
On Tue, 13 March 2001, "Steven M. Bellovin" wrote:
>    Put simply, deploying multiple public DNS roots would raise a very
>    strong possibility that users of different ISPs who click on the same
>    link on a web page could end up at different destinations, against
>    the will of the web page designers.

Its not really the "will of the web page designers."  If this becomes
popular, I suspect most web page designers will start using dotted-quad
addresses inside their HTML URLs on their web pages.  So clicking on a
link on a web page will go to were the web page designer directs you.
Except for NAT strangeness, IP Address are mostly globally unique.

The issue is really one of user expectations.  Some class of users
have developed the expectation if they type some words resembling
what they are looking for in the "address" prompt of their web
browser, they will get taken to someplace they want.  Web browser
companies (e.g. Netscape, Microsoft) have reinforced this perception
by automagically transforming the user's input into something else.

Type "white house" into Internet Explorer 5.5's address prompt, and
watch what happens.  Netscape's browser has transformed any single
word "XXXXXX" into http://www.XXXXXXX.com/ for a while.





