You can now search the web by image instead of just typing in a search phrase. Earlier this year Google released this very intriguing technology which enables this ability. There are four key ways to use this new way of searching.
1 – Drag and Drop
With this method, simply point your web browser to Google Image Search and then drag an image file (ie: picture) right on to the window, near the search input box. You should see it notice your request, and ask you place it into a specialized container.
That container box will automatically upload your image to Google for processing. You will immediately be taken to the search result, which is typically related images and sometimes even gives you a description of what the image is!
2 – Upload an Image
If you aren’t sure about drag & dropping an image into the browser, or perhaps your web browser isn’t supported, you can also upload the image. This is the same as you would upload an image to any other website, and you get the same results in the end.
To upload an image, simply click on the Camera icon, select “Upload an image.”
3 – Direct Image URL
The third method is useful if you found an image that is already on the internet. You can simply right-click in your web browser, copy the image URL (or location, as it is called sometimes) and then you simply click the Camera icon on Google Image Search, and use the “Paste image URL” option, instead of the direct upload.
4 – Firefox and Chrome Extensions
There are extensions available to both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox web browsers. This gives you an additional right-click option on images, which lets you very easily just right-click on any image you see in your favorite browser, and simply click the search Google via image option.
You can get these extensions here: Download Firefox Extension, or Download Google Chrome Extension.
What are you thoughts on this new way to search the web? Let us know!
The movement towards IPv6 is becoming more and more of a reality. Last February the governing bodies of IP Addressing announced the final assignments of the last available unused IPv4 blocks, and I wrote about being ready for the IPv6 movement, as effectively at that time, there were no more unallocated IPv4 IP blocks available.
Now, just a few months later, we have World IPv6 Day. According to some sources it is going to be one of the most watched technology related events since 1999 when the Y2k-bug was the biggest technology related situation. This is the biggest real worldwide test utilizing all network services via the newer IPv6 protocols.
There are two key points of this event. 1) To test how well it’s currently working and to identify potential problems, so that they may be addressed and fixed. 2) To see how well the world has further prepared since the big IPv4 historic moment that occurred on February 3rd 2011.
The World IPv6 Day event is sponsored by the Internet Society. The event actually began last night at 8pm eastern and continues until 8pm eastern this evening. There are more than 400 organizations which are participating in this worldwide event.
This is the largest undertaking the internet has seen since its initial creation some 40 years ago. Some of the biggest companies in the world are participating in World IPv6 day, such as: Google, Yahoo, Bing, AT&T, Cisco, Juniper, Microsoft and many more, including major Data Centers around the world.
So, the question still remains, are you ready for IPv6? You should be getting ready if not!
If you are like a lot of businesses on the internet; you most likely run multiple e-commerce websites perhaps even on multiple platforms; this can become very tedious, even quite frustrating to maintain on a routine basis. So here’s a quick list to keep in mind.
Sitemaps
Sitemaps are a key component in helping assist search engine robots in their automatic crawls of your website; giving you the ability to simply list out all of your pages and even set priorities and how often these pages are updated.
It is very important to monitor all of your sitemaps; including automatically generated sitemaps for potential issues; such as pages that have moved, no longer exist and for typographical errors too. This will also keep accidental non-production pages from getting indexed.
If you utilize Google Webmasters; it provides very detailed information including 404 errors, sitemap problems, and other errors it may have encountered with in your websites.
Google Products Submission
Hopefully if you sell products on your sites, you are submitting your product feeds to Google Products (Google Merchants), as this increases your potential audience for sale conversions.
As with sitemaps, it is also extremely important that everything is accurate, including but not limited to: Product Name, Brand, SKU, Pricing, Free Shipping Indication and the Product’s Picture.
Having this information be accurate and perhaps even automatically routinely submitted (updated in Google Products); is an excellent way to maintain both your products accuracy in the system and lower your sites bounce rate.
Server Error Logs
This is the most common overlooked item; your website may appear to be functioning properly without any issues; however, it is a very good practice to keep an eye on your systems multiple error logs.
These can include:
- Web Server (Web Hosting)
- Programming Language (PHP, ASP, etc)
- Server (Operating System)
- Pages not found (Do 404’s Hurt My Site?)
