'.wow': ICANN to allow almost any domain suffix

At its meeting in Paris, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a not-for-profit organization that oversees the naming scheme for web sites, voted to accept a proposal that will allow companies to purchase new top-level domain names ending in almost whatever suffix they choose.

So, for example, instead of being restricted to sites ending in .com or .org., eBay could have a site that ends in .ebay, or New York City could end its website address with .nyc.

The new naming process will begin in 2009. The first suffixes will probably be given to businesses and other major organizations. Countries are expected to keep their specific suffixes, but, as in the example above, cities could also get individualized URLs, such as .london or .chicago.

In an effort to deter cybersquatters, the organization is likely to charge a hefty price for the new names. Some experts have estimated that the new domain names could cost anywhere from $50,000 (£25,200) to $100,000 or more. ICANN plans to give companies with trademarked names priority for those names.

The group also voted to allow public comment on a proposal that would enable countries to use non-English script. For example, companies could use Chinese or Arabic script to identify their web sites.

Paul Twomey, chief executive of ICANN, told the BBC earlier this week that allowing the new naming conventions would create new "real estate" on the internet.

However, some experts have expressed concerns that the decision could result in a gold-rush mentality. While trademarked names will only be available to holders of those trademarks, there are many common words that people may want to register as web site suffixes, such as '.sex'.

The suffix .xxx was rejected by ICANN last year, but it could also prove to be a popular suffix under the more relaxed policy. However, Twomey told Agence France-Press that the organization will still try to block or reject any domain name that it deems inappropriate for security or moral reasons.

The Internet FAQ from 2085

What was the internet?

The internet and the world web was a computing system to transfer human information. Scientists have based its beginning to the years 1920 to 1940.

What was electromail?

Electromail was another transport protocol to transfer human information, but it was quickly discontinued as it caused misunderstandings due to lack of correctly representing emotions.

What were world web sites?

A so-called world web site consisted of an address of its owner to locate their physical business location, as well as other miscellaneous transmitting of human information that was considered important at the time. The protocol used to decode the information was called hypertext, and as its standards changed quickly over the years, it is impossible to decode most of the information contained within.

I noticed the word “NSFW” in a world web sites museum displaying hypertext reproductions. What does it mean?

Scientific research at the late Mars Research Laboratory came to the conclusion that NSFW announced the display of a widely popular human called Britneyspears in the 1970s. Why warnings were issued before the viewing of this human is unclear.

Did the world web have version numbers?

Yes. In the beginning, the world web was numbered from 1 to 10, with most people considering world web 8 to be the first stable release. Afterwards, the world web received code names for each new version, like “Omega Sun” or the popular “Happy Happy Rabbit" release.More>>

The Silicon Valley triangle: Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft

It's Friday night and still no word from the Microsoft or Yahoo bunkers. The headlines for today tell the story (see Techmeme).

The Wall Street Journal, which appears to be a conduit for the negotiations, has a story, "Microsoft, Yahoo Talks Intensify In Push to Reach a Friendly Deal," and another one, "Yahoo-Google Pact May Be Close." It doesn't seem that a Yahoo-Google mating on advertising would lead to a friendly Microsoft-Yahoo discussion this weekend. It's an interesting game of chicken, with many issues, such as regulatory approval, up in the air for any permutation of a deal with the triangle.

It's clear that Yahoo and Google are trying to check Microsoft by hooking up, but it would only be strategic for Yahoo if Microsoft ends up paying a higher price, meaning it has to motivate Steve Ballmer into coming up with more cash. More Details>>

Firefox 3.0 beta is live

The Mozilla Corporation has released a beta version of Firefox 3 for download, but is warning it is not ready for "casual users" yet.

You can get the browser here. It's available in 30 languages and claims several new features and improvements.

The browser has architectural changes which should make page rendering quicker, more personalisation through one-click bookmarking, and better downloading - including a progress indicator in the status bar and anti-virus checks.

Security is also improved with support for Extended Validation SSL certificates and stricter SSL error pages. Mozilla is asking testers to send its feedback on these features particularly.

The official, full release of Firefox 3 is expected later this year.

There's more on the Mozilla blog here.

It also emerged today that Mozilla is offering live support for Firefox users via instant messenger.

As part of its ongoing battle against Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla has been running a support service since the start of the year. The service only runs for a few hours during US business hours and is staffed by a handful of volunteers.

Your MySpace Web Browser Is Coming

Flock, the Mozilla-based social web browser has made the announcement that everyone has been waiting for: they will now integrate with MySpace. Building on the MySpace Developer Platform, Flock will allow users to surf the web with their MySpace friends in their sidebar. At Tuesday's MySpace Developer Platform kick-off, Flock demonstrated this integration by giving event attendees a sneak peak at the upcoming Flock features. Although details of the new functionality are limited at this point, we do know that the MySpace People integration, as it's being called, is expected to function in a manner very similar to the Facebook integration that is already in use in Flock. This integration will expose all of the relevant actions made available by MySpace and will build them into the People Sidebar of the Flock browser. Read More>>

Mousewheel Click to Paste in Firefox

A typical computer mouse has 3 buttons but only two buttons remains dominant in our daily computer usage. For those who don’t know, the middle mouse can become quite useful too, if one know how to use it properly.

In this post, I will show you 6 tips to supercharge your Mozilla Firefox with the middle mouse button , thus making your web browsing experience better than before.

