World Wide Web [WWW] opens up newer domain addresses ...

Not a single day is complete without our browsing websites … and searching something on the net….. have you ever tried searching your name for the ‘web presence’ of self …. And have you ever tried owning a domain… [www.sampspeak.in – is mine]

A domain name  - as  … ****.in  -  is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control on the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System (DNS). Any name registered in the DNS is a domain name. Domain names are used in various networking contexts and application-specific naming and addressing purposes. In general, a domain name represents an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, such as a personal computer used to access the Internet, a server computer hosting a web site, or the web site itself or any other service communicated via the Internet.

If you get a confusion that – earlier, you were hearing lot of … yyyyy.com [intentionally x is avoided ~ sometime back I put xxx dot com and the link automatically directed to a porn site !!!] – you see lot of .com; .in; .net; .co; .org;.co.in and ……

Dot-com (.com)  may refer to: com (short for "commerce"), a company that relies largely or exclusively on Internet commerce ~ and that reminds you of the ‘dot-com bubble’ purported to be ‘dot.com boom’ - the Internet bubble and the information technology bubble, that took the World by storm towards the close of the last century.  It reached its climax in 2000 March when NASDAQ peaked at 5,408.60 in intraday trading before closing at 5,048.62 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the Internet sector and related fields. The period was marked by the founding (and, in many cases, spectacular failure) of a group of new Internet-based companies commonly referred to as dot-coms. Companies could cause their stock prices to increase by simply adding an "e-" prefix to their name or a ".com" to the end, which one author called "prefix investing".

A combination of rapidly increasing stock prices, market confidence that the companies would turn future profits, individual speculation in stocks, and widely available venture capital created an environment in which many investors were willing to overlook traditional metrics such as P/E ratio in favor of confidence in technological advancements ~ and finally came the collapse of the bubble too…  According to dot-com theory, an Internet company's survival depended on expanding its customer base as rapidly as possible, even if it produced large annual losses.  It was  "Get large or get lost"  thought to be the wisdom of doing e-business.  

The new thinking initiated by Management Gurus led some companies to engage in lavish internal spending, such as elaborate business facilities and luxury vacations for employees. Executives and employees who were paid with stock options instead of cash became instant millionaires when the company made its initial public offering; many invested their new wealth into yet more dot-coms. All these came crashing in a couple of years……….as many Companies bombed burning out their venture capital with no asset base. 

Now this post is not about ‘how people chased non-existent things and lost money’ – but of the new domain addresses now available – some queer as : .guru, .bike.  The TOI newsitem states that the humble .com is set to receive some competition from a new set of unusual web addresses such as .guru and .singles! Internet users will now be able to register in targeted and specific domains ending in .guru, .bike, .singles, .plumbing and .clothing among others as a US company is offering a wave of new web addresses.

Donuts Inc will kick off the general availability period for seven new internet domain names, marking the beginning of a new era for the Internet in which users will have unprecedented choice in how they identify and brand themselves online.     The new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) — the first of hundreds Donuts will launch this year — are .bike, .clothing, .guru, .holdings, .plumbing, .singles, and .ventures, the company said. Anyone can register names in these gTLDs on a first come, first-served basis from accredited registrars worldwide. According to the company on February 5, .camera, .equipment, .estate, .gallery, .graphics, .lighting and .photography will be open for registration by anyone interested in an online identity connected to these terms.

According to Donuts co-founder and CEO Paul Stahura  - “This is a unique opportunity for businesses, brands, organisations, and individuals to find an online identity that speaks precisely to their products, services and interests,” Stahura said. In addition to this launch, Donuts hit another major milestone when it signed its 105th new gTLD contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Now getting back to ‘www.sampspeak.in’ (for example) – dot.in represents ‘Indian domain’ – the INRegistry has been created by NIXI, the National Internet eXchange of India. NIXI is a Not-for-Profit Company under Section 25 of the Indian Companies Act, 1956, with the objective of facilitating improved Internet services in the country. Under NIXI, the INRegistry functions as an autonomous body with primary responsibility for maintaining the .IN ccTLD and ensuring its operational stability, reliability, and security.

Dot.IN domain names are available to anyone! Companies, individuals, and organizations in India and abroad are eligible. All one-character and two-character domains, are reserved by government and NIXI order, and are not available to the public.

So, are you ready for the magic – starting a dot(.)in in your name !!

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

31^st Jan 2014.