Verisign wants to make the web easier to use and that’s why they introduced the Sitefinder service. It wants to make it so that if you mistype a web address, you’ll be given a helpful hint to put you back on the right track. Not only that, but Verisign wants to use the extra revenue it garners from advertisers on this service to fund the battle against hackers to keep the Internet secure. 83 percent of users say they like the new service. You can’t argue with that, can you?
Well, ICANN, the domain name regulator, certainly isn’t putting up much of an argument. They say they are against what Verisign is doing, but they can’t tell the world media why, at least not in a clear, understandable, non-technical way.
The ‘advisories’ about the topic that they have on their website explain nothing to the average reader. They are full of jargon about ‘registry-synthesized’ and ‘wildcard’ and ‘SECSAC’. No journalist reading it has any idea what they are talking about.
ICANN doesn’t seem to understand that winning hearts and minds is not an optional extra when they are responsible for a large part of the smooth running of the Internet. It’s not enough to be right (and I think ICANN is right in this case). You have to be able to explain why you right.