lack of ubiquitous lookup for URN NIDs leads to sloppy use [URNsAndRegistries-50]

I just discovered...

<definitions name="GoogleSearch" targetNamespace="urn:GoogleSearch">
 -- http://api.google.com/GoogleSearch.wsdl

urn:GoogleSearch isn't registered.
  http://www.iana.org/assignments/urn-namespaces

I'm pretty sure google would be embarrassed to use
an HTTP URI with an unregistered DNS domain... why aren't
they embarrassed to use an unregistered URN namespace identifier?

I think the fact that the lookup mechanisms for DNS names,
and hence http/ftp URIs, are ubiquitous creates a useful
pressure to not use bogus names. The pressure doesn't
seem to be there for URN namespaces, and the only way I can
see that pressure increasing is if URNs duplicate the
functionality of http... or at least if URNs get connected
to *some* communications protocol that causes bogus names
to get noticed routinely.

-- 
Dan Connolly, W3C http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/
D3C2 887B 0F92 6005 C541  0875 0F91 96DE 6E52 C29E