What You Need To Know About The New Top Level Domains, Chris Sherman, Marketing Land (Jan 12)
ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, has opened up the generic top-level domains to accept just about anything.
We are accustomed to these -- .com, .edu, .gov, .int, .mil, .net, and .org; and these (though not as much) - .biz, .info, .name, and .pro; and maybe these - .aero, .coop, and .museum; and lastly .asia, .cat, .jobs, .mobi, .tel and .travel.
But now, "ICANN opened up the process for anyone to apply for a gTLD using any words or combination of characters." Any name will do - but it will cost at least $185,000, involve running a registry, and only (!) 1,000 will be accepted in a year.
Supposedly this is being done because the .com domain is overcrowded. Companies with large budgets may want to create their own top level domain for marketing purposes - or they may want to prevent someone else from taking that domain. Could this create another wasteful race for acquiring domains?
The one good point is that "the new gTLDs needn’t be in ASCII Latin characters, opening up the domain space to countries or territories who’ve previously been unable to get internet addresses in their native languages."
What The New ICANN Domain Names Mean For Google Rankings & SEO: Nothing, Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land (Jun 20)
A travel company may want to buy into a .travel top level domain, but it won't elevate its placement in search engine results, says Danny Sullivan. So - the expanded gTLDs from ICANN may help in identity on the Internet but won't make much difference in being found.
"In the end, the domain names do present new opportunities for some businesses. A few companies are going to get very rich off of this. Some are going to wonder if they need to buy their names again with all these new spaces to avoid cybersquatting."
New Net addresses mean new trademark issues, by Stephen Shankland, Deeptech (Jun 19)
Internet Moves Beyond Dot-Com With ‘.Anything’ Domain Names, Bloomberg Business Week (June 20)
ICANN announced new generic top-level domains (GTLDs). Today there are 22 (.com, .net, .edu, .info ....); by 2012 there could be hundreds more.
"The move will give a completely new look to Internet addresses. Domains can range from broad terms such as .auto to specific ones such as .canon.
Thus, the blessing and the curse that are new GLTDs: companies get new opportunities to reinforce their brand names, but at the same time it means trademark holders could face expensive new challenges in defending their trademarks."
But where does this leave the searcher? Domain naming hierarchy is useful for narrowing searches and seeking quality. Earlier new gtlds such as .info and .biz were quickly contaminated with spam sites. Who will control quality in these new ones? Having a domain museum had great promise, but not all museums registered under the domain - though I see that a search for site:museum toronto does yield good results.
Of interest: "Last year, dot-com had 89.2 million address registrations, dot-net had 13.5 million, and dot-org had 8.3 million. All three are so-called “legacy domains” that were created in 1985 before the formation of Icann. The next most popular domains were dot-info with 6 million registrations in 2010 and dot-biz with 2 million."
Google, Facebook warn IPv6 test may slow Internet , Maija Palmer, Tim Bradshaw, Financial Times via Globe and Mail (June 8)
Internet addresses have run out under the IPv4 system, and the large Internet companies are beginning to test IPv6.
"Much as telephone numbers have gone from a couple of digits in the early days of telephony to strings of 10 or 11 numbers today, the Internet will move from 32-bit addresses to 128-bit addresses. This will allow 4 billion times more Internet identifiers to be created than exist today. "
But the transition may be rocky and some on IPv4 could be blocked from seeing sites with IPv6.
Bell, incidentally, is not participating in World IPv6 Day.
World IPv6 Day starts without Bell, ITWorld Canada (Jun 7)
.CO Domain Tops 1M Registrations, Draws Amazon, Twitter, Juan Carlos Perez, IDG via PCWorld (Jun 2)
New .co domain provides relief for overcrowded .com - already has 1 million registrations.
".CO Internet SAS, which is based in Miami, has sold .CO domain names in more than 200 countries, with the biggest concentration of accounts in North America (50 percent) and Europe (25 percent)."
The Simple Guide on How The Internet Works (DOWNLOAD), by Justin Pot, Make Use Of (Mar 21)
Even if you began your life on the Internet in the 1990s, this guide will help fill in some spots and remind you of others. It's good at describing the technology in simple terms. However, it is short - only 28 pages, and some of the statements are simplistic and obvious.
"Websites have helped spread information that was previously only available in books, which had to be shipped to places, and stored ..."
Contents:
* The history of the web
* How information is transferred
* What DNS servers do
* The languages of the web, including HTML, java and more
* Current Internet trends
* How the web changed the world
Internet moving to bigger digs , Omar El Akkad, Globe and Mail (Feb 3)
IPv6 is coming - some day. Since the beginning we've been using Internet Protocal version 4 for the numerical internet address system. This allows for only 4 billion unique addresses which may run out in the next 6 months. IPv6, which supports trillions, is about to be tested by large tech companies. The two systems will overlap for some time. Next time you buy an internet-connected electronic device, check that it will handle the new protocol.
Goodbye Internet, We Hardly Knew Ye?, Scott Bradner, PC World (Dec 29)
There are many pressures to make the Internet a controlled environment in which government and business hold the reigns.
"... on the whole, the Internet has been left alone to disrupt businesses, governments and society. The Internet's impact on the music and film businesses, newspapers, privacy, social unrest, government transparency (voluntary and otherwise), and education, among many other things, has been profound. "
But that will change. One example: a UN group made up of government representatives is looking for ways to strengthen oversight through the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).
U.S. regulator adopts Internet traffic rules , Iain Marlow, Globe and Mail (Dec 21)
Federal Communications Commission has adopted a set of principles for regulating traffic on the internet that some feel don't truly ensure equitable access.
"Under the new rules Internet Service Providers are not allowed to block lawful content on their wired networks. They can, however, slow down or speed up certain types of traffic – a tactic critics have slammed as an Internet “fast lane” of better service for those who can afford it, essentially ending the open access philosophy of the Internet. ".
New framework is seen as similar to Canada's.
Geist: U.S. uses domain names as new way to regulate the Net, by Michael Geist, Toronto Star (Sep 27)
Legislators in the United States are considering blocking access to certain domains determined by the Department of Justice or U.S. Attorney General.
"The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, recently introduced in the U.S. Senate, would potentially force Internet providers, domain name registrars (companies that register domain names) and domain name registries (organizations that maintain the domain name database) to block access to specified domain names
This domain name block list – already being dubbed the Great Firewall of America – would be created through a censorship court order obtained by the U.S. Attorney General. The court order could be used to shut down a site located within the U.S. or to order Internet providers to block access to the domain name if the site resides outside the country."
Sounds like an arrangement that could cause more problems than it solves.
Google report shows where its content is blocked, Lance Whitney, Digital Media (Sept 21)
Google has a transparency report that 1) requests from government to take down information, and 2) traffic graphs showing disruptions (government caused and accident).
Government Requests - a big box hides part of the map - click on the map to move it (the box won't move). Canada rarely asks for removal of information - it had less than 10 in the first 6 months of 2101. The US had 128.
