It's All in a Domain

For now, Internet addresses are populated by .com, .org, .edu, .net and .gov. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is discussing the addition of new domains at its mid-July meeting. This would open up millions of possible Web-site names for inclusion as early as 2001.

In opening up new domain names, it's possible you'll be able to identify the site for its intended functionalities. For example, some of the domains include: .web (offered as a domain space similar to .com), .banc and .shop (for financial institutions and e-commerce sites), .sucks (proposed by Ralph Nader's Consumer Project on Technology), .union (for accredited and international unions), and .xxx (as a way to designate pornographic sites).

Because of the proliferation of Web sites and the emerging e-commerce/m-commerce sector, I wonder if there will emerge a domain with the .mobile moniker. This would identify sites that require fewer keystrokes to capture the necessary information.

Keystrokeless
Along these lines, Microsoft is working on a Web service called Passport that will make navigation somewhat simpler, which speaks directly to the wireless e-commerce (m-commerce) market. You know how you have to develop a file for many of your online shopping experiences, often filling out the same information and developing a password for each site? If you are like me, you are ready to shop when you get online. However, by the time I finish the rigors of filling out the personal-information requests and trying to create yet another unique and acceptable password that I might remember, I'm about ready to get in my car and go shop in person. On repeat visits, if you forget your password, you have to go through the process all over again.

Passport will remember all of your user names for your Internet accounts and e-commerce sites. It'll also submit the information automatically when you visit any site. Although this applies to MSN sites, it is a good first step in the right direction. Security is one thing, but redundancy in m-commerce never will work.

XML-izing
I recently made my first visit to the Microsoft campus to visit with wireless-division executives to better understand the company's strategy for the wireless world. The company's new game plan, code-named Microsoft.NET, is to XML-ize all of its products, even in the face of the possible court-induced breakup. The company wants to work with Internet-industry companies to promote the use of consistent XML language. The successful implementation of a consistent XML language awards added Internet benefits to online travelers.

When you download a file from the Internet or e-mail today, the formatting usually is changed, obliterated or non-existent. By working with such companies as IBM, Sun and Oracle on promoting this, Microsoft soon will make it possible for you to gather information across the entire Internet network more easily. For example, you could simply assemble all of your financial information into one document and have it appear in a consistent format even though it was pulled from several sources.

This is but a first step in making the Internet work for users, rather than having users defining all of the parameters all of the time. Wireless providers envision a day when the handset device will "know" what it is that users want and send the information automatically. This XML (also read WAP) thinking gets us that much closer to flexing the true muscle of the mobile Internet.

Dumpster Diving
Larry Ellison, Oracle's flamboyant CEO, got his chops busted for spying on his archrival Bill Gates and company. Indignant at news of possible improprieties, Ellison said he saw nothing wrong with his efforts because he claimed he uncovered more damaging improprieties. Regardless of appropriateness or acceptability, I wonder if this will launch a new trend where there are absolutely no barriers to anything in the name of competition. Win at any and all costs. Dumpster dive, send employees in disguise to work for the competition and launch public smear campaigns. Although it may work in Ellison's case on a personal-satisfaction level, I have to hope it will not garner the support of shareholders and the general public. After all, it hasn't worked that well for politicians lately.

Comments? Write to rwickham@primediabusiness.com.