[LINK] What's in a (domain) name?

[Nick Smith]

> ----------
> From: 	Rick Welykochy[SMTP:rick@praxis.com.au]
> Sent: 	Friday, 17 November 2000 14:52
> To: 	Nick Smith
> Cc: 	link@www.anu.edu.au
> Subject: 	Re: [LINK] What's in a (domain) name?
> 
> Nick Smith wrote:
>  
> > re: this 'individuals and the domain names they can and can't have'
> > business.
> > 
> > Imagine if Yang and Filo had been Australian grad students avoiding
> > finishing their PhD by building a web directory.
> > 'No, you can't have www.yahoo.com.au but you can have
> www.jerryyang.id.au'.
> 
> (1) But Yang and Filo, like any business people, would simply create
>     a corporate entity called "Yahoo!" and then get their domain name.
> 
> (2) If using another domain name and an IPO is imminent, see step (1).
> 
++ The point surely is that they were not business people, they were grad
student hobbyists... 

++ So the lesson is, if you're a web site owner in your spare time, building
a tiny and inconsequential site on your PC at home that *may* one day prove
to be  valuable, you should incorporate first?

++ Does this strike you as even remotely realistic?

>  
> > Yahoo.com began as hobby, non-trade-marked and unincorporated. Today
> it's
> > supposed to be the web's most valuable brand.
> 
> So, suppose the domain began as www.jerryyang.id.au, but was identified
> as Yahoo! by all and sundry. If that identity looked like a winner, they
> proceed to step (1) above.
> 
++ How exactly is a site that is www.jerryyang.id.au
(www.jerryyang.wombat.id.au as Stuart pointed out) 'identified' as Yahoo.
Isn't the whole point of the domain name is that it is used as an
identifier? 

++ Maybe the Yahoo directory could be just as sucessful today even though
its URL is www.igrtgh4fhgl.com?

++ What if someone else recognises the value of your 'yahoo' hobby before
you do and incorporates or trademarks the name ahead of you and then gets
the domain name?

++ Why make this so much more complex than it needs to be? This is just a
little lesson of history. These two hobbyists used www.yahoo.com from day
one and built the web's best known brand. Am I crazy for thinking that they
would have been hampered (but not necessarily cut off at the knees) if they
had had to change from www.jerryyang.wombat.id.au to www.yahoo.com.au in
mid-stream?

	Nick