'Historic' day as first non-Latin web addresses go live, BBC News (May 6)
ICANN has turned on the system for non-Latin web addresses through the new "internationalised domain names (IDNs)".
"Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the first countries to have so-called "country codes" written in Arabic scripts. "
Other languages and countries to follow.
Internet set for domain name changes by Kelly Olsen, AP via Globe and Mail (Oct 26)
ICANN, the organization that controls the top level domain names in use on the Internet (country domains, .com, .org etc) is considering allowing non-Latin script in order to accomodate scripts such as Cyrillic, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese (there are 17 scripts in total).
"Of the 1.6 billion Internet users worldwide, Mr. Beckstrom — a former chief of U.S. cyber security — said that more than half use languages that have scripts based on alphabets other than Latin. “So this change is very much necessary for not only half the world's Internet users today, but more than half of probably the future users as the use of the Internet continues to spread,” he said."
WSJ has a blog entry - Sparks Fly at Icann Meeting in Seoul (Oct 29) - that reported on the meeting.
It is expected that the 17 scripts will be allowed for country codes where assignment is run by the country governments. But "For now, the 21 so-called generic domains — like .com, .edu, .gov, .net and .org — will remain accessible by Roman letters only."
"Icann is aiming to allow the country-code domains to use other alphabets as soon as next month, though countries will likely take several months to decide on their own rules. It is likely to allow the generic domains to start using other alphabets in 2011, though a precise date hasn’t been set."
Postscript: Hebrew, Hindi, other scripts get Web address nod , Kelly Olsen, AP via Globe and Mail (Oct 30)
More on the ICANN decision to allow non-Latin scripts in country domain names.
"The decision clears the way for governments or their designees to submit requests for specific names, likely beginning Nov. 16. Internet users could start seeing them in use early next year, particularly in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts in which demand has been among the highest, ICANN officials say. "
But non-Latin versions of .com and other generic top-level domains are on hold while ICANN examines policy implications.
One point to note: "Although the move will reflect linguistic and cultural diversity, Mr. Guo said, “for some users it might even be easier to type domains in Latin alphabets than Chinese characters.” "
What will people do with Latin alphabet keyboards who want to access a website in the new domain?
The State of Canada's Broadband: Terrific or Terrible? by Omar El Akkad, Globe and Mail (Oct 8)
Some studies show that high speed broadband costs more in Canada than many other countries.
"The Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford released an analysis based on some 24-million broadband speed test records. The survey concludes that Canada is 17th in the world for broadband leadership, a category that combines broadband speeds and access. The survey puts Canada 30th or 31st for upload speed, download speed and broadband quality. Globally, the study says Japan and South Korea are among the world leaders."
Wireless Internet Use by John Horrigan, Pew Internet (Jul 22, 2009)
Growing use of wireless and of mobile handset.
"An April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project shows that 56% of adult Americans have accessed the internet by wireless means, such as using a laptop, mobile device, game console, or MP3 player. The most prevalent way people get online using a wireless network is with a laptop computer; 39% of adults have done this."
High-speed Net expensive, slow: Report, Michael Geist, Toronto Star (Jun 1)
Where Canada once led, it now lags.
"According to a new OECD report, Canada has one of the slowest and most expensive consumer broadband networks in the developed world. The OECD report, widely viewed as the leading benchmark on broadband networks in the world, compared Canada with 29 other countries on a range of metrics. These included broadband availability, pricing, speed, and bandwidth caps.
Dot.ca turns 10, an ideal time for public review, by Michael Geist, The Star (Apr 6)
Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is 10 years old and has over one million domain registrations. It began as a "not-for-profit organization [that] would manage the dot-ca domain name space. The government articulated a vision of the dot-ca domain as a "key public resource" and called on CIRA to act in an open and transparent manner". But Michael Geist reports that there is an increasing leaning toward commercial interests and away from public interest.
"Ten years after the federal government acknowledged the importance of dot-ca for Canadian social and economic development, the Canadian domain name space sits at a crossroads. The increasingly commercial focus is one potential path, but it is not the only one. Other countries have used their domain name authorities to fund research, engage in public policy, or even grant every citizen the right to a domain name at no cost."
Google tries to break IPv6 logjam by own example by Stephen Shankland, Webware (Mar 27)
"Google thinks the time is ripe to begin adopting Internet Protocol version 6. The search giant, which handles gargantuan amounts of traffic, has gradually been making more of its Web properties available over IPv6, which despite being defined for more than a decade still is rare compared to the current IPv4. "
Ontario Ministry of Government Services has launched Digtal Ontario - a portal "for identifying emerging opportunities and best practices for using high-speed connectivity to produce economic and social value, and improve the delivery of government services"
Has videos of program events, discussion forums, e-panels, and wiki.
[Text from Ministry of Government Services].
By browsing and searching and in other ways using computers we are adding to carbon emissions. This generally is the conclusion of Dr Alex Wissner-Gross, a physicist from Harvard University, who has estimated the environmental impact of a "typical Google search on a desktop computer" to be about 7 grams of carbon dioxide, a combination of the user's computer and Google's servers. Compare this to boiling an electric kettle which produces 15 grams. Google countered with an estimate of .2 grams of CO2. The truth is somewhere in between. But what are we to do about it - I would forego putting on the kettle if it becomes a choice between a cup of tea and a web search.
There is an environmental cost to everything we do, but it would be better if we focused on where we can make big gains in reducing carbon emissions such as in our use of fuel for transportation, heating, and, yes, producing electricity. Raise the price of electricity, and Google will find more ways to reduce its use of it.
Pandia commented on this in - How Google is destroying the world’s climate -- that while it is good to push companies like Google to be more efficient in energy use, "Still, we are starting to feel some unease about stories like this. It is as if this narrow focus on individual types of energy consumption is making us lose sight of the bigger picture." Pandia has other points that makes us question the motives of the authors of the study.
More background and comment in:
Google searches cost the earth, claims academic By Tom Jowitt, Techworld (Jan 12)
Google emits rebuttal to carbon claims by David Meyer, ZDNet UK (Jan 12)
Launch of .tel domain names is 'most significant innovation since .com' by Bobbie Johnson, Guardian (Dec 3)
"The new .tel domain allows companies and individuals to create a virtual address book, storing a variety of contact information online and offering it to users according to where they are and how they connect to the service."
Reminder: "ICANN the body that oversees the assignment of names on the internet, has already outlined plans to liberalise the allocation of domains. The rules will begin being relaxed early next year, potentially allowing any word to be registered as a domain suffix – such as .city or .news – by anybody."
CRTC ruling not the last word on Net neutrality by Michael Geist, Toronto Star (Nov 24)
Bell Sympatico won the first round with the CRTC on "legality of Internet throttling, a controversial practice employed by some Internet service providers that reduces speeds for certain applications" but questions of traffic management are not over.
Internet Traffic Begins to Bypass the U.S. By JOHN MARKOFF, New York Times (Aug 29)
For the first 30 years or more of the Internet, most data flowed through the United States. That traffic has dropped to about 25%.
