4 ms·

If "not bad, actually" is the best praise we can give these new TLDs, then it still feels like the downsides far outweigh the potential issues. Google bought t

If "not bad, actually" is the best praise we can give these new TLDs, then it still feels like the downsides far outweigh the potential issues. Google bought these TLDs. Google also owns Chrome. When you type "something.zip" into the Chrome toolbar, it used to search for it. Now it takes you to a URL. Is that the most widespread vector for attack? Probably not. But at the very least, it's super annoying for people searching for a certain file. I'm yet to see a single compelling reason why they should exist; the best defense has been "well yeah there's a ton of issues but _maybe_ it's not as bad as we think".

Volundr 3y ago
> Is that the most widespread vector for attack? Probably not. Yeah one big issue I had with the article was the assertion that telling people to open a file like VacationPhotos.zip isn't something humans do. Is it common? Probably not, but there are a LOT of humans. Even 1% of them doing something makes for a huge attack surface. The vacation photos example is also probably not a very good one. How many README.md files are there out there telling someone to look in assets.zip for the webserver assets, or docs.zip for documentation? Someone seeing this is a link would likely reasonably assume it's a link to the file in the repository, and I'm sure someone more creative than me could get up to all sorts of interesting shenanigans with that (incorrect) assumption.
- hfkwer 3y ago
  I guess we should revoke Molvoda's TLD then. One could think that readme.md is a file and not a domain.
  - Volundr 3y ago
    Guess which is older, Moldova's .md TLD or markdown? Just because we aren't going to go retroactively revoking TLDs doesn't mean we should actively make the problem worse. For the same reason we probably shouldn't start using the COM file extension for something again.
waboremo 3y ago
You never should have been able to type "something.zip" and go to a zip. That was chrome being unnecessarily "ambitious" in creating a shortcut when you should have always had to specify "file:///" like every other browser.
smoldesu 3y ago
You just can't trust '.' separators to always mean something is a file. I think most people have known that since the dotcom era. It's annoying that Google owns them, but there's no shortage of power inequalities in the domain registrar field. It sounds to me like a minor roadbump that is exacerbated by common misconceptions around FQDNs and MIME types.
classified 3y ago
Google needs to enshitten their search so people spend more time looking at ads.
soraminazuki 3y ago
I recall comments on new gTLDs being overwhelmingly negative when criticism was directed mainly at ICANN. I wonder why more people are willing to defending it now.

Volundr 3y ago

> Is that the most widespread vector for attack? Probably not. Yeah one big issue I had with the article was the assertion that telling people to open a file like VacationPhotos.zip isn't something humans do. Is it common? Probably not, but there are a LOT of humans. Even 1% of them doing something makes for a huge attack surface. The vacation photos example is also probably not a very good one. How many README.md files are there out there telling someone to look in assets.zip for the webserver assets, or docs.zip for documentation? Someone seeing this is a link would likely reasonably assume it's a link to the file in the repository, and I'm sure someone more creative than me could get up to all sorts of interesting shenanigans with that (incorrect) assumption.

hfkwer 3y ago
I guess we should revoke Molvoda's TLD then. One could think that readme.md is a file and not a domain.
- Volundr 3y ago
  Guess which is older, Moldova's .md TLD or markdown? Just because we aren't going to go retroactively revoking TLDs doesn't mean we should actively make the problem worse. For the same reason we probably shouldn't start using the COM file extension for something again.

waboremo 3y ago

You never should have been able to type "something.zip" and go to a zip. That was chrome being unnecessarily "ambitious" in creating a shortcut when you should have always had to specify "file:///" like every other browser.

smoldesu 3y ago

You just can't trust '.' separators to always mean something is a file. I think most people have known that since the dotcom era. It's annoying that Google owns them, but there's no shortage of power inequalities in the domain registrar field. It sounds to me like a minor roadbump that is exacerbated by common misconceptions around FQDNs and MIME types.

classified 3y ago

Google needs to enshitten their search so people spend more time looking at ads.

soraminazuki 3y ago

I recall comments on new gTLDs being overwhelmingly negative when criticism was directed mainly at ICANN. I wonder why more people are willing to defending it now.