Everyone who uses the Internet is familiar with .com, .org and .edu.
But how about .sex?
That sultry domain name, along with a few that are more tame, could find their way onto the Internet as early as next year.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which assigns new domain names, will soon determine if the list of domain names will see its first major growth in more than a decade.
“The applications were due on Monday, and approvals are expected on Nov. 20,” said Brett Lagrande, a media relations contact for ICANN.
Lagrande said the nonrefundable application fee was $50,000 per applicant, and the money went toward the legal and technical expenses involved.
ICANN’s criteria for selecting domain names include the domain’s ability to enhance competition for registration services and the extent to which they demonstrate realistic business, financial, technical and operational plans.
Among the suffixes proposed are .kids and .sex, which would add to the common suffixes such as .com, .org and .edu.
“It will definitely make sites easier to remember,” said Bradley Greenberg, a telecommunication professor.
The new domains will be necessary to the future of the Internet’s expansion, said David Novicki, assistant director of the Counseling Center and an expert on Internet addiction.
“There are going to have to be new names no matter what,” Novicki said. “We’re running out of names, and with additional domains, there will be a finite number of locations that will last for several years.”
The new domain names may make it easier to control unwanted Web sites, Novicki said.
“If (.sex) becomes a domain name it will be easy to lock a lot of pornography sites out,” he said.
Greenberg agrees.
“Two really good things will happen,” he said. “One being that it will make (surfing) easier, and sites will be more readily be available.”
Schools and parents will also be able to filter out the sites they don’t want children to see, Greenberg said.
The problem with the domain names, however, is that they may not necessarily be what they describe, Novicki said.
“It really is going to depend on who puts what on the site,” he said. “Just because the site’s (domain name) is .kids, it won’t necessarily be for children.”
The Internet is not regulated except for laws against Web sites dealing with child pornography, Greenberg said.
Due to the freedom Web companies have, they may not even want to use the new domain names, Greenberg said.
“The highest profit (earned) on the Internet is from pornography sites,” Greenberg said. “They may not want their site right away to be associated with pornography.”
Novicki said many pornography sites, such as whitehouse.com, do this. However, this doesn’t just apply to pornography.
“I suspect that if I looked carefully at stuff on (MSU’s) mainframe, or any university for that matter, I would find information that you wouldn’t expect to see on a .edu Web site,” he said.
