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THIS COULD MEAN BANKRUPTCY FOR TONS OF DOMAINERS AND A TON MORE COMPETITION ONLINE!

NEW YORK — Amazon.com wants ".joy," Google wants ".love" and L'Oreal wants ".beauty."

Big brands are behind hundreds of proposals for new Internet addresses, including scores for generic terms such as "cruise," ".kids" and ".tires."

If approved, Amazon could use ".author" in an attempt to dominate online bookselling, while Google could use ".love" to collect registration fees from its rivals.

Amazon and Google also are vying for ".app" and ".music," while the wine company Gallo Vineyards Inc. wants ".barefoot."

It's all part of the largest expansion of the Internet address system since its creation in the 1980s, a process likely to cause headaches for some companies while creating vast opportunities for others.

The organization in charge of Internet addresses, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, announced the proposals for Internet suffixes Wednesday. A suffix is the ".com" part in a domain name.

The bids now go through a review that could take months or years. Up to 1,000 suffixes could be added each year.

There were 1,930 proposals for 1,409 different suffixes. The bulk of proposals that met the May 30 deadline came from North America and Europe. About 100 were for suffixes in non-English characters, including Chinese, Arabic and Thai.

From a technical standpoint, the names let Internet-connected computers know where to send email and locate websites. But they've come to mean much more. For Amazon.com Inc., for instance, the domain name is the heart of the company, not just an address.


A new suffix could be used to identify sites that have a certain level of security protection. It could be used to create online neighborhoods of businesses affiliated with a geographic area or an industry. French cosmetics giant L'Oreal, for instance, proposed ".beauty" as a home for beauty products and general information on personal beauty.

"The Internet is about to change forever," ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom declared. "We're standing at the cusp of a new era of online innovation, innovation that means new businesses, new marketing tools, new jobs, new ways to link communities and share information."

But there's a question of how useful the new names will be. Alternatives to ".com" introduced over the past decade have had mixed success. These days, Internet users often find websites not by typing in the address but by using a search engine. And with mobile devices getting more popular, people are using apps to bypass Web browsers entirely.

Many businesses worry that they'll have to police the Internet for addresses that misuse their brands, in many cases paying to register names simply to keep them away from others. It was one thing having some 300 suffixes; it's another to have thousands.

"One thing that's going to occur is a lot of money is going to get sucked out of the ecosystem," said Lauren Weinstein, co-founder of People For Internet Responsibility and a strong critic of ICANN. "The cost is billions and billions of dollars with no value returned to people and an enormous capacity for confusion."

One worry is that an expansion will mean more addresses available to scam artists who use similar-sounding names such as "Amazom" rather than "Amazon" to trick people into giving passwords and credit card information.

The public now has 60 days to comment on the proposals. There's also a seven-month window for filing objections, including claims of trademark violation.

Of the 1,930 proposals, 1,179 were unique and 751 were for 230 different suffixes. ICANN will hold an auction if competing bidders cannot reach a compromise. Most of the duplicate bids were for generic names, though the Guardian newspaper and The Guardian Life Insurance Co. both sought ".guardian."

Bidders had to pay $185,000 per proposal. If approved, each suffix would cost at least $25,000 a year to maintain, with a 10-year commitment required. By comparison, a personal address with a common suffix such as ".com" usually costs less than $10 a year.

ICANN has received some $350 million in application fees. The money will be used to set up the system, review applications and make sure parties do what they have promised once the suffix is operational. Some of the money will be set aside to cover potential lawsuits from unsuccessful applicants and others.

Some of the proposals are for suffixes to be reserved for in-house use. Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp., for instance, plan to restrict ".yahoo and ".microsoft" to their sites or affiliates, while keeping their current names under ".com." If Google Inc. wins its bid for ".search," the search leader won't let rivals use it.

But there are hundreds of proposals for generic names that the public would be able to buy names under – for $10 or thousands depending on the suffix. Some are coming from entrepreneurs or businesses that specialize in domain names.

Others are from big technology companies. That means Google, for instance, could charge its fiercest rivals for rights to "Microsoft.love," "Facebook.love" and "Apple.love." Google declined comment.