It's partly economics -- "Internet technologists say that the global data network that was once a competitive advantage for the United States is now increasingly outside the control of American companies. They decided not to invest in lower-cost optical fiber lines, which have rapidly become a commodity business."
And concern about security and privacy of data flowing through the United States and increasing awareness of importance of having own networks.
Dot-Mania: ICANN Opens the Domain Door by Barbara Quint, Newsbreaks (July 3)
Barbara Quint examines impact of the ICANN decision to allow new top level domains, country and generic. It's not exactly open season since the application fee alone could be at least $100,000 and there will still be registrar responsibilities and costs. But it will likely mean an rush of new names as cities, companies and others stake out new domain country.
Of interest: "One problem the new domains will not have, according to Keenan, Koehler, and Cerf—Google will find them. Koehler thought that some other web search engines might have some problems, e.g., Yahoo!’s chain indexing system. However, Cerf considered Google should have no difficulty."
Bottom line: "Dr. Paul Twomey, president and CEO of ICANN, saluted the change: "The potential here is huge. It represents a whole new way for people to express themselves on the Net. It’s a massive increase in the ‘real estate’ of the internet." Some observers predict a land rush."
CIRA's 'whois' policy a stunning setback for privacy, Michael Geist, The Star (June 30)
At one moment CIRA was going to be the model for protecting the privacy of domain name holders, and in the next it allows full access of the information to law enforcement and trademark holders. Michael Geist sees this as a backwards step.
"The exception for trademark, copyright and patent interests undermines a crucial part of the whois policy, namely compliance with Canadian privacy law (the policy now arguably violates the law) and the appropriate balance between privacy and access.
For example, consider a Canadian who registers a dot-ca domain to be used as a whistleblower site about a company. The registrant may understandably wish to remain anonymous to the general public since disclosure of their personal information could lead to negative repercussions"
Internet overhaul wins approval, BBC News (June 26)
ICANN approved relaxing (some might say removing) rules for top-level domain names.
+ non-roman script
+ companies can have own top-level (the brand as the domain)
+ individuals may use their names if they can show a "business plan and technical capacity".
""The most likely new TLDs to be pushed into the Icann process are those that have been under development for some time now - the geo-TLDs such as .cym for Wales, .sco for Scotland, .ldn for London, .nyc for New York and so on," explained Marcus Eggensperger, of Lycos Webhosting."
But expect to see wars over .news, or .sport -( not to mention .sex )
This will be costly for some companies who will need to protect brand in every possible way.
Will start in 2009.
Is .Sex the New .Com? By RUSSELL GOLDMAN, ABC news (June 26)
Here comes chaos. Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is expected to allow for nearly anything as the top level generic domain name. These have been limited to .com, .edu and about 8 others.
"Trademarked names would be bought and owned by those companies, but more generic domains like .sex or .car would be auctioned, opening the likelihood of a bidding war."
The other change to allow non-Roman characters in an Internet address is more understandable, although the consequences would be like the "confusion of tongues" after Babel . "Currently, only the letters of the English-language alphabet can be used in a URL, but the new policy would allow native speakers of languages like Arabic, Chinese and Thai to create Web addresses in their own languages."
The free-for-all in the top level domain will make evaluating and locating sites more difficult for searchers who have relied on .org, .net, .edu, .gov, and even .com to mean something.
The article mentions that a company could apply for a distinct tld - .ebay, .abc - but why - when the company name is already in the company domain name?
Bell opens a large can of worms by Jack Kapica, Globe and Mail (May 21)
On the one hand Bell Sympatico is controlling use of bandwidth by downloaders (Bit Torrent and othes) and on the other hand opening its own download video store for Sympatico users. Is there a conflict here? This is an issue of "net neutrality".
"There are restraint-of-trade laws that are created to stop this kind of nonsense. And if those laws can't stop this kind of behaviour, there is an army of people out there who are pushing hard to make such practices illegal."
)
Net Neutrality Resource Centre, By: Dave Webb, ITWorld Canada (Apr 4)
"Recent traffic shaping efforts by Bell have brough the long-simmering issue of Net Neutrality to boil in Canada. Here's a collection of stories and sources on the topic"
The shame of dot CA IVOR TOSSELL, Globe and Mail (May 1)
There are now 1 million registered domains ending in the country domain .ca. Even so, new businesses and organizations in Canada tend to shun the domain, especially commercial endeavours which want .com, whereas those in the UK or France or many other countries are proud to use their country domain.
Quebec politician may seek domain name in vain By: Briony Smith, Computer World Canada (Apr 18)
"The Parti Quebecois's Daniel Turp starts a petition to get the province its own ".qc" for all French-Canadian Web sites, but CIRA says he may have overlooked an important rule in granting such addresses."
How to do it: "It is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that doles these out, and they are governed by a large set of strict rules from the ISO. One of these is the ISO 31-66-1, which lays out the two-letter country codes as dictated by who the United Nations deems an official country. "
Bell throttles its Internet competitors Michael Geist, The Star (Apr 1)
Clear analysis of Bell Sympatico's recent restrictions on controls on amount of bandwidth being used and its application to independent ISPs. There are several competition concerns and it appears that Bell is intent on "throttling" the independent, and possibly promoting own video downloads at a higher fee.
"These conflicts point to the need for action from Canada's regulators. Recent regulatory attention to the issue in the United States has paved the way for commitments to treat content equally. Canadians deserve – and should demand – nothing less."
Bell irks ISPs with new throttling policy MATT HARTLEY, Globe and Mail Update (Mar 25)
Internet is slowing down under pressure from peer-to-peer and torrent traffic, videos and VoiP. Bell and Rogers counter this with "shaping", supposedly to restrict the 5 to 10% of users using the bandwidth, but these cuts could be hurting third party ISPs.
"For more than a year, Bell and other Canadian ISPs have utilized “shaping” techniques, essentially slowing down certain kinds of Internet activity on their networks while giving priority to other data. Most of the traffic being shaped is peer-to-peer traffic, which is used to transmit large files, such as movie files.
Until recently, Bell did not shape or restrict the Internet traffic of third-party ISPs, which rent network access on the company's cables and infrastructure."
Publishers Try—Again—to Reach the Open Web: ACAP by Barbara Quint, Newsbreaks (Feb 14)
Search engines are slow to adopt the newly released Automated Content Access Protocol for displaying content while controlling access.
"Automated Content Access Protocol (ACAP, www.the-acap.org) allows publishers to make their content visible and distributable over the open web, while attaching access policies. Technically, applying ACAP involves either altering the standard robots.txt file or embedding content permissions into HTML content itself."
London Times is one of the participants. It shows an image at the bottom of its pages - ACAP Enabled
Others were MPS Technologies for its eBook platform, BookStore, Agence France-Presse, De Persgroep, Impresa, Independent News & Media PLC, John Wiley & Sons, Macmillan/Holtzbrinck, Media 24, Reed Elsevier, Sanoma Corp., The British Library, and Exalead.
But there are some difficulties to be addressed before the three big search engines will recognize and act on the protocol.
