The brand new .zip TLD goes to trigger some issues – Terence Eden’s Weblog
Many years ago, Google applied for the .zip Top Level Domain. ICANN, in its infinite wisdom, granted it. And now, I think, bad things are going to happen.
You see computers try to be helpful. They see you wrote “visit example.com” and autolink the thing which looks like a domain name. That’s handy – especially as most people don’t have the time or skill to write HTML.
So what happens when things which are not domain names look like they are domain names? I’ve been worrying about this for a few years:
Grrr… Because .zip is a valid TLD, it’s impossible to know whether http://t.co/webB2l1Y9w ought to be a URL or a filename.
— Terence Eden (@edent) February 17, 2015
Proper now there may be an previous tweet, weblog, electronic mail, or instantaneous message from an authority determine which factors to a non-existent .zip area.
Is that area in the stores? Effectively, let’s look at Google’s Domain Availability site
(No, I do not know the place the lacking “T” is both.)
Yup! OK, premium domains like pictures.zip seem like about £1,000 – which ought to postpone some scammers. However the value for non-premium .zips is between £10-£30.
Look, I doubt a former president ever Tweeted “Hey, anybody understand how I extract information from one thing known as blah.zip on a Mac?” however I am going to wager you that one thing, someplace, goes to be abused with this new TLD.
I really feel like a curmudgeonly previous fart. Do not we now have sufficient TLDs? What is the restrict? There are only a few significant controls on who can register all however essentially the most retrictive TLDs ( you, .int!) So at what level will we simply quit and identical everybody can have their very own High Stage?
Anyway, have enjoyable figuring out if the hyperlink you see was ever meant to hyperlink to an internet site!