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XXX domains are bad, mmmkay

Thursday, 8 February 2007 domains technology

Steve’s just had a little rant over how he feels the proposed, dropped and now reproposed .xxx top level domain is good for the internet… But I respectfully disagree.

For starters, making .xxx available does not mean all porn sites will use it. A great many have booming business on their current domain, so if they do anything with a .xxx it will just be a forwarder to their current domain.

.xxx will be extremely harmful to adult business because, as Seopher mentioned, companies could block it so easily. Whereas office managers might not want their grunts rubbing one out in their cubicles, I’m sure there are plenty of said grunts (and CEOs) willing to pay money for a quick fun time. Allowing your business to be that blockable only serves in your disinterest.

pornography is one of the biggest businesses on the internet but it’s a shame that it’s interspersed with everything else

For who? People wanting to get things done or the industry? I’m sure they’re very happy having people find their sites through accidental means…

As for it opening up new names (as some people have suggested), if people have a brand name on .com, they’re not going to allow another site to use their name on .xxx this is fairly well reflected in the rest of online business.

I can only see .xxx as another rush to grab as many generics as possible (boobies.xxx, etc) and then it will fade into insignificance being used by those porn companies so desperate for a short URL or teenagers with a spare 10 wanting to by kittens.xxx