Local Web
addresses could improve relationship between the state and
civil society / Survey by German ISP association
eco
The majority of
private Internet users in Germany favour the increased usage
of local domain endings as in .city or .region in the future
because the more memorable names will help them to better
find the information that they are looking for. That is the
core result of a representative survey that was commissioned
by eco Verband der deutschen Internetwirtschaft and
conducted by the market research company eResult at the
beginning of October. eco is the registered association of
German Internet enterprises.
The question whether
Internet addresses such as www.mayor.munich or
www.taxoffice.munich could help with the more efficient use
of the Internet offerings of a city or a region was being
answered with “yes” by 63.8% of the participants, 28.9% said
“possibly” and just 7.3% answered “no”. To question which
Internet address would be ideal to find the Lost & Found
office (Fundbüro) in ones own city, 43% of the citizens of
Munich preferred the address www.fundbuero.munich. Common
addresses such as www.fundbuero.munich.de (26%) or
www.munich.de/fundbuero (21%) follow with a marked distance.
Almost no support (8%) is given to a general address like
www.munich.de.
Close to 84% of
Internet users think that regional Internet addresses will
generally help to better find Internet offerings. Only 17%
of Internet users feel that their usage could be confusing
or that it would not be that important. Tourists in
particular might find better orientation in strange towns
and regions. Locals would benefit from better search results
for products and services and improved access to the
Internet services of public administrations.
“We can state that
private Internet users want their intuition to be considered
when it comes to naming web services”, commented
eco-CEO Harald A. Summa. “We recommend cities and
regions to take over the perspective of the user who is
focused on finding easy and uncomplicated answers to his
questions”. A web address should neither be so general
that searching takes longer than necessary nor so
complicated that no one can memorize it. The German
Bundestag has, after detailed consultations with the
appropriate ministries and stakeholders such as the eco and
the BITKOM association and the German Cities Council
(Deutscher Städtetag) stated its support fort he
introduction of Top-Level Domains for cities and regions.
There are some 11
million domains registered under the German ccTLD .de. It
seems obvious that, as the penetration grades continue to
rise, the available name space is not sufficient any more.
Cities, public authorities and commerce have a strong demand
for information that can be found in an easy and quick way.
Local Internet addresses that care for the intuition of
users could solve this problem.
Methodology
The participants were
selected on the basis of the AGOF-Internet users’ profile.
AGOF (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Online-Forschung) is the body
recognized in Germany as setting the standards for Internet
research. A total of 1,814 users from the 15 largest German
cities finished the questionnaire; 975 persons have reliably
answered all Period. The poll took place from October 4 to
October 10, 2007.
Related Links
http://www.eco.de
http://dip.bundestag.de/btd/16/045/1604564.pdf
http://www.dotberlin.de/files/Resolution%2016-4...
Original article link
