Interview: What is in a domain name?

Jennie-Marie Idler, a general manager at domain specialist NeuStar, explains how firms benefit from a choice of suffixes.

IT Week: Many firms have a large portfolio of domain names to manage already, but there are plans for additions such as the .eu suffix. As a manager at a domain name specialist, do you think this is a helpful situation?

Jennie-Marie Idler: The .eu domain will allow businesses to identify themselves as European as opposed to French or German, for example. This is timely considering the expansion of the European Union, and its important role in the internet as a community. It might not be a [very important] business tool because it is [just] an alternative to existing European country codes, such as.uk, which identify language and geographic origin. A generic domain such as.com or .biz may be more appropriate for a business.

Regarding the recent launch of domains such as .us and .cn for the US and China, what benefits might they offer to firms based in the UK?

The .us and .cn domains have more obvious business benefits than .eu because they tell you specifically who the domain caters to. Using localised addresses and sites allows firms to address a specific population and their individual needs concerning language, time zone and currency. The .eu domain will be more diverse and unspecified regarding language and currency. I think it will appeal more to the consumer base, acting like a generic top-level domain (GTLD) for European users.

There are so many domains available already, surely firms could make use of the existing addresses...

I support the introduction of new names that satisfy a niche on the internet. I like .biz for business, .info for information, .org for not-for-profit organisations, possibly something like .travel. These names make sense to me.

Many firms appear to be sticking to their .com addresses. Is this a wise strategy?

The GTLD space has been dominated by.com for so long that the space is very messy. A great portion of the names are either dead or lead to pornography sites. There is no indication of the purpose of the site until you visit it, and then it is sometimes too late. An example of this is an employee stumbling onto a pornographic site, the site is using cookies, and the visit has been logged. That employee has just unknowingly violated their employer's policy on internet usage in the workplace.

What can be done to limit the risk of these types of incidents?

I think there is definitely a need for order on the internet. I am in favour of virtual zoning - identifying a site by its domain name. I think country codes have matured in that sense, whereby you know what country the site addresses by its extension.

Along with the growing number of domain names has come a rise in scams. How can these best be tackled?

I think the simplest answer is to educate the domain name owners or registrants. This would eliminate the vast majority of scams. The important thing to bear in mind is that the only GTLDs that are reachable by everyone on the internet are the Icann accredited domains - [almost] everything else is a scam. Also, domain names are a visible and open resource. Firms can always check a "whois" database [available on domain name operators' sites] to see if the sites are available or who has registered them.

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ABOUT JENNIE-MARIE IDLER
Jennie-Marie Idler is European general manager for Registry Services at domain name specialist NeuStar.

Her responsibilities include managing the firm's relationships with technology partners and customers.

Previously, Idler worked at the Canadian and US headquarters of the Institute for International Research, a global business information organisation.