The .XXX Domain Arrives, to a World That Has Moved On
20.05.12
After 11 years of controversy, the .XXX domain name went on general sale last week. Meant to give pornographic sites a specific home on the internet, it was finally approved earlier this year .
Since the ICM Registry proposed the .XXX generic top-level domain (or gTLD) in 2000, supporters of the idea have gone through a roller-coaster of proposals, rejections, resubmissions, approvals and attacks. Meanwhile, the world has seen unlikely extremes unite to oppose a porn-only domain name, like the Bush administration, conservative groups, free speech advocates and the porn industry itself . Conservative politicians and activist groups were predictably upset at legitmating pornography; the porn industry and free speech advocates opposed the gTLD due to fears of censorship.
Prior to last week, the domain has only been available to limited buys in a “sunrise” period, first to established XXX merchants and then to non-porn companies looking to protect their brand names. This part of the sale has already been a PR disaster. Besides fears of censorship, detrimental legislation or being blocked by a firewall in homes or businesses, most successful porn sites have invested too much in their established .com identities. The .XXX suffix only promises to reduce traffic, while doing little to add anything. Besides being premium real estate, a .com address means that people who wouldn’t search for a porn site will find them anyway on accident (like hotmale.com or whitehouse.com, for those who are typo-prone). Why would they want to give that up?
Source: Wired News (blog)
