Killing the TLD atavism

UnifiedRoot is another company trying to transcend the artificially-imposed limitations of the top-level domain (TLD) system by setting up its own system of alternative DNS root servers – but unlike other alternative DNS systems like New.net, it lets the user register the top-level domain of their choice. I’d quite like the TLD ‘yardley,’ so I could set up the addresses ‘greg.yardley’, ‘blog.greg.yardley’, and so on… Nice idea. The problem is, as always, that registering a TLD with UnifiedRoot isn’t going to make the address magically work. In order for that to happen, either the individual’s computer or the ISP have to be configured to properly resolve that TLD, and most ISPs will just stick to the TLDs approved by ICANN. Getting around that is a challenge that’s sunk many other alternative roots – and while it’s impressive that UnifiedRoot’s already got the European ISP Tiscali to play along, they’re going to have to convince a majority of ISPs out there that theirs is a worthwhile initiative before companies are going to feel comfortable ordering their product – currently offered for a staggering $1000 a TLD. Got to agree with Paul Kedrosky – they’re currently way over-priced.

UnifiedRoot, to succeed you’re going to need advocates of your system, and you’re not going to get many at $1000 a pop. Why not give a few thousand of your TLDs away for free? If I owned the TLD ‘.yardley’, I’d happily try to get my own ISP to resolve it. If I owned a commercially-viable TLD – say ‘.cheap’ – I’d probably put in a good deal of effort trying to get ISPs to resolve it – especially if I knew there were a few thousand others like me similarly pressuring them. Don’t underestimate the power of an active user base!