The old adage that you can please some of the people some of the time but you can't please all the people all the time rang loud and clear this week in Marina Del Ray, Calif.
The city was the site of hearings by the Internet's domain name governing body, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and while some progress was made, not everyone was happy with the results.
It was announced yesterday that ICANN approved seven new top-level domains (TLDs), which are the suffixes attached to Web addresses.
Those that will be joining the ".com, " ".net, " and ".org" world are: ".museums"; ".name"; "aero"; ".coop"; ".info"; ".pro"; and ".biz."
The seven winners were trimmed from a list of 44 finalist.
While the new TLDs were the biggest news to come out of the ICANN meetings this week, it entire process created a stir among industry insiders.
On Wednesday, the 44 finalist were given three minutes each to plead their case one last time before the ICANN board went into closed meetings to make its final decisions.
One of the finalists, Lou Kerner, took his three minutes not for a last minute plea to the board, but instead to make his displeasure with the entire process known.
Among the topics Kerner brought up, according to numerous published reports, was ICANN's inability to stick to its own deadlines, the poor planning that surrounded the entire proceeding, and the "fundamental lack of due process."
Kerner ripped ICANN for not being prepared for the amount of applications it received for registering new TLDs and for bumping up its original deadline of Friday for announcing the new TLDs.
What really irked Kerner was the fact that his purposed new TLD, .nom, was run through a compressed review process in which the proceedings were held in secret.
Kerner was greeted with a long round of applause from the hundreds in attendance at the meeting.
The seven new TLDs were chosen for their practicality to the web.
The .museum domain will be used exclusively for museums while the .name domain will be used for personal sites and ".aero" will be used for the travel industry.
Cooperatives will be able to use the .coop domain while ".pro" will be designated for doctors, lawyers and accounts to start with other professions following. Joining the ".pro" domain for business purposes will be ".biz."
Only one of the seven new TLDs chosen, ".info", will be used as an all-purpose TLD. Affilias, a partnership between 19 registrars, feels the ".info" domain will eventually rival the ".com" TLD.
In addition to applicants such as Kerner expressing their disgust for the process on Wednesday, some of ICANN's own personal weren't too keen on some of the decisions made.
ICANN was hoping to create a competitive market with the new TLDs, ICANN's chairwoman Esther Dyson felt the competitive nature of the process took a blow when a "consortium" of companies is selected.
One of the biggest surprises to not make the final cut was the TLD of ".kids."
Under a proposal, the TLD would have created a safe haven for kids to surf and play on the Web.
While the idea was greeted with approval and many felt it was worth looking into, ICANN took the stance that it wasn't its business to protect children, or anyone else.
ICANN now will being a negotiating contracts with the groups chosen Thursday to operate the new TLDs. Officials feel they can have the contracts in place by the end of December and the new TLDs could be ready for the public by the spring. The seven new TLDs are the first to be added since the original three, which were established in the early 1980s.