"But if success depends on the involvement of the Big Three search engines, ACAP has another technical challenge. All of the three majors and other leading search engines have begun using the new open source Sitemap protocol, an XML-based syntax to penetrate content encased in proprietary legacy systems."
ACAP needs publishers to adopt the protocol, but publishers may be slow if the big engines don't adapt their crawlers to interpret it, and of course the engines will be slow if publishers don't adopt.
Analyzing the Internet Collapse by John Borland, Technology Review (Feb 5)
"Multiple fiber cuts to undersea cables show the fragility of the Internet at its choke points."
Fragile yes - especially Europe to Egypt and the Middle East - but this article shows that outsourcing companies had some alternatives, there is a system for finding and repairing the breaks, and that new lines will be in place soon.
The reason for the breaks is unknown - anchors from boats were first thought to be the cause, but it is now reported there were no boats in the region.
Of interest: "The unexpected collapse in service forced Internet providers across the region to scramble for alternative connections, most using backup bandwidth sources under contract for just such an emergency. Many ISPs began switching traffic east instead of west. Data from India to Europe might thus first pass through East Asia, across the Pacific, through the United States, and across the Atlantic Ocean before reaching its destination. While slowing traffic, in some cases significantly, this at least allowed data to get through."
The Internet's Undersea World - an image from the Guardian that shows the lines of fibre-optic cables under the oceans used for Internet access. The accidental cutting of two cables near Alexandria by a boat anchor affected 85 million users in Asia from Egypt to India.
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Technology/Pix/pictures/2008/02/01/SeaCableHi.jpg
This map shows existing cables, planned and damaged ones.
Of interest: Asia has 501 million of the world's 1.3 billion users and numbers are growing by 88.2% per year. As Thomas L. Friedman could tell us - the world gets flatter by the minute.
More details on the effect of this on India and its Internet-dependent businesses in this article -- Cut undersea Internet cables slow India's connectivity By Mark Sappenfield, Christian Science Monitor (Feb 3) -- "Three vital undersea cables were cut last week, but India's IT sector coped well."
Will The European Union Decide IP Addresses Are Personal? Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land (Jan 23)
"The head of an EU group looking into search privacy issues said yesterday that Internet Protocol addresses assigned to computers should be treated as personal information. Below, more about that plus a look at some comments about how the search engines have been reported to the European Parliament to be dealing with privacy."
IP numbers are linked to computers and this generally points to a company. But individuals have IP numbers for their home or small office connection. There is a some traceability. What will search engines do if they aren't allow to log the IP number?
Google, "The Cloud" And The Future Of Computing Greg Sterling, Search Engine Land (Dec 17)
Picks out the main points from two major articles on the future of computing.
"In this corner, with a $214 billion market cap, is Google and "The Cloud" (and partners like IBM). In the other, weighing in at $327 billion, is Microsoft and the PC desktop."
Google Gets Ready to Rumble With Microsoft by STEVE LOHR and MIGUEL HELFT, New York Times (Dec 16)
Google and the Wisdom of Clouds by Stephen Baker. BusinessWeek
From the NY Times - "The growing confrontation between Google and Microsoft promises to be an epic business battle. It is likely to shape the prosperity and progress of both companies, and also inform how consumers and corporations work, shop, communicate and go about their digital lives."
Google and the Wisdom of Clouds by Stephen Baker, BusinessWeek Online (Dec 13)
The "cloud" is "Google's globe-spanning network of computers". How far can that network be leveraged to do more? Christophe Bisciglia, a senior software engineer, began a course at the University of Washington called Google 101 for training in the programming of vast networks. This led to a partnershipw with IBM "to plug universities around the world into Google-like computing clouds".
The concept
"As this concept spreads, it promises to expand Google's footprint in industry far beyond search, media, and advertising, leading the giant into scientific research and perhaps into new businesses. In the process Google could become, in a sense, the world's primary computer. "
Google's Cloud
"What is Google's cloud? It's a network made of hundreds of thousands, or by some estimates 1 million, cheap servers, each not much more powerful than the PCs we have in our homes. It stores staggering amounts of data, including numerous copies of the World Wide Web. This makes search faster, helping ferret out answers to billions of queries in a fraction of a second. Unlike many traditional supercomputers, Google's system never ages. When its individual pieces die, usually after about three years, engineers pluck them out and replace them with new, faster boxes. This means the cloud regenerates as it grows, almost like a living thing."
Yahoo, Amazon, and Microsoft are forming clouds as they open up their networks of computers to customers.
View of the Future
"What will research clouds look like? Tony Hey, vice-president for external research at Microsoft, says they'll function as huge virtual laboratories, with a new generation of librarians—some of them human—"curating" troves of data, opening them to researchers with the right credentials. Authorized users, he says, will build new tools, haul in data, and share it with far-flung colleagues. In these new labs, he predicts, "you may win the Nobel prize by analyzing data assembled by someone else." Mark Dean, head of IBM's research operation in Almaden, Calif., says that the mixture of business and science will lead, in a few short years, to networks of clouds that will tax our imagination. "Compared to this," he says, "the Web is tiny. We'll be laughing at how small the Web is." And yet, if this "tiny" Web was big enough to spawn Google and its empire, there's no telling what opportunities could open up in the giant clouds."
Canadian Tech History: Internet Pioneers, Jennifer Wilson, PCWorld.ca (Dec 13)
Canada has had some Internet pioneers too. Here's a rundown. Archie inventors long ago in Montreal; some companies - Nortel, Open Text; of course Canarie for connections; some game makers
Whois may be scrapped to break deadlock ANICK JESDANUN, Globe and Mail (Oct 29)
Whois is the 411 of the internet, containing the registrations for domains and some personal contact information.
"Law-enforcement officials and Internet service providers use it to fight fraud and hacking. Lawyers depend on it to chase trademark and copyright violators. Journalists rely on it to reach Web site owners. And spammers mine it to send junk mailings for Web site hosting and other services."
But there are privacy concerns and the parties can seem to agree on a way to resolve the problems.
"The disagreements are over "who gets to see it (and) how can we protect people's privacy while at the same time making accurate information available to those who need it," said Vint Cerf, ICANN's chairman."
U.S. ISP blocking BitTorrent users by PETER SVENSSON, Associated Press via Globe and Mail (OCt 19)
Comcast Corp in the US has been found to interfere with its subcribers transferring and sharing of large files. It mainly affects those using BitTorrent, eDonkey and Gnutella file-sharing networks and mostly dealing with very large transfer files. This is part of a greater debate on "net neutrality". Should ISPs be allowed to slow or stop this traffic? What are the larger implications? How will this affect companies that depend on peer-to-peer technology - music, movies, video conferencing?
"The practice of managing the flow of Internet data is known as "traffic shaping," and is already widespread among Internet service providers. It usually involves slowing down some forms of traffic, like file-sharing, while giving others priority. Other ISPs have attempted to block some file-sharing application by so-called "port filtering," but that method is easily circumvented and now largely ineffective."
User agreements and contracts with ISPs are likely to become a good deal more complicated.
