The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a well-known Internet governing body, just approved a request by VeriSign to start up a 12-month trial of a Wait Listing Service for domain names. VeriSign should be willing to wait for Department of Commerce approval; after all, it's been working with ICANN for the past two years to hammer out all the details of the service.
A Rose by Any Other Name...
What's in a name? If it's a domain name, that electronic placeholder contains a lot more than just a string of letters. For many companies, it's the pointer to everything they want the world to know about them, their products and/or services, and even their whole attitude toward doing business. The name itself, chosen carefully, can become key to corporate identity. Oh sure, Microsoft and IBM existed long before the Internet came along, so they had ready-made identities to transfer online -- but what about Amazon, a word that stood only for a rain forest or a woman warrior before computers learned to talk to each other? Or eBay, a word which didn't even mean anything until someone thought of auctioning Pez dispensers -- Pez dispensers! -- to other Pez enthusiasts online. Whether profit-making company, struggling newcomer, government agency, not-for-profit organization, or private individual, anyone hoping to use the wild and wonderful Internet to convey information, entertainment, or what have you to other Netizens must have a domain name to mark their electronic real estate.
Normally this registration is easily accomplished by paying the appropriate fees to the appropriate domain name registrar (dozens, all competing for your business!), along with the desired name. Ah, but the fee does not grant you ownership of the name; you're not actually buying it, but leasing it, usually for a one-year period. If you still want that name, you have to pay again, before your name expires. And if someone else wants your name and manages to register it after you let it expire but before you realize what has happened...
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