>There are proposals to set up a number of alternatives to com.au (and
>also the international com, for that matter).  If this takes off, then
>domain names will become even more difficult to try to guess than they
>are today.

correct.

>
>This could be a good thing if it causes The Internet to (finally) get
>its act into gear and set up some kind of organisation_name->domain_name
>directory service (like a white pages) that everyone agrees on and uses,
>so that we can stop using guesswork+dns for it.

correct. Note that this is already happening at a huge rate at this time.
Netscape just launched a formal whitepages service, and the existing "best
of class" web indexers (esp. altavista) are a damn fine way to find
companies on the internet very easily indeed - quite independent of their
domain name.

>
>Last time I spoke to Robert Elz he didn't seem very concerned at all 
>about whether people could guess domains given the organisation name.

Nor is there much reason to be that concerned overall. Some companies who
got in early get cool names. So be it. Everyone can get *a* name, and *a*
name is all that's needed - search engines do a great job of the rest - in
addition to the non-electronic means for communicating a company name
(business cards, letterhead, adverts), all of which are effective means to
get the message across in terms of what domain name the organization is using.

Simon
---
Simon Hackett, Technical Director, Internode Systems Pty Ltd
31 York St [PO Box 284, Rundle Mall], Adelaide, SA 5000 Australia
Email: simon§internode.com.au  Web: http://www.on.net
Phone: +61-8-8223-2999          Fax: +61-8-8223-1777