"It's their network [Comcast] and they can do what they want," said Watson [Paul "Tony" Watson, a network security engineer at Google Inc.] . "My concern is the precedent. In the past, when people got an ISP connection, they were getting a connection to the Internet. The only determination was price and bandwidth. Now they're going to have to make much more complicated decisions such as price, bandwidth, and what services I can get over the Internet."
Also Comcast goes for the money, not service by Jack Kapica, Cyberia (Oct 19)
Web domains get language lesson Matt Hartley, Globe and Mail (Oct 15)
"Today, the U.S. organization in charge of overseeing and regulating domain names online [ICANN], is to launch 11 test sites in languages that don't use the Roman alphabet – the 26 letters used in English and most other European languages."
The non-Roman languages to be tested will be Arabic, Persian, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Russian, Hindi, Greek, Korean, Yiddish, Japanese and Tamil – "using the native script in both the body and suffix of the web addresses".
CIRA registry for Canada will "support IDN [international domain names] through the use of Latin script with the addition of accented French letters" but not the non-Roman scripts at this time.
The Soviet Union lives!
JAMES KILNER, Reuters via Globe and Mail (Sept 19)
What happens to a country domain name after the nation falls apart? Users of the .su domain for the Soviet Union are fighting to keep it.
"Russian Internet enthusiasts are locked in a tussle with an international body over a relic of the Soviet past — the .su domain name assigned to the country just before the Soviet Union collapsed."
A web that can read itself may be in our future IVOR TOSSELL, Globe and Mail (Sept 7)
Sees the future of the web in the new Freebase.com - a Wikipedia-like user created encyclopedia that has been designed with metadata in mind - fields for information about the entry. Navigation is enhanced through the metadata as well as access by search engines.
"You can see some by visiting Freebase.com. One such outside application on display asks you to plug in an architect's name, and then proceeds to pinpoint each of that architect's buildings or designs on a world map. It can do this because each architect's Freebase entry comes with a field in which a list of their creations can be entered. In turn, the Freebase entry for each of these buildings has a field for its address. The application then plugs the address into Google Maps, and voilà, a map of every building Frank Lloyd Wright ever built, automatically generated by the information in Freebase. Enter a new building into Freebase, and the new location pops up on the map."
The beginning of the semantic web? The use of schemas and metadata is remarkable.
From Freebase FAQ: "Finally, while information in Freebase appears to be structured much like a conventional database, it’s actually built on a system that allows any user to contribute to the schemas—or frameworks—that hold the data. This wiki-like approach to structuring information lets many people organize the database without formal, centralized planning. And it lets subject experts who don’t have database expertise find one another, and then build and maintain the data in their domain of interest."
Creative Commons expands in Canada and beyond By: Sarah Lysecki, ComputerWorld Canada (20 Jul 2007)
"The explosion in popularity of social networking and broadcast sites has intensified the struggle between the broadcast versus creative generations more than ever before. "
ICANN Moving to Adopt Internationalized Domain Names by Wallace Koehler, Newsbreaks (Jul 9)
"ICANN is reconsidering what some have called “non-English” generic top-level domain names (gTLDs) or domain suffixes. Instead of using Roman (not English) characters after the final “dot” in an Internet address, other characters could find their way to the right of that dot.' The proper name for these is term: Internationalized Domain Name (IDN).
Debate Over Confidentiality of Web Site Registration Information Continues by Lynne A. Marek, IP Law & Business (May 22, 2007)
Changes to domain registration are being considered by which the web site owner will be able to keep much information about themselves private, and possibly be protected from spam and harassment.
"Under the proposed system, Web site owners would be able to keep confidential most of their contact information, except for their name, state and country. When they register their domain name, they would list a point of contact for people who might want to reach them, replacing a current system that displays an owner's name, e-mail address, home address and other information in the so-called Whois database, an online directory of domain name owners."
Untangling the World Wide Web, CHRISTOPHER DREHER, Globe and Mail (May 18)
Security on the Internet has become so bad that some are working on the design of a new Web. It's not just security that is driving this. There are also the demands of mobile connectivity, and video everywhere.
"Which is why a growing number of programmers and network specialists – increasingly skeptical about jury-rigging solutions for today's sprawling, technically discordant Internet – are asking a seemingly heretical question: Should we throw out the Web and start over?Last month, a group of computer scientists at Stanford University in California formally launched a research program called the Clean Slate Design for the Internet Project. Their goal is to reimagine the Web's basic architecture."
Researchers explore scrapping Internet by ANICK JESDANUN, AP via Globe and Mail (Apr 13)
"Researchers say the time has come to rethink the Internet's underlying architecture are exploring tearing the Internet apart and rebuilding it to better address security and mobility."
Associated Press
ICANN rejects '.xxx' domain plan by Matt Moore, AP via Globe and Mail (Mar 30)
For the third time, ICANN says NO to .xxx - you'd think people would give up on this.
"Nearly all of the board members who voted against approving the domain said they were concerned about the possibility that ICANN could find itself in the content regulation business if the domain name was approved. Others criticized that, saying ICANN should not block new domains over fears like that, noting that local, state and national laws could be used to decide what is pornographic and what is not."
ICANN signs off on .asia domain, AP via Globe and Mail (Dec 8) -- "The Internet's key oversight agency said Thursday it has signed a contract to create Internet addresses ending in “.asia” as a way to unify businesses and other users in the Asia-Pacific region."
Fear of a 2-tiered Internet by Michael Geist, Toronto Star (Nov 6) -- Videotron president Robert Depatie argues for a two-tier Internet system in Canada where "a new Internet transmission tariff that would require content creators of all sizes to fork over millions of dollars for the right to transmit content to ISP subscribers."
Net neutrality is at risk and there have been several instances worldwide where delivery or access was blocked by the ISP. Canadian have to pay attention too, especially since there is so little competition in Internet services.
"In light of the current environment, a recent Canadian telecommunications policy review directly addressed the network neutrality issue. The Telecommunications Reform Panel Report, a massive 400-page government-commissioned study that detailed a new vision to reshape Canadian telecommunications regulation recommended the establishment of a new legislative provision to "confirm the right of Canadian consumers to access publicly available Internet applications and content of their choice by means of all public telecommunications networks providing access to the Internet.""
We Own the Internet: Net Neutrality for the Disengaged by Amy Gahran, Poynter Online (Oct 3) Net neutrality is an issue that could creep up on us and then one day we'll wake and one or two companies will own the Internet and we'll be paying the fees. Gahran has found this very amusing spoof about the position of the telecommunication companies.
"If you haven't yet managed to start caring about net neutrality, check out this hilarious advocacy site: We Own the Internet. It features several great bits of Flash video -- enthusiastic speeches by "Richard P. Merryweather, president & CEO of CT&TCOM American Communications.""
Toronto WiFi network goes live by
CATHERINE MCLEAN, Globe and Mail (Sep 7)
"Toronto Hydro Telecom yesterday lit up what is expected to become one of the largest wireless Internet networks in North America, and told Torontonians how much they will have to pay for the service."
