Fun with top-level domains

The fact that I used to work in the high-tech industry is shown by my occasional posting of topics like this: There are several proposals for new "top-level domains" -- those letters that appear in every internet address (both web and email) like .com, .org and the like. You probably know that there are a whole raft of country-level domains like .uk for the UK and .tv for Tuvalu. There are also a few special ones like .biz and .aero, which I have never actually seen used. So I'm not sure why they think these new proposed domains like .asia and .tel will be popular.

However, there are two proposals which are bound to attract lots of website developers and sponsors. The first is .cat which I think is intended to be for "catalogs." But I have the feeling that millions of pet owners will rush to register their pet's names, so I might have a website called milagrito.cat. This is on the model of the .tv domain, which is supposed to be for the flyspeck nation of Tuvalu but is mostly used by television producers, with proceeds from domain name sales going to the tiny country.

So here's an idea: sell .cat domains to anybody who wants them, but donate part of the proceeds to the SPCA.

The other big winner is bound to be .xxx which an entrepreneur is suggesting would be great for sex websites. But some are warning that right-wingers would immediately insist that all sex-related sites be forced to move to an xxx domain, making it easier to monitor, restrict and censor them.