1- Click on a link with the middle mouse button to quickly open a link in a new tab. No more right click -> “Open Link in new tab”!

2- Press the Control (Ctrl) button and scroll the mouse wheel backward to increase Firefox’s font size. Scroll it forward to decrease the font size.

3- Press the Shift button and scroll the mouse wheel forward to move a page forward and scroll backwards to go the previous page.

Below are Mozilla Firefox’s about:config hack to modify hidden preferences (mouse related). Check out here on how to modify about:config.

4- Change the value of middlemouse.paste to true. This will let you paste a clipboard content to any text field with the middle mouse button.

5- Change the value of middlemouse.scrollbarPosition to true and restart your Firefox. The next time you click on a scrollbar location with the middle mouse button, Firefox will center the screen to that position.

6- Change the value of mousewheel.withaltkey.action to 1. This will enable you to scroll document by one page while pressing the Alt button.

That was all that I can find on how to optimize the usage of a middle mouse button in Mozilla Firefox. Feel free to add more tips and tricks by leaving a comment below. Enjoy!

Microsoft Exec Likely To Lead Yahoo!

There will be a significant changing of the guard at Yahoo! if Microsoft succeeds in buying it.

It's practically a given that a Microsoft executive would run the struggling Internet giant and that Yahoo! Founder and Chief Executive Jerry Yang would leave soon after the deal closes.

A few Microsoft executives are poised to step in. The top candidates are Kevin Johnson, president of platforms and services; Brian McAndrews, senior vice president, advertiser and publisher solutions group; Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president, online services group; and Debra Chrapaty, corporate vice president, global foundation services.

Microsoft has been diversifying its executive bench steadily over the past few years.

Rob Helm, director of research firm Directions on Microsoft, sees McAndrews, Berkowitz or Chrapaty having day-to-day management responsibility over the Sunnyvale, Calif., company, and he or she would report to Johnson.

Helm says McAndrews might have the inside track, because Microsoft wants to become a stronger competitor to Google in search advertising. McAndrews was chief executive of aQuantive , an online advertising company Microsoft acquired last year. He even appears to be lobbying to run Yahoo!. Read More>>

The Rise Of The Facebook Economy

Most industries do not begin on a single day, but it's easy to see Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's presentation on May 24, 2007, as the starting gun in an entrepreneurial race that some have dubbed "the Facebook Economy."

On that day in May, Zuckerberg announced that the privately held social networking site he founded in 2004 would open to third-party developers, transforming itself from a popular Web site to a platform on which other businesses can operate. Eight months later, more than 14,000 applications from third-party developers are live on Facebook, allowing users to do everything from flirt to browse for books. The most successful are raking in profits from ad revenues.

Is Facebook becoming the social operating system of the Internet, poised to support a whole new generation of businesses? Or is this new industry of applications leaning too heavily on the quixotic popularity of a single Web site? Industry leaders and Wharton experts see major opportunities ahead for those who can manage the risks.Read More>>

The original design and ultimate destiny of the World Wide Web, by its inventor

This book is written to address the questions most people ask - From "What were you thinking when you invented it?" through "So what do you think of it now?" to "Where is this all going to take us?", this is the story.

It is not a technical book. (If you want the technical details, check out the W3C web site!). It does mention a little about how technologies you may have heard of - like XML - fit in to the past, present and future, but only in the course of charting the course for the Web from the initial dream - still largely unfulfilled - to the next technical and social revolution.

Now it has been out for a while, it seems different people like different bits.

-Tim BL

More>>

What's next for the Internet?

After taking one of the first Internet companies -- EarthWeb -- public in 1998, Nova Spivack joined some friends at a weedy airstrip deep inside the new Russia for a trip into Earth's stratosphere.

Having space travel on your resume is de rigueur for Internet entrepreneurs these days, but this was 1999, and not even the Russian pilots were sure how the flight would turn out. As Spivack was being strapped into a MiG-25 and prepped for his trip at Mach 3, about 20 miles straight up, he looked around for an ejection button or lever in case things went south.More>>

Google Takes Over the World by 2050

Davide Casaleggio sent a tip to Read/WriteWeb about a video his company produced exploring the future of media. It is a very cool 6-minute video, which takes some educated (and imaginative) guesses at how the Web and media will evolve over the next 40-50 years. In the short movie, Google, Amazon.com and Second Life are the big winners - with Google buying Microsoft, Amazon buying Yahoo, and Second Life becoming the dominant virtual world.

The core future media concept is the Agav - an Agent-Avatar, which "finds information, people, places in the virtual worlds". Here's where it gets interesting. In 2022 Google launches Prometeus, the Agav standard interface, and Amazon creates 'Place' - a company that replicates reality. Then in 2027 Second Life evolves into 'Spirit', where people can become who they want to, via avatars. And then finally, the 'Google overloads' moment - when Prometeus buys Place and Spirit! By 2050 virtual life is the world's biggest market and Google/Prometeus reigns supreme.Of course it may turn out different, but the video does make you think about where the Web is headed. Check it out...

Report Reveals AJAX on the Rise

There are now 3.5 million AJAX developers worldwide, a 50 percent increase over the past year, based on results of a survey that will be released next week.

The survey, conducted by Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Evans Data Corp., will also reveal that nearly four out of five, or 78 percent, of AJAX applications are developed for the Web and nearly 40 percent are for server-centric applications such as databases, ERP, CRM, as well as rich Internet applications.More>>