Try to make it part of your monthly, perhaps weekly routine to check these files, as they can be big indicators if something, big or small, is potentially causing an issue, you can also keep an eye on security by monitoring these files too.
Security Practices
When running multiple e-commerce sites, it can be a big hassle to truly stay on top of best practices for keeping your customers information safe guarded; one of the biggest items is not changing your important passwords often.
As noted in A Major Security Risk – Your Password, your password is more often than not, the only thing keeping potential security breaches from taking place, the more often your important account passwords are changed; and the stronger your passwords are, the better.
It is highly recommended to use a service such as LastPass to keep these strong, not usually memorable passwords stored in a secure location that you can access; however keep in mind, to make your LastPass account password something you can memorize; but still be strong too.
Backups
In conclusion, another absolute must have is routine backups of your websites files, including any databases and email accounts. You can never have too many backups and in multiple locations; at the very least you should be making weekly backups of everything.
The reason behind having backups in multiple locations, even on local media; such as unplugged hard drives or even DVDs, is that even big corporations such as Amazon can suffer data loss when unexpected things go wrong; never trust a single backup solution!
It is also important to test your backup system, if something happened to your hosting provider, or a server of yours; would you be ready? Would your backup system work properly? Test a restore! While testing restoring a partial or full backup; be sure to note important items.
These items should include: That every file was successfully restored, databases restored properly, emails exist, also note how long the restore took; as this is potentially how long your website would be down at the very minimum during such a situation.
The governing bodies of IP address assignments conducted a press conference this morning to announce the assignment of the last available IPv4 addresses; This meeting also provided an opportunity to discuss the major global transition into the next generation IPv6 addressing.
Today marks a significant point in the movement towards the new system, known as “IP version 6” (IPv6). This is a result of the last unassigned major blocks of IPv4 addresses being assigned, and available for use. This means the true push forward for IPV6 worldwide support and transition starts right now.
You can catch the press release: Free Pool of IPv4 Address Space Depleted , and view ICANN’s: Available Pool of Unallocated IPv4 Internet Addresses Now Completely Emptied (PDF).
This press conference was brought together by The Number Resource Organization (NRO), along with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the Internet Society (ISOC) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).
Ok, so what’s the big deal?
The evolving issue with the current IPv4 system is that there are severe limitations on the number of usable IP Addresses for devices that need to utilize the Internet. This IPv4 addressing system has a maximum of 4.2 billion available IP Addresses. Thus, with the rapid growth of internet-enabled devices, which now even includes late model televisions, the number of IP addresses left for future additional devices is rapidly declining.
This is where IPv6 comes into save the internet (so to speak). The next generation IP Addressing system, takes the problem of only having 4.2 billion addresses maximum and transforms the system to make an infinite amount of IP Addresses available. The new system ratifies this address storage problem, and most likely will never have to be switched out again for address limitation issues.
A couple of prime examples to really grasp the addressing space available;
- For every square meter on Earth’s surface there would be more than four million unique IP Addresses available. This address space is so mind boggling, that it is quite literally, astronomical.
- Like the numbers that describe the stars in a galaxy, another way to think about this is there will be more than 250 IP Addresses for every star in the currently known universe.
What does this mean for me?
For the average Internet users the only thing that might temporarily affect your internet usage during this transitional period in the near future is that some websites might not be available for short periods of time.
The current overall plan for this transition is to run what is called a “Dual Stack” IP Addressing. Until the majority of the world is in compliance and running on the new IPv6 addressing system, the “Dual Stack” IP Addressing system will be running. This means you would effectively have both IPv4 and IPv6 based addresses in your devices. Therefore, you will have the ability to utilize both systems at once.
The majority of computers, cell phones, and any brand new technology devices already have IPv6 support built in. This system was originally designed, tested and approved more than a decade ago, the main concern currently is with your routers. Routers do not seem to have much support for IPv6. However, when it comes time a simple Firmware Upgrade should solve that problem.
So in a nut shell, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about…
I’m not the average internet user! Now what?
If you are an IT person, such as a Systems Admin, Networker, Server Admin, Programmer or anything in between those fields of expertise, this means that you are going to need to become IPv6 aware. You will need to become familiar with how it differs from IPv4 and understand at least the basics of it. In addition to this, you will need to be getting your systems ready to use IPv6 addressing.
On top of preparing your software, operating systems, network and devices for IPv6 address usage, you should also consider getting a block of IPv6 addresses right away. Having your websites and related be supported on both networks will help you during this transition.
Most modernized Data Centers already not only support IPv6, but actually have fully routed IPv6 addressing space available to their customers. In fact, some Internet Service Providers are already trialing this Dual Stack network addressing system. A quick Google Search for “Dual Stack” reveals the Internet Service Providers offering Dual Stack.
For those of us not directly in an up-to-date data center, or want our home PC to have IPv6 connectivity, you may use such services as the Hurricane Electric’s Tunnel Broker. The Hurricane Electric Tunnel Broker simply routes IPv6 to your network via your existing IPv4 address via a Tunnel protocol.
In order to keep the planned “Dual Stack” transition period working, the Domain Name System (DNS) added an official new type of record for IPv6 replies. This is called the “AAAA” record entry type. The IPv4 DNS records are stored under the “A” type (A is short for address).
This means that you can have your website supporting both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses at the exact same current URL and domain name. The devices which are IPv6 enabled will attempt to look up the IPv6 address first, and then default back to the IPv4 as needed (assuming you are on the Dual Stack setup).
Quick facts about IP Addressing
IPV4 actual usage began in the late 1980’s. It is a 32-bit based addressing system, resulting in a maximum of exactly 4,294,967,296 unique IP Addresses. Today, all available blocks within this system are now assigned and used by everyone and there is no spare space.
The next generation IPv6 system, which has been in tested for a decade now, provides a new 128-bit based design, along with a staggering number (see infinite) of available IP addresses. There basically won’t ever be a shortage again.
IPv6 Addresses Available: 340,282,366,920,938,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000; or three hundred forty undecillion, two hundred eighty two decillion, three hundred sixty six nonillion, nine hundred twenty octillion, nine hundred thirty eight septillion!
Where can I learn more?
Amongst the many resources available on IPv4, IPv6 and this transition, I found the following to be the most resourceful and updated information:
- Wikipedia Articles: IPv4, IPv4 Address Exhaustion, IPv6, IPv6 deployment, IPv6 Transition Mechanisms, and IPv6 Rapid Deployment
- Google’s: Google Over IPv6 and IPv6 Statistics (Graphs)
- Hurricane Electric on IPv6, Free IPv6 Certification Program and Tunnel Broker
So, in conclusion, are you ready for IPv6?
The internet has been basically around since about the early 1970’s, those of us who have been involved in at the very least, just surfing the internet, let alone developing internet related projects; for the past roughly 20 years have really watched it emerge.
Today the internet, amongst many things is; a massive worldwide e-commerce platform, with an astronomical amount of information, including more useful abilities at your fingertips than you could possibly imagine.
The way internet users access these ever evolving websites and online services is constantly improving with new technologies, faster computers and networks, smarter mobile devices, and of course can’t leave out the enormous growth in the social media sectors.
With websites, such as The Internet Archive’s: Wayback Machine; which has been around since the late 1990’s, we have the ability to take a look back at how websites used to look, on almost a monthly snapshot basis. A few recommended sites to Wayback are: Yahoo, Microsoft and Google.
Most social media and social networking websites, got their origins in the early 2000’s. MySpace while founded in late 2003; was later named most popular social networking site in the United States in 2006. Facebook was founded in early 2004; Facebook overtook the title of most popular social networking website in April 2008; as of July of 2010 Facebook has more than 500 million active users.
In between the battling MySpace and Facebook in the social networking front; in 2006 the ever-popular today social networking website Twitter began its journey in the short messaging, status update, and content sharing via short URL services. Currently, Twitter’s users are sending more than 50 million tweets per day. Twitter has more than 70,000 registered applications.
Sites such as Gowalla and Foursqaure now allow people to be ever more connected with their family, friends and colleagues; by updating where they currently are located via these “check-in” style websites; typically via mobile device updates on smart phones; and announced to Twitter via tweet. Thus allowing their contacts to learn new places or gather at a local place together.
Technologies such as HTML5 being implemented within web browsers such as Google Chrome, are pushing to make interactive audio and video data available directly in the browser, versus the current standard of requiring Adobe’s Flash to be installed and used, thus making websites more lightweight, faster loading, and solving long time problems associated with flash.
There is even social programming websites these days, such as Github. Not only is Git the latest code repository system, but github.com’s goal on top of being a top repository provider is to allow developers and the like to directly socially communicate about the code it publically stores, while having private repositories as well.
With how much the Internet truly evolved to become what it is today over even just the past decade, can only scrape the very bottom of what we might see become available, or the next biggest thing in the next 10 years, only time will truly tell.
Are you ready to take on the internet’s ever evolving challenges, and to keep up with the times? From simple internet surfers to web developers and in between; the internet will be always evolving, improving and drastically changing; you must stay on top of it; or you could be out of the loop very quickly.
What do you think will be the next biggest internet related service or website?
Skype
Out of all of the video apps Skype was the last to implement the video chat option. With CES just around the corner I personally expected them to wait until then to launch it. CES is the world’s largest consumer technology trade show. It will run from January 6 through 9 in Las Vegas. Only three of the iPhone/iPod Touch are able to share video chat; iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4th Generation. You can also chat from your apple device to computer using Skype. This app can be used not only with Wi-Fi but 3G as well. Currently, mobile Skype is only available through the Apple App Store. Skype has yet to comment on Android support but with CES in the near future more information may become available. I personally tested this application from an iPhone 4 to an iPod Touch 4th Generation. When using Wi-Fi on both devices there was good quality; while using 3G on the iPhone 4 there were occasional glitches. For my next test I used my iPhone 4 to Windows 7 computer. Since both devices were using Wi-Fi the video call quality was good.
Yahoo!
When Yahoo! updated their mobile application to support video chat they were the first to give you the ability to video chat from an iPhone to a computer. Just like Skype Yahoo! Messenger can use both Wi-Fi and 3G. The video quality over Wi-Fi is very good however; the video box itself does not take up the full screen real estate. Over 3G the video quality is lower. Yahoo! added the video support on October 11th and about two months later Android received their video chat update.
Tango
After getting my new iPhone 4 with the new front facing video camera I was very pleased with using only FaceTime. However, only being able to call Apple mobile devices using Wi-Fi was not optimal. I wanted to be able to call Android mobile devices with 3G capabilities. Over Wi-Fi, Tango was the first app to resemble FaceTime quality. With a strong 3G connection the quality is usable but like all the other apps it still does not match the quality of Wi-Fi. One of Tango’s unique and user friendly features is the ability to synch up with your address book by using your telephone number as your login. When it was first released you could only use Tango on a cell phone however, after numerous user request you can now use with an iPod Touch 4th Generation. When using the iPod Touch instead of your mobile phone you set up your account with an email address as opposed to your telephone number. Currently, there is no Tango software for computers so you are limited to using the app with hand held devices.
Fring
Fring was the first application to support video chat capabilities. In the beginning, the quality was very ugly and Fring’s entire interface was unfriendly on both Apple and Android mobile devices. For the first few days you could add your Skype add-on to your Fring account. Then without warning the Skype option disappeared from the add-on section. You could then only video chat using Fring to Fring on mobile devices only. On December 6th, Fring updated their iPhone video application. Fring’s video calling now uses DVQ “Dynamic Video Quality” Technology. With the new update the quality is much better as is the overall experience. Just like Skype, Yahoo and Tango you can use this over Wi-Fi as well as 3G but as with all the other applications I recommend Wi-Fi for optimum quality.
FaceTime
When it comes to quality FaceTime is your app. The iPhone 4 was the first device to have FaceTime capabilities. Since then, the iPod Touch 4th Generation was launched with FaceTime capabilities. Apple has listened to their loyal users and have made a Beta version for Mac computers available through Apple.com. FaceTime is currently only supported on Wi-Fi only. However, with a jailbroken apple device you can download a third party application that tricks your device into thinking it is running Wi-Fi when actually using 3G thus, giving you the ability to make FaceTime calls while using 3G. I personally, have used FaceTime on an iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4th Generation, MacBook Pro and the new i7 iMac. Over Wi-Fi on all of these applications I have been very pleased with the overall high quality. I was surprisingly satisfied with the quality when making calls on a jailbroken iPhone 4 using 3G. There is one feature I would like to see added to FaceTime the ability to leave a video message. Currently, when you call someone on FaceTime and they do not pick up it eventually just hangs up. It does tell that user that they missed a FaceTime call but it would be nice to leave them a short message if they are unable to receive the call.
In conclusion, I am very happy to see these large companies updating their applications to include video support. Tango and Fring are great apps however; they do not have the large user base that Skype, Yahoo! and Apple have. Overall, FaceTime is my personal favorite video chat app but not being able to be compatible with Android and Windows limits its usage. The best part of these five applications is their price, FREE.
The internet is evolving at an alarmingly fast pace. Are your websites keeping up with the interactive demands and latest web trends happening within your niche?
Below are 6 (once advanced features) that have been increasingly commonplace. If your site does not have any of the following now is the time to fix it.
Twitter Updates (Feed)
You are on Twitter right? Having a twitter update stream, where you mention what you and your business is up to, and for running specials or deals, is an excellent way to earn more Twitter followers, let alone also gaining potential more customers, leading to sales leads, possibly more.
There’s an excellent write up on how to use Twitter with your website here.
An active Blog
Are your companies blogs actually being updated with interesting and up-to-date news and related articles? Consider consistently posting blog updates, and in which you could post links on twitter to get your followers to read your latest entry even that much quicker.
Live Chat (Interactive Support)
Most online shoppers simply demand a Live Chat option on your website, preferably in a pop-up or pop-in style window, so they can remain on the page they are needing assistance with, first impression of your talented sales or support team could be the cause of a sale or the potential customer leaving.
Here’s a few example paid and free services:
AJAX Interactive Suggested Search
You have most likely noticed a fairly recent trend of websites, mainly those selling products, allowing you to begin typing in a search phrase, and you get nearly instant suggestions based on what you’ve entered so far, this is very handy for online shoppers, making it even easier and quicker to identify and get to what they may be looking for.
Tutorial on How to use PHP and jQuery AJAX To make this possible
AJAX Interactive Add to Cart
Having interactive graphical user interface is very important these days, even simple things as an interactive way to add products to their shopping cart, makes your site snappy and keeps the customer from being annoyed by having to go back or leave the page, maybe they have a question your live chat needs to respond to before they’ll complete their purchase or filling out that form.
Is your site up to speed, code wise, actual loading speed and mobile-browser ready?
These three items are equally important while keeping your websites up with users demands and interactive needs, you should always test as much as possible before pushing any new features or improvements of your websites live.
More and more internet shoppers and surfers the like, are browsing via an mobile device in our tech-heavy industry, allowing them to hopefully utilize your websites to the fullest via their most convenient choice of using the internet.
Are your websites mobile compatible? Do they load fast and are the interactive actions fast to respond? Keep these questions on your mind while further developing your company and clients needs.
A commonly used page speed tester, is the Page Speed plugin for Firebug in Firefox.
Facebook is in the process of rolling our two new features to its users; the ability to download (and backup) your entire profile, and new security enhancements that allow you to control who and what is logged into your account, new one time password (OTP) support, and finally ability to be notified when someone signs into your account.
Ability to Download Your Information
The “Download Your Information” ability is quite useful as you can download a single zip archive file containing all of your profile information, photos, wall posts, messages, videos, friend lists, and other related content, this download also includes a table of contents-like HTML page for you to quickly access your information when you unzip the archive file.
This feature provides Facebook users with a simple way to backup or retrieve all of their information within their account, thus making it easy to back-up your information, as well all know data loss is never a fun experience.
Once the feature rolls out to your account, all you need to do is head to Account > Account Settings > Download Your Information, you will find a “learn more” link, which will take you to the Download Your Account page, and from there you will the popup below, letting you chose to download all the information.
Enhanced Facebook Security
One Time Passwords – If you have your cell phone registered on your Facebook account, you may now utilize the new one time password option by sending a text message of “otp” to 32665, it will reply with a unique single use password, allowing you to login with the single use password during the next 20 minutes, once.
This one time password option is an excellent way to help keep your account secure when logging in from a computer, device or network that you do not trust or are uncertain of, such as public wifi at an airport, or a local coffee shop.
Facebook Session Control – You may now view what devices are actively logged into your Facebook account, and you have the ability to end their sessions immediately. This feature does not appear to reflect sessions on my android mobile phone, only web browser sessions, I hope to see Facebook expand to support all devices soon.
Facebook Login Notification – While checking out Facebook’s new session controls, I also came across another new feature of Facebook, which is the ability to have an email, or a text (SMS) message sent to you when someone logs into your account.
It is nice to see big social networks such as Facebook stepping up to the plate and keeping up with today’s security needs and also providing its user base with new enhanced features. Let me know your thoughts on Facebook’s new features!
The primary image used was taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/deneyterrio/2321206299/.
Earlier this week Google began to allow its search engine users to utilize and test the new Google Instant.
Google Instant is a new feature to Google’s search engine system, which allows you to save time by searching more quickly than the previous design, by instantly giving you results as you type out what you are looking for.
It does this by monitoring how fast you are typing on your keyboard in real time, as the average time between key strokes is only 300 milliseconds, now even if you are a slow typist, as Google Instant loads results on to the screen, while you are typing you will already be scanning the results, thus allowing you to keep narrowing down your search without having to run a normal new search all together.
Typically the human brain processes visual indicators, such as scanning the instant search results, in around only 30 milliseconds, so while you type at an average rate of 300 milliseconds, your mind has already glanced over the new results and you’ve already decided to keep adding words to the search phrase, or have already clicked a resulting entry and are done with your search.
I’ve ran some personal searches with many different phrases and it does appear to be quite a bit quicker to find what I am looking for, according to Google’s own page about Google Instant, by predicting your search results before you even finish typing, let alone press enter or the search button, it is saving you around 2 to 5 seconds per search.
There are additional ways to speed up your search process as such as; the ability while typing in your search phrase, Google loads a prediction list of additional recommended terms, simply press the tab key for the recommendation to be appended and you can still keep typing after that, you may also use your arrow keys to control how it behaves with the corresponding results, including pressing the right-arrow to actually just go to the first result that is found (double or triple pressing required).
Here are some quick facts about Google Instant:
- The typical searcher took more than 9 seconds to enter search phrases.
- Google has seen some searchers that took up to a minute and a half to type their search phrase
- If everyone used Google Instant worldwide, estimations are that this will save more than 3.5 billion seconds a day. That’s 11 hours saved every second!
- 15 new technologies contribute to Google Instant functionality.
Just in case you dislike the new Google Instant, rest assured, you surely can disable it, and return to the normal, previous Google Search, that you are used to using, you can simply visit your Google Preferences page and set the option to disable it.
This new instant search results technology is likely to make a big impact on people’s search behavior, once the general public has begun using it on a regular basis, it very well may lead to changes in Search Engine Optimization Strategies, be sure to keep a close eye for new search behavior in your niche.
You will also find more Frequently Asked Questions on Google Instant’s Introduction Page.
Let us know your thoughts on Google’s new Google Instant!
The Columbian TLD of “.co” was originally delegated on December 24th, 1991, to the Universidad de los Andes, which is located within Columbia. During 2001, the University explored the exploitation of the domain for commercial purposes, attempting to treat it as just another “.com” domain name.
Due to these actions, and in response, some legal action and activity was taken to prevent this, and the Minister of Communications wrote to the University asking them not to proceed with this course of action.
On February 12th, 2002, the current delegate of the TLD (the university) wrote to ICANN stating that it had “terminated the .CO country-code top-level domain commercialization process and has further decided not to appoint a new registry operator.” It further went on to say that the University was experiencing “great difficulty” in operating .CO in light of the December 2001 council decisions, as well as the legal actions concerning the commercialization.
A little later that same year, in May, the Minister and Vice-Minister of Communications along with the University parties met at ICANN’s offices in Los Angeles, CA to discuss the future administration of the TLD, the meeting was successful and thus allowed the University to keep control of the TLD.
Due to further problems with the University handling the needs of running a TLD, in late 2009 ICANN begun considering handing off the ownership and delegation of the TLD to a more capable and responsible party, and as of early 2010 the TLD is now owned and delegated by the “.CO Internet SAS (“The Concessionaire”)”.
Also, commercial organizations and personal entities may now register domains under the “.co” TLD, as of around this late summer, big companies such as GoDaddy and NameCheap begun allowing anyone to register domains under the TLD again.
This was a brief overview of what happened with the “.co” TLD, you may read the full length IANA article. This is important to the internet community since you could easily accidently mistype a “.co” for a “.com” and be misled or taken to an entirely incorrect website.
