Column 2

Domainnames

It’s been a while since I wrote my last column, never imagined I could wait so long, I just never felt up to it. Don’t know why, I guess I’ve just been working to much and paying too little attention to other stuff (like my page). You probably have noticed I’ve got my own brand new domainname http://www.sikkema.net. I wanted to have something with damiEn, but all those domains were already gone. It’s very hard these days to try and get the right domainname, there’s a commercial war going on with these domainnames. Sometimes it’s even frustrating. Like damiEn.com, it’s already taken by "The Word Bank" that sells these domainnames for big sums of money. Or damiEn.net, it’s taken by some school but there’s nothing on it. These domains just hang in cyberspace now and nothing can be done, there’s even a possibility that there will never be anything worthwhile on both domainnames. With damiEn.org it's a different story, some HIV clinic is on this page (kind of a shock for me that my name is related to this, but well ... but nevermind that). This is just an example about my domainname, but imagine when some company has the same problem. They'll have three choices : buy the domain for lots of money, change their companyname or improvise another domainname. Mostly the last option is the best one, but not the most satisfying one. Like that movie "The Matrix", some guy was smart enough to register matrix.com. So the moviecompany had to improvise and came up with whatisthematrix.com. Though luck for the one who registered matrix.com because now there is this domain that’s been paid for and nobody wants it (also hanging in cyberspace now). But sometimes it can also go the other way. Like here in Holland there is a company called "Droste", it’s a large well known company that makes all kinds of chocolates. If you ask somebody in Holland what "Droste" is, they’ll all answer the same thing : chocolate. But this tiny hotel somewhere in Holland claimed the domain droste.nl because his hotel is also called "Droste". It would be something like sony.com and you see a site about chines art or whatever. I don’t know if it is a wrong thing, but it sure is weird. If I type droste.nl, I expect to find something about chocolate, but what happens is that I come eye to eye with some touristic attraction. I know for a fact that Droste (the chocolate company) tried to sue this hotel, but that didn’t work. The Hotel kept the domainname and Droste has to get anotherone. Because of this Droste Chocotales has postponed the website for now I guess,  because there is nothing to be found in the searchengines. In Holland it's a little bit different compared to com/net/org. If you register a Dutch domain (www.blah.nl) you will have less problems because of the rules. You can register almost everything (except for general names) but if the "rightfull" owner claims the domain by proving the similarity with his tradename, you won't stand a chance. This way you evade this commercial trade in domainnames for a substantial part. I know we can not satisfy everyone and there probably will never be a system that can exclude all of the "problems". I only hope the trade in domainnames will not be taken over by all sorts of crappy companies that just want to make a lot of money by steeling domainnames that really should belong to other companies. These companies spend a lot of time and money in designing their webpages. It would be a shame (and a disappointment) if a company finaly makes the great step outdoors and wants to present themselves on the Internet this goes wrong on a domainname, would it ?

Remco Sikkema