Consumers Think Limitless Domains Will Muddy Internet Waters

Almost two thirds of consumers believe that the opening of the internet's addressing system to a limitless number of domain names will clog the internet with pointless domain names, according to a survey.

French domain registrar Gandi.net asked 1,000 consumers about ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)'s plan to lift restrictions on generic top level domains (gTLDs). It plans to allow almost any term to form a domain.

The Gandi survey found that 65% of the people it interviewed thought the move would create a jumble of pointless domain names, while 57% thought it would be confusing. It found that 46% of those people thought it would make the internet harder to navigate, while 41% thought it would send it out of control.

The 100 UK businesses surveyed were more positive about the move, with 75% welcoming the move.

The study found that consumers had concerns about the trustworthiness of sites located at new domains. Many more found long-established domains such as .uk or .com more worthy of their trust than recent additions such as .biz or proposed domains such as .eco.

Consumers were not even hugely enthusiastic about the prospect of more personalised domains. Just 15% think that a domain ending in .theirprofession, for example, would be appealing. The report outlined the kind of confusions that the change could create.

"Consumers will be unable to distinguish which is the valid website. Do they visit microsoft.com/sales or sales.microsoft? If they are searching for the London Symphony Orchestra online, do they choose lso.com, lso.music or lso.london?" it said.