way to get a list?)
As an aside, did I hit a nerve with this comment? I’m sure I’ve seen comments contributing equally little value judged less harshly than this. (Also: SPAM? That’s hard to fathom. What is the above comment trying to sell?)
(because “app store, lol”)
I stopped reading there.