Yesterday, MNB took note of a Reuters report that Amazon.com is running into resistance to its request to own new internet domain names, including ".book," ".author" and ".read". Barnes & Noble, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers have all registered their objections to Amazon's efforts, which they said would be anti-competitive.
In my commentary, I wrote:
I'm with Barnes & Noble, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers on this one. Not only should Amazon not get these domain names, but no private company or organization should have them.
I've been on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers website, by the way, because I was curious if perhaps Amazon might also be interested in domains like ".food" or ".grocery." Because it would not surprise me...
Well...this morning Storefront Backtalk.com has a story reporting that "Walmart and Safeway "are each trying to privatize .grocery, so no competing chains can use it. Barring an unexpected change, one of the two will lock it down. Meanwhile, the spotlight has been on Amazon for attempting to get exclusive use of .books. Other retail-friendly top-level domains (TLDs), including .toys, .kids, .tools, .shoes, .fashion and .food, are also in play."
Good piece, evaluating what I would view as a real competitive threat, and you can read the whole thing here.
In my commentary, I wrote:
I'm with Barnes & Noble, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers on this one. Not only should Amazon not get these domain names, but no private company or organization should have them.
I've been on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers website, by the way, because I was curious if perhaps Amazon might also be interested in domains like ".food" or ".grocery." Because it would not surprise me...
Well...this morning Storefront Backtalk.com has a story reporting that "Walmart and Safeway "are each trying to privatize .grocery, so no competing chains can use it. Barring an unexpected change, one of the two will lock it down. Meanwhile, the spotlight has been on Amazon for attempting to get exclusive use of .books. Other retail-friendly top-level domains (TLDs), including .toys, .kids, .tools, .shoes, .fashion and .food, are also in play."
Good piece, evaluating what I would view as a real competitive threat, and you can read the whole thing here.
- KC's View:
