Time for a new internet?
The recent debate about who should control the internet has got me thinking about the way we use sites today; i.e. a domain is made up of protocol, a domain name, and a domain type.
My thoughts are over whether this is the best way to locate websites. If we look to the future it is clear that the number of sites, and therefore the number of people wanting to use the same names, is destined only to grow, so the question is, how do we meet demand, keep the addressing simple, and in most cases guessable?
One answer is to start getting more specific; for example, rickmann.yorkshire.uk, but this fails to meet the potential for non-location based sites, for families, and companies to consolidate a series of domains under a main domain.
Another option is to make greater use of pre-typing, i.e. specifying the type first, followed by the detail; for example, http://personal.rickmann.andrew…
Finally, perhaps we should do away with public addressing altogether. Perhaps it would be easier to create content (web pages, contact information, work documents, etc) with specific meta content to allow, for example a search for personal web content, produced by Andrew Rickmann, from the UK, that is intended for public viewing and has not expired, as well as other pertinent information, and to save those searches, in much the same way as Windows Vista uses Virtual Folders.
Whatever the solution you only need to look at the rate at which telephone numbers expanded to know that something will need to give soon, and perhaps the arguments over who controls everyones names will hurry this along.
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