More gTLDs are on the Way

I just read an article on CNET about expansion of the gTLD namespace. Is this really a good idea?

We already have domains like .museum, .aero, .biz, .jobs, .mobi, .travel, .pro, etc. How many of these do we see being used in practice? I have seen a few such domains, but very few. So, why do we think opening up more gTLDs will encourage people to use them? I doubt it will.

The biggest frustration with .com is the fact that so many names are taken, quite often by somebody sitting on the name to earn ad revenue. If that behavior were stopped, we would not have an issue with .com. After all, if one wanted to create a company called “Foo” and discovered that “Foo” was already used by another legitimate business, that person would probably want a different name just to avoid confusion. Having foo.com and foo.biz is not helpful to the business with that name. Having foo.* only exasperates the problem.

Do we really want or need foo.plumbing and foo.computers? Imagine if Apple's domain was apple.computers. What would the company do when it decided that it was no longer a “computer” company and wanted to present itself more broadly? Oh, apple.com. So, why not just start with .com in the first place?

I think ICANN should put more effort into removing domains that exist solely for the generation of ad revenue. I believe that would address the concerns people have with limited name space.