Newsbytes seems to think it’s debunking some of the claims made in recent stories about New.Net’s pseudo TLDs. In case you haven’t heard, New.Net is using a browser plug-in to make it appear as if it is offering new TLDs, so I could register carnell.shop, for example. In reality the domain name is really carnell.new.net, but the browser plug-in makes carnell.shop resolve to carnell.new.net.
Anyway, I thought the really interesting news was that Earthlink, Excite at Home and other large ISPs have reached agreements with New.Net to modify their DNS servers so that users of those ISPs don’t need the browser plug-in.
That’s always been the difficulty in getting alternatives to ICANN off the ground — what’s the point of registering whatever.web with AlterNic or whatever when every ISP out there is pointing to ICANN’s root servers. Hopefully New.Net can reach critical mass to really be adopted pretty much universally or else get enough of a foothold to force ICANN to clean up its act.