Sometimes, Microsoft is Right... 355
Now many many users of Slashdot have expressed their dislike for search services that order results based on cash, and many of us don't use IE, so the question comes up: why should we care about RealNames at all? Why does the failure of some poorly managed, ill-conceived company warrant any space on Slashdot? Alternative root servers make for a better story, no doubt. I'm the first to agree that RealNames deserves very little of your time, but the story of RealNames has recently taken a turn that is both annoying to me personally, and worrying to me as a long time participant in the open source scene.
Keith Teare, CEO of RealNames, has tried to make it seem like it was Microsoft's monopoly power that made RealNames go out of business. Lets review: RealNames had a deal with Microsoft to provide the RealNames service to MSN and Internet Explorer, for which they paid Microsoft a fee, and in return they got to derive revenue from selling the RealNames to companies, so basically Microsoft was likely RealNames' sole source of income. Keith and his coworkers were very happy to tie their horse to Microsoft while Microsoft was willing to pull them.
I don't need to explain to the Slashdot reader why RealNames was a poor idea. It is something you feel in your gut. I mean, in the end if you're going to accept the consensus reality that is the domain name system, are you going to stick with the somewhat broken NSI/ICANN/Pick-Your-Favorite-DNS company structure? Or are you going to go to a completly left field, poor, expensive excuse for NSI like RealNames? If you are a company trying to establish a web presence, do you choose the system that everyone has agreed on and publicize your url "http://www.bobstigerrentals.com" ? Or do you put: "RealName: Bob's Tiger Rentals" in your ads?
To illustrate further: Back in the day, I bought the linux.com domain name for the then-VA Research (Now VA Software) from Fred van Kempen (And there was much publicity, huzzah). Four or five months after doing this, I got a call from James Ash at RealNames trying to sell me the Linux RealName. This was not unusual, as I'd get any number of calls trying to sell me anything from containers full of stuffed penguins to whole companies (I was the wrong guy for those calls ...) What shocked me was the price he thought we'd pay. My mind remembers it as a horrible inverted Ron Popiel style sale, with none of the charm of Ron's products. How much would you pay to control the "Linux" RealName for four years? You'll be all over MSN and IE! $19.95? $29.95? $39.95? Try 1 million dollars.
It was a lot of money then, it's a lot of money now. It was a lot of money for any business. I told him we'd get back if we were interested. I didn't get back to him.
This is the innovation that Mr. Teare claims Microsoft squished, his right to overcharge for a dubious product. While Caveat Emptor certainly applied in the case of RealNames, his claim that Microsoft, somehow, has some duty to continue to provide the RealNames "service" to their browser client rings false. And that is the point of relating this bit of personal history.
I have little interest in engaging in schadenfreude over broken companies and laid off workers, but I do take issue with Keith Teare's attempt to jump on the anti-trust complainants bandwagon. If it is his hope that by crying foul on Microsoft now he can derive some sympathy or some other unknown gain, he'll have to look somewhere else than here on Slashdot, especially considering those that have a valid complaint against the software giant. Even considering recent developments I can't find any sympathy for him or his company, a company that, in my mind, belongs in the same class as LinuxONE (the California, not the Korean, company) and Digital Convergence.
Re:Real Names sucks, 'cept for ALL of Asia (Score:4, Informative)
Even Microsoft supports it [microsoft.com].
Some internet draft [i-d-n.net]...
another interesting one [ietf.org].
Not True (Score:5, Informative)
Speaking of standards...
The IETF Internationalized Domain Names Working Group [i-d-n.net]
IBM On Unicode Domain Names [ibm.com]
Slashdot: Why Unicode will Work on the Internet [slashdot.org]
Verisign's Internationalized Domain Name Testbed [verisign-grs.com]
-Waldo Jaquith
Link to RealNames CEO account has changed (Score:4, Informative)
It's now an unobvious deep-link into the archives [teare.com]
Also available elsewhere [userland.com]
Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org) [sethf.com]
Re:Bad Idea from the start (Score:2, Informative)
I was very happy when I found that option.
Re:On Alternates To DNS/ICANN (Score:3, Informative)
In mozilla, make a new bookmark of the following URL:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%s&btnI=I'
...and assign it a keyword of "lucky" (or similar). Now you can type in "lucky foobar" and be automatically directed to the FooBar Consulting [foobar.com] web page.
Re:Try a new method! (Score:3, Informative)
so does Opera (Score:3, Informative)
Mozilla also allows you to type something into the URL bar and then hit the down arrow key to go to "search [configurable search engine] for [what you typed" in the URL auto-completion drop-down box.
Re:Forget the rest of the article (Score:2, Informative)
Tiger Lady [boston.com]