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What's in a (TLD) name?

by: Don One

They're pushing for a top level domain (TLD) exclusively for porn sites. I’m quoting from this article (at http://www.babnet.net/en_detail.asp?id=1224): “There is also concern that the existance of .xxx will lead to legislation making its use mandatory for sexually explicit material, leading to legal conflicts over the definition of "sexually explicit", free speech rights, and jurisdiction.”

That’s like saying that the Louisville Slugger company in Kentucky shouldn’t make bats anymore because they can be used as weapons. Just because something can be dangerous when placed in the hands of one intent on doing harm, doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t exist. And to tell you the truth, the adult industry and the government are already - and always - at loggerheads with each other when it comes to the First Amendment.

Let me start off by saying I agree with the article in this respect: the existence of an .xxx TLD would be a God-send to parents trying to prevent their children from accessing pornographic sites.

But the reason ".xxx" is not for me has nothing to do with the above-mentioned quote. Not that everyone thinks along the same lines that I do, but, according to the article, in order to use the .xxx TLD, you’d have to download certain internet explorer plugins; plugins that are categorized as spyware and adware. Spyware and adware? No thanks. Lord knows how many hours I've spent trying to rid my computer of popup-inducing software and applications.

And $60 to register a domain (I hear that in the UK that it‘ll cost about 40 pounds)? Unless you as a webmaster are trying to cover all your bases (e.g. you currently own mypornsite.com, my-porn-site.com, mypornsite.net, etc, and would like to own mypornsite.xxx), why bother paying that much? If you’re not purchasing a popular, high-traffic domain directly from another webmaster, any decent domain can be had for less than $20.

Moreover, “.com” is so entrenched in the layman’s mind, no other TLD comes even close to its popularity. I find that people don’t remember your website URL as well if it doesn’t end in a .com. I think that’s why, with all the television programming out there, .tv is not such a household name as far as TLDs go.

And, not to spread rumors or anything (so remember, you didn‘t hear it from me :-)), I don’t think that the .nets, the .bizs, and the .infos of the world do as well in the search engines. However, the .orgs and the .govs, where the search term is appropriate, seem to have no problems ranking well in SERPs (search engine results pages). That’s just my personal and un-scientific opinion.

Go on and try it: search for popular and generic words on your favorite search engine, and see how many listings come up .tv, .net, .biz, or .info. Or maybe it’s the old “chicken and the egg” puzzle; maybe there are no results to be had because many prospective webmasters fear registering those less popular TLDs in the first place.

About the author:
The author is affiliated with and writes regular porn and sex toy articles for his blog page at

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