Phase 1 which began yesterday runs from Spadina east to Church, and from Front north to Queen. Expansion north to Bloor is scheduled in 2 phases, October and November, as well as east and west between Queen and Front in December.
Toronto Star has much more - Wireless Net Goes Live by Tyler Hamilton (Sep 7)
Net neutrality: bring it on, By Molly Wood, CNet (June 30) -- It's time for us to be concerned about telco and cable companies creating a tiered internet where they make the decisions on the content they will deliver. Molly Wood has some chilling reports on lies and misrepresentations by these companies in their efforts to prevent "net neutrality".
Of interest: "I now believe that we must have legislation to protect the open and equal nature of the Internet, or, sadly, the Internet must be regulated as a utility, just like the highways and the water pipes--and we must have one or the other right away. Why? Because I really believe that the telcos and the cable companies pushing for a tiered Internet will cheerfully turn the Internet into a lopsided disaster of have and have-not traffic that just happens to be filled with perfectly accessible content created by those very same telcos and cable companies. Basically, there's a pile of money on the table, and these folks are proving every day that they cannot be trusted."
House rejects Net neutrality rules by Declan McCullagh, CNet (June 8)
The U.S. House of Representatives rejected " a Democrat-backed amendment that would have enshrined stiff Net neutrality regulations into federal law and prevented broadband providers from treating some Internet sites differently from others."
Guess the telecom lobby won to be free of restrictions - now they can charge to deliver content or block sites.
Craigslist is being blocked by Cox Interactive - is this a net neutrality issue? By Tom Foremski for Silicon Valley Watcher (June 6)
People using the COX cable network can't see Craigslist, the classified ads centre. Might this be because COX has its own classifieds? Is this indicative of what happens when the cable company or telco controls access to services?
Web inventor warns of 'dark' net, By Jonathan Fildes, BBC News (May 23)
"The web should remain neutral and resist attempts to fragment it into different services, web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee has said."
The telecom companies in the US want to charge content providers money to give delivery of their content priority. The content mainly has to do with video, and specifically TV shows. But a two-tier system would have consequences - "A two-tier system would mean that people would only have full access to those portions of the internet that they paid for and that some companies would be given priority over others"
Internet agency rejects '.xxx' domain name by ANICK JESDANUN, Associated Press via Globe and Mail (May 11) -- As in real life, so on the Internet.
"Faced with opposition from conservative groups and some pornography websites, the Internet's key oversight agency voted Wednesday to reject a proposal to create a red-light district on the Internet.
The decision from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers reverses its preliminary approval last June to create a ".xxx" domain name for voluntary use by the adult entertainment industry."
But there will be a new domain for .tel where people can keep their contact information. Why?
"Meanwhile, ICANN approved the creation of a domain name designed to help people manage their contact information on-line.
As envisioned, Internet users could buy a ".tel" name and set up a website with their latest digits — home, cell and work phone numbers, home and work e-mail addresses, instant messaging handles and perhaps even a MySpace profile."
The ".tel" domain could appear in use as early as this year.
Web services: Microsoft's Path --
Vice-President Blake Irving talks about the movement from the desktop to the Net and how that changes Redmond's thinking -- Business Week (April 17)
"Microsoft (MSFT) is in the early stages of rolling out technology on top of which companies and individuals can more easily build their own Web services. Of course, Microsoft gets a piece of the business and puts itself at the core of the new Web world."
There are more details about the WiFi (wireless fidelity) network that Toronto Hydro Telecom will create in Toronto.
It will be introduced to the financial district in downtown Toronto in June running Front to Queen and Spadina and Church, which, one hopes, includes the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. By the end of the year it is to be expanded north to Bloor and east to Jarvis.
"By blanketing the city with radio signals, reaching as high as 40 storeys, transmitting and receiving units on utility poles will carry data to and from Toronto Hydro headquarters via fibre-optic lines already laid beneath city streets."
Access will be free for the first six months and a yet-to-be-determined price after that.
Wireless Net access to blanket core by Jeffrey Hawkins, Globe and Mail (Mar 8)
Also see Downtown T.O. goes wireless by Tyler Hamilton, The Star (Mar 8)
Ultimately the Toronto WiFi project will be the largest in North America, with the entire city covered in 3 years. Pricing is to be competitive with Bell, Rogers, and Telus.
The Star has additional information -- How WiFi Technology Works [PDF]
Also some consideration of the health risks - Cool, but how safe is it? "Toronto Hydro plans blanket wireless network for city core Some urge caution in the face of potential health risks" by Isabel Teotonio (Mar 8)
Toronto to get Wi-Fi blanket by Jack Kapica, Globe and Mail (Mar 6) -- Toronto Hydro may bring Wi-Fi to Toronto by placing place wireless transmitters and receivers in the lamp posts. Some portion of the system might be available by the fall.
"The idea of wireless broadband is to cover whole cities with the same kind of wireless technology found in many homes and small businesses. Toronto Hydro plans to link it to its "smart meter" plan, under which it could monitor electricity usage in homes and businesses over the Internet. Toronto Hydro could reach each smart meter with a laptop or any other computer."
The Search Continues By Brad Grimes, Red Orbit (Jan 23) - Interview with Vinton Cerf, often called a Father of the Internet for his early involvement with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. He's now Google's Chief Internet Evangelist.
To the question "what Internet developments have most impressed you over the years?"
"Cerf: Certainly Google itself has made a huge impression; VOIP similarly. The massive sharing of information among individuals who offer their expertise and knowledge has been stunning in its scope. Spam and the secondary domain name market have impressed me, though not always positively. In fact, the commercialization of much of the Internet has had unexpected side effects. However, I continue to believe that the Internet would not have spread so quickly without good business models to drive and fund the expansion. "
The Internet socket rocket By Matt Lake, CNET Reviews, January 9, 2006 -- Article has tips on how to hook into the Internet from nearly anywhere. Of course there is Wi-Fi, but the latest is power-line carrier (PLC) networking made possible by iBridge from Telkonet. Hotels in the United States and Europe (eg Best Westerns in the UK and Sandman in Canada) are putting in Telkonet backbones. Guests "plug in an iBridge to any power socket (next to the bed, in the bathroom, even in the corridor or the elevator), then plug an Ethernet cable between it and your notebook".
Future of Internet TV Is Coming Into View, By Leslie Walker, Washington Post (Jan 12) -Judging from developments in Internet protocol TV (IPTV) at the Consumer Electronics Show, Walker says, "The unmistakable theme was how video is moving over the Internet onto home televisions and mobile devices in ways that will finally allow consumers to talk back to their TVs, much as they have been interacting with Web sites for the past decade".
Internet Management: Prevalence of False Contact Information for Registered Domain , U.S. Government Accountability Office (Nov 2005)
"In total, GAO estimates that 3.89 million domain names (8.65 percent) had at least one instance of patently false or incomplete data in the required Whois contact information fields."
Of the 45 error reports that GAO submitted to ICANN, only 11 domains corrected their information.
