The idea of a DOT-ROMA TLD shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's been following the developments at ICANN since June, 2008. As we approach 2010, it seems more major cities from around the world are becoming aware of the possibilities of having their own DOT-CITY TLD. And, as more major cities publicly announce their intent to acquire a DOT-CITY TLD, the more likely others will jump onto the DOT-CITY TLD bandwagon.

NBC's new show Southland premiers on April 9th. The staff at Southland.LA are really looking forward to this show as well as participating on NBC's Southland forum website.

On February 10, 2009, ICANN released a report on its website titled "Governments and Country Code Managers' Interest in the Fast Track Process". At first glance, this report didn't appear all that interesting until I came across row 16 within the first table titled "Responses from National Government:". The National Government covered in row 16 is LAO P.D.R., e.g. Country of Laos. What row 16 indicates is the LAO P.D.R.'s reponse to a form titled "Questions for Each Territory" which indicates the LAO P.D.R.'s desire to apply under the IDN/FastTrack process to receive the IDNccTLD ".ລາວ" which is Laotian for ".laos". To make matters more interesting, the LAO P.D.R. has indicated that it would be ready to participate under the IDN/FastTrack process by mid-2010.

By now, you are probably thinking to yourself, "Okay, I understand what you are saying, but, how can this impact DOT-LA?" Very simple. Once the LAO P.D.R. has its own domain extension in Laotian, does it really need to continue owning its existing ccTLD, e.g. DOT-LA? The answer is a simple no. Why would it need to continue owning DOT-LA while operating a domain extension in Laotian? It doesn't need to. At the present time, DOT-LA is being marketed as a DOT-CITY domain for the City of Los Angeles via a long-term licensing agreement by LA Names Corporation from the LAO P.D.R. However, one of the problems with such an agreement is a lack of affiliation between DOT-LA and the City of Los Angeles. One way to strengthen that affiliation is for the LAO P.D.R. to acquire its domain extension in Laotian and then allow either LA Names Corporation or another entity to purchase the ownership of DOT-LA for the continued use of this domain extension in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area. The sale of DOT-LA to LA Names Corporation or another entity could be used to finance the creation of the domain extension in Laotian. In essence, this scenario would represent the conversion of DOT-LA from a Country Code TLD to a City Code TLD. Also, such a scenario would represent a win-win opportunity for the LAO P.D.R., LA Names Corporation, and the residents/businesses of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area. Perhaps this strategy is already underway, but, hasn't been made public.

The implications of this scenario go beyond DOT-LA. In essence, this scenario represents an opportunity for other countries to use the IDN/FastTrack process to acquire their own domain extensions in their own languages and, in turn, to sell their existing ccTLDs to others that can make better use of the ccTLDs. In fact, the sale of the existing ccTLDs could even be used to finance the creation of the new domain extensions under the IDN/FastTrack process.

www.google.la

Perhaps one of the most impressive and confusing DOT-LA websites is www.google.la. The website is impressive because it is operated by one of the most well known Internet companies in the world. To have a company such as Google operating a website in the DOT-LA domain space shows just how far the DOT-LA domain space has come in the past couple of years. When you visit the website, you realize that this website is nearly as robust in its offerings as its DOT-COM sibling.

With this said, the website is equally confusing not for what it offers, but, in what it lacks, e.g. references to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, AKA "The Southland". DOT-LA is now the official domain space of "LA", and yet, Google makes no references to this fact on its DOT-LA website. Instead, Google reflects "Laos" at the lower right-hand corner of its Google logo at www.google.la. Like other well know ccTLDs (e.g. DOT-TV), DOT-LA was licensed by LA Names Corporation for the primary purpose of marketing the domain space to the residents and businesses of LA. Interestingly enough, if you type in www.google.tv in your browser's address bar (given the ccTLD example cited above), you are taken to www.google.com instead of a self-functioning website at www.google.tv. Given the popularity of DOT-TV, why isn't Google marketing www.google.tv for the island nation of Tuvalu as it is marketing www.google.la for the country of Laos?

If you visit the website of the DOT-LA registry, LA Names Corporation, you will find the following description on DOT-LA:

.LA is the official internet address for Los Angeles, the world's first city to receive this accolade.

This description comes directly from the official registry of DOT-LA, so again, why is Google marketing its DOT-LA website to the Country of Laos that has a population which is a fraction of that in LA? In the end, only Google can answer that question.

Hopefully, Google will eventually market its DOT-LA website to the residents and businesses in LA. After all, we value Google's reputation and premium Internet products including Adsense for which we are promoting on this very website.

To learn more about DOT-LA, click on this article at Yahoo! Finance.

Welcome to the Southland.LA forum/gallery/blogs website. Under the DOT-LA Websites category, we will showcase DOT-LA websites. You'll be surprised at the number of DOT-LA websites that are owned/operated by Southlanders. If you are interested in finding DOT-LA websites yourself, perform the following steps in your Internet browser:

1. Open your favorite Internet browser, e.g. IE6, IE7, Firefox, etc.
2. Type in www.yahoo.com in the address bar and click enter; and
3. Type in site:.la with no spaces in the search box and click enter.

Be prepared to be impressed. There are many DOT-LA websites waiting to be discovered by you and many other Southlanders.

To narrow your search, type in "keyword site:.la" in Yahoo's search box and click enter. Great way to perform a geographical search in the DOT-LA domain space on one of the best search engines.