> .blah.aus, .au.com, disney.au all don't make sense to me. I like to be
> able to guess at a company name and take a plunge at company.com.au. If 
> I have to start trying company.com.au, company.au.com, company.com.aus,
> company.au, company.aus. I already find it a little irritating that
> companies and organizations I want to connect to may be in .com, .net,
> .com.au, or .org.
> 
> 	Lets keep it simple and hierachical like it currently mostly is.

Robert, while your comments are also echoed by most users, the answer 
long term is not to keep everything hierarchical so names are easy to 
guess. The DNS is not a directory service - unfortunately, guessing is 
currently the best we have, or consulting a search engine first, since a 
real directory service doesn't exist yet. People are working on this 
problem too though, and when one is available the requirement for names 
being easy to guess should largely disappear.

*dream on*

future 'browers' will have an extended URL box which allows a person to 
type in a generic name (say 'Global One' for example) and a drop-down menu 
to select amongst services ('web server', 'ftp server', 'commerce server', 
etc). The software in the background first uses the directory 
protocol to find the DNS name of 'Global One's' (x) service (which could 
be non-obvious, like 'web13.go.net.net.net' - it doesn't matter, the 
public never see it) and then uses DNS to resolve the name to an IP 
address, and connects to that IP address.

In the case of there being more than one 'Global One', the first lookup 
pops up a selection box listing
'Global One Touch - security equipment supplier - Zimbabwe'
'Global One Communications - telecommunications - Australia'
'Global One Communications - telecommunications - USA'
'Harry's Global Onega Pump Supplies - pool accessories - UK'
etc.

and the user clicks on one.

* dream off *

---
Dr Paul Brooks (PB94)     | pbrooks§gip.net / Paul.Brooks§GlobalOne.net
Manager, Data Operations  | Ph. +61 2 9290 9000   Fax. +61 2 9290 9092
Global One Communications | 
Sydney, Australia         | Founding Member:Internet Society of Australia