Commerce and ICANN is taking measures to require "registrars to investigate and correct any reported inaccuracies in the contact information".
Source: Mentioned in TVC Alert (Dec 8)
New Net address system does away with .com By: James Niccolai
IDG News Serivce (Paris Bureau) (29 Nov 2005)
Will it work? Will the world drop the use of .com and other tlds for Unified Root's DNS system? Is this partly a shot at the U.S.-centric ICANN?
"A Dutch company [UnifiedRoot S & M BV] has launched a new Internet addressing service that does away with the most common top-level domains (TLDs), such as .com and .edu, and allows organizations and individuals to register Internet addresses that end with the name of their business, or virtually any other word they choose. "
Canadians carve out their own domain by Garth Buchholz, Globe and Mail (Nov 17)
Some figures on domains:
- .com worldwide 45 million
- .com in Canada 1.3 million
- .ca - 603,000 and growing
"A study conducted for CIRA by The Strategic Counsel in 2001 reported that, if given a choice, 71 per cent of Canadian would prefer to visit a dot-ca site. When all respondents were asked if they would most prefer to register a dot-ca domain name or a dot-com domain name, they were five times more likely to say they prefer dot-ca than to say they prefer dot-com (51 per cent against 10 per cent)."
US wins right to keep internet control after warning of censorship risks , by Rupert Cornwall, The Independent (UK) (NOv 17)
"The US government has won its battle to retain control of the internet, under a compromise worked out ahead of this week's United Nations summit on the information society, which leaves the current addressing and traffic direction system intact."
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), which reports to the US Department for Commerce, keeps its job of day-to-day management. Earlier this ICANN delayed approval of the .xxx domain for pornographic material under pressure from the US Government.
Also - US Retains Internet Control "The fight was over before the opening bell as delegates at the WSIS summit throw in the towel on Internet politics." Red Herring (Nov 16)
Triple-X: a brief history of a dirty domain By Molly Wood, CNet - brief and troubled history. The Bush adminstration opposes approval by ICANN for the .xxx top-level domain as the designation for "adult" content, somewhat on the ground that it would make it too easy for kids to find the "red-light district". But industry and government have gone back and forth on this matter - does .xxx make it easier to find the material or easier to block it out or both? And would the suppliers and publishers even use the .xxx domain?
Sympatico to raise on-line speeds by Jack Kapica, Globe Technology (Aug 4) - Subscribers to Sympatico's Ultra service in Ontario and Quebec will see increased line speeds.
"Under the plan, residential speeds will increase from 4 megabits per second to 5 mbps, and business or dedicated services will go from 4 mbps to 6 mbps."
Tiny Ontario town gets big Web investment By: Stefan Dubowski, IT World Canada (19 Jul 2005)
"“Project Chapleau” will see Bell expand its fibre-optic network in Chapleau, Ont., a town 320 kilometres northeast of Sault Ste. Marie with 3,000 inhabitants. Besides the Bell fibre enhancement, Nortel will install a wireless mesh network in the municipality for local, mobile hooks into the fibre backbone. Thus the firm’s aim is to bring high-speed Web connectivity to the area, a first for Chapleau."
"As well as the new network, project stakeholders will give Chapleau citizens access to video conferencing and other collaborative technologies. Over a period of time the venture will scrutinize the ways in which people use the new applications, to investigate the effects of these novel programs on government services, medicine, education and economic development."
Rogers-Yahoo integrates safety suite GlobeTechnology (Jul 13)
"Rogers Cable and Yahoo have announced the launch of the first integrated suite of safety and security tools available to Rogers Yahoo Hi-Speed Internet customers at no additional charge. Rogers Yahoo Hi-Speed Internet is designed to provide a security software suite including PC Anti-Virus to all of its customers."
Tuned in and turned on to all the sounds from the sky "With 150 channels, there's always something good playing, says SHAWNA RICHER", Globe Technology (June 17) What's so wonderful about paid satellite radio.
Canadians welcome pay-radio decision "'It's commercial-free . . . To me, this will take off like wildfire'" By Richard Bloom, Globe Technology.
Brave New Waves, The nuts and bolts of satellite radio -- "With satellite radio, currently offered in the United States by XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio, earth-based ground-stations beam the radio signal to several satellites in orbit above the earth, which then beam it back down to XM or Sirius digital radio receivers, terminals and portable handsets."
The Net gets a virtual red-light district by Anick Jesdanun, AP via Globe and Mail (June 13)
ICANN approved xxx as the top-level domain for porn sites and contracted with ICM Registry in Florida to handle the registrations.
"As envisioned, ICM would charge $60 (U.S.) for each of up to 500,000 names it expects to register, $10 of which would go to a nonprofit organization that would, among other things, educate parents about safe surfing for children.
The nonprofit, run by representatives of adult Web sites, free-speech, privacy and child-advocacy concerns, would determine registration eligibility."
Critics wonder if it will do any good. Porn sites will likely also operate under the .com domain. The "adult entertainment" industry isn't interested in being segregated.
Rural, remote high-speed Internet back on front burner - by Simon Tuck, Globe and Mail (April 4) -- Maybe Ottawa will take up providing high-speed Internet access to remote parts of Canada as part of its review of the telecommunications sectora and in an effort to improve lagging productivity.
"The apparent comeback of high-speed access -- or broadband -- for remote communities as an important issue follows more than three years in the political wilderness. Compared by proponents to the expansion of roads and rail lines in previous generations, high-speed Internet was first espoused as a federal priority about five years ago by former industry minister John Manley."
Also -- "If Ottawa decides to resume its commitment to high-speed services to remote communities, the primary question would then be how to do the job, industry officials said. Internet services can be delivered through telephone or cable lines, wireless technology, satellites, or some combination."
ICANN Approves .eu Domain Space By Jim Wagner, Internet News (Mar 25) -- European Union is one step closer to its own country code top-level domain. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved the .eu domain. It will take another few months before we'll see it in use. Some have wondered if it will cause confusion - when should you use a .uk or .fr, and when .eu?
"Karl Auerbach, a former ICANN board of director, welcomed the latest TLD entry in a blog post earlier this week but wondered if states in the United States or Canada, which retain a great deal of self-sovereignty, might apply for their own ccTLD. Alternatively, he mused, would EU member nations like France, the United Kingdom or German have to relinquish their own ccTLDs?"
Revise rules to foster competition, protect privacy by Michael Geist, The Star (Mar 21) [Registration required] -- Gives four reasons for the government to regulate the ISP's carrier function: limited competition in broadband; possibility of an ISP blocking competing sites or services; need to control spam and spyware across all networks; and protection of privacy.
"Fourth, the federal government's lawful access plans, which will reportedly require ISPs to implement new interception capabilities and to hand over subscriber information without a court order, places Canadian ISPs into the position of being critical guardians of sensitive personal information. While ISPs will no doubt take their obligations seriously, some groups fear that privacy and civil rights will take a back seat to the cost concerns associated with the government's proposals. If Ottawa's plans go ahead, regulatory oversight might provide an additional layer of protection against privacy breaches and data misuse."
