Dr. Paul Mockapetris, the creator of the Domain Name System (DNS), which is used by millions of people billions of times each day, expresses skepticism about the long-term viability of his “child.”
Initially, Mockapetris envisioned the DNS supporting around 50 million Internet addresses. However, this number has expanded to a level that is now hard to quantify accurately. A survey conducted in January 2006 indicated that there are at least 394 million domain names currently on the Internet.
This level of unexpected success has not convinced Mockapetris that the naming mechanism on the Internet will have a stable future: “If you want to create something that lasts forever, you should pursue music or art.”
According to Mockapetris, in some respects, DNS is beginning to play a “behind-the-scenes” role for Internet users. Many popular email programs only display names, nicknames, or abbreviated addresses, meaning recipients rarely see the full address that contains the domain managing the email account.
Similarly, many users do not need to type in the complete domain name but instead access search engines like Google, input keywords, and click on links to navigate to specific sites. “The DNS technology is still functioning, but fewer people are interacting with it directly,” Mockapetris observes.
Several plans to change the operational mechanism of Internet domains are underway, such as integrating global phone numbers with email addresses within a system called ENum, also known as the E.164 protocol, to facilitate easier communication between people.
Mockapetris is currently the chairman of Nominum (USA), a company responsible for merging vast databases from telecommunications and cable providers with network services.