Who's in Charge of the Internet? by Chris Sherman, SearchDay (Mar 14) - points to an article on Internet governance -- A Concise Guide to the Major Internet Bodies. There are many to oversee domains, protocols, standards and more.
Singapore tops survey of tech readiness by Alexander Higgins, AP via Globe and Mail (Mar 10) -- The United States and Canada have dropped in the ratings for " best use of information and communications technology". Singapore leads in info tech capabilities according to World Economic Forum report.
Top 10 were: Singapore, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, United States, Sweden, Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland and Canada.
Dot-ca domain reaches milestone Globe and Mail (Mar 8) More than 500,000 doc.ca domains according to figures released by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA). There are about 275 new registrations a day. However, Canadian dot com registrations rose to 1,144,801 in 2004.
Internet access spending holding steady By CATHERINE MCLEAN, Globe and Mail (Feb 28)
Demand is starting to slow for residential high speed Internet access. New report finds that -- "Canadians' spending on Internet and data access will rise 5 per cent this year to $7.3-billion as higher demand from businesses and consumers counters falling wholesale revenue".
Google gets rights as Web site registrar by Stefanie Olsen, CNet (Feb 1) This story is turning up everywhere - must be significant.
"The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a nonprofit based in Los Angeles, has deemed Google a domain name registrar, according to the search company. However, it has no plans to sell Web addressees for now."
Why is Google doing this? "Rival registrars that make a business of selling domain names are speculating that the credentials will give Google a more powerful seat at the table with ICANN, an Internet government body, or a potential business opportunity down the road." And it can control its own domains.
Rita Vine picked up an interesting analysis of companies and trends in the search industry done by Safa Rashtchy written for Silk Road Weekly (Jan 3). he foresees very good growth in the industry in 2005 - perhaps returns of 20% largely due to consumers spending and using more. He recommends 7 core companies among which are Yahoo and eBay but not Google.
Generally -- "Overall, we expect Yahoo will move more toward content aggregation and even content creation, while MSN will position itself to be more of an application for higher end users, and Google will focus on search, speed, and delivery."
See Rita's summary at An Internet Analyst's Top Trends for 2005
ICANN gives preliminary OK to two domains By ANICK JESDANUN Associated Press via Globe and Mail (Dec 14) - Two new domain - .mobi and .jobs.
"Sponsored by leading mobile phone and technology companies, including Nokia Corp., Microsoft Corp. and T-Mobile, the ".mobi" domain would set apart websites and other services that are specially designed to work around the limitations of cellphones, including their smaller screen size and data capacity."
"The ".jobs" suffix, meanwhile, would go to members of the human resources community."
Don't Judge a College by Its Internet Address "Ending in .edu does not necessarily mean an institution is accredited" by Dan Carnevale, Chronicle of Higher Education (Nov 26) -- "Although ".edu" Internet addresses are supposed to be reserved for colleges with accreditation from agencies approved by the U.S. Department of Education, hundreds of institutions that do not meet that requirement have the coveted Web addresses."
New Web domain names get preliminary nod By ANICK JESDANUN Associated Press via Globe and Mail (October 28) -- ICANN expects to authorize two new top-level domains - .post and .travel next year. Post has been requested by Switzerland for post offices. ICANN is also considering "eight other proposals including ".asia," ".jobs," and ".xxx." (xxx for adult).
Farewell, Web 1.0! We Hardly Knew Ye "Web 1.0 was making the Net for people. Web 2.0 is making the Internet better for computers" By Steven Levy
Newsweek (Oct 18) Changes are expected for the Web - it may become even more interconnected. "In Web 2.0, news items, blog entries, financial results and images are no longer locked on virtual pages, but easily detachable." The leading example of this today is the flurry of RSS feeds lifting and moving content with abandon.
Web Addresses Extending Their Global Domain by Leslie Walker BizReport (June 17) Several changes in domain names mark the growing internationalization of Internet addresses long dominated by US businesses.
"Looming on the horizon is a newer set of Web addresses ending in such suffixes as ".jobs" and ".asia." Perhaps more intriguing , a move is afoot to merge Internet addresses with phone numbers." Domain names in Japanese and Chinese are being sold. European countries tend to use their country code such as de for Germany - now the second largest top level domain name (after .com).
There is a danger that the naming will become too fractured. And server software must be quick to adapt to the new suffixes in order to recognize the web sites and email addresses.
'Zombie' PCs caused Web outage, Akamai says By Robert Lemos and Jim Hu CNEt (June 16, 2004) On Tuesday an attack through Akamai brought down servers for Google, Yahoo and other major Web sites for a couple of hours. It looks like the cause was a bot network - where personal computers were taken over by bot software - trojan horse program - and made into zombies as part of a large distributed denial of service attack. Scary.
Executives see swell of Net offerings on horizon USA Today (June 2) This articles has excerpts from a panel discussion of industry leaders about what's next on the Internet hosted by USA Today. A new Internet boom is expected. John Chambers of CISCO says that new Internet applications over the next 10 years will "change every aspect of our lives". For web searching the current trends are to localization (for e-commerce mainly) and social networking.
The .pro top level domain is open now to doctors, lawyers, and accountants in the United States through RegistryPro.
What do doctors, lawyers, and CPAs have in common? The ability to become a .PRO! eMedia Wire (May 28)
Father of the Web blasts .mobi domain By: Jørgen Sundgot, Infosyncworld (May 24) "Tim Berners-Lee has issued a statement against mobile-specific domain names, at the same time lamenting the current "land grab" methodology of creating domain names in the first place."
OneSource to be acquired for $103.5M Boston Business Journal (APril 30) - infoUSA, known for its directory services to businesses, will buy OneSource Information Systems Inc, an aggregator of business content including company and industry profiles.
United Nations ponders Net's future by Declan McCullagh. CNet via Globe and Mail (March 29) A United Nations summit may be the prelude for the United Nations getting involved with regulation of the Internet. Developing nations complain about the digital divide and would like a greater say. Most control bodies such as ICANN are based in the United States.
Next Net moves forward By Marguerite Reardon CNET News.com (March 22) - "The next generation of the Internet, known as Internet Protocol version 6, took another big step toward commercialization, as its second phase of testing in North America wrapped up last week. "
New domains '.mobi' and '.xxx' under consideration AP via CNN (March 20) "Ten organizations submitted applications to sponsor new Internet domains, including ".mobi" for mobile services and ".xxx" for adult content, the group that oversees key aspects of the global network said Friday." Other applications being considered are: ".asia," ".cat," ".jobs," ".mail," ".post," ".tel" and ".travel." I presume cat is for catalog and not for people who love felines.
F.C.C. Begins Rewriting Rules on Delivery of the Internet By STEPHEN LABATON. New York Times (Feb 13) -- "Homes could start being connected to the Internet through electrical outlets, and consumers and business may find it easier to make cheaper telephone calls online under new rules that the Federal Communications Commission began preparing on Thursday."