Amazon has bids for 76 names, many related to businesses the online bookseller now dominates or might want to. Besides ".book" and ".author," Amazon is seeking ".joy."

That worries Stephen Ewart, marketing manager of Names.co.uk, a domain name reseller that stands to gain from registrations under new suffixes, including ".joy" if it is approved.

"Once you own these spaces, you can write your own terms and conditions," he says. "Big brands can decide who can be there and decide what can be put in that space. It's a bit cynical to think someone can be locked out of joy."

"Do we want the likes of Amazon owning joy?" he asks.

Amazon declined comment.

Amazon and Google are among 13 bidders for ".app." Both companies operate stores for distributing apps for mobile devices running Google's Android system. That could shut out Apple Inc. and its rival iPhone and iPad devices.

While Google applied for 101 suffixes, Apple sought only one, ".apple." EBay Inc. and Facebook Inc. didn't propose for any. It was Amazon that bid for ".like" – the button on Facebook that lets users recommend links and brands to friends.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...mong-suf_n_1592839.html?utm_hp_ref=technology
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
They were talking about this on the news about 2 hrs ago.

Its just more pollution for the internet.
The general public as it is cant remember one TLD from the next.

That is why .COM will always be king.
Of course many country codes will continue to be King in their own right like .DE and so on but as it is most people think of .COM way before they think of .NET .ORG or anything else.
 
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ICANN has received some $350 million in application fees. The money will be used to set up the system, review applications and make sure parties do what they have promised once the suffix is operational. Some of the money will be set aside to cover potential lawsuits from unsuccessful applicants and others.

1. Yeah, right! Just like ICANN don't do already with tld's they already control. Making sure Registrars obey their flaky rules.

2. If they are reserving money for potential lawsuits, it just goes to show what a bunch of !@#$ this whole new tld thing is all about.

3. $350M is a nice bunch of non-refundable change going straight into ICANN's coffers to pay for even more lavish junkets.
 
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some feel all this upcoming confusion will only make .com stronger
 
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.com will erode imo. It's only so long a bubble can last. Users will not pay a premium for a .com when they can get keyword+new extension.
 
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.com will erode imo. It's only so long a bubble can last. Users will not pay a premium for a .com when they can get keyword+new extension.

That's like saying Virgin Cola is about to take over and the Coke and Pepsi bubble is about to burst. Ain't no bubble. Gold isn't a bubble.

You have the normal marketing dollars businesses put in, they would have to spend even more because of the new extension, when they could take the money and put it to a good .com in the first place.

Besides all the confusion, leakage, and all the other problems brought up already in various threads and blogs.

Businesses already existing, already have their domains and the money they put into it already, they're not going to change. The only real target is new business. A serious business, with some sort of clue of consumer behavior, won't touch these, maybe amateurs will. And they'll be sorry for it later. It's hard enough for businesses out there, it'll be even harder trying to market it on some novelty extension.

Let me add something else I found funny, from Frank Schilling's blog:

"Recall the time when Budweiser switched their core marketing to Bud.TV, only to retreat to the familiar Bud.Com when they realized they alone were “innovating” in that space."

I could bring up Overstock and their .co fiasco, they retreated as well, went back home to .com.

That's from a big company with some marketing dollars. Again, do you think a big company is going to abandon their .com and try these out? Of course not. Do you think some rinky dink mom and pop business is going to move the internet to these new extensions? Of course not.

If you read some of the comments from the article linked to in the first post, normal, outside this business, people are clowning on these extensions. Not a good sign.

Really all a company has to do is get creative, come up with an original name, a brand, and pay a whopping $8 or so.
 
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That's like saying Virgin Cola is about to take over and the Coke and Pepsi bubble is about to burst. Ain't no bubble. Gold isn't a bubble.

You have the normal marketing dollars businesses put in, they would have to spend even more because of the new extension, when they could take the money and put it to a good .com in the first place.

Besides all the confusion, leakage, and all the other problems brought up already in various threads and blogs.

Businesses already existing, already have their domains and the money they put into it already, they're not going to change. The only real target is new business. A serious business, with some sort of clue of consumer behavior, won't touch these, maybe amateurs will. And they'll be sorry for it later. It's hard enough for businesses out there, it'll be even harder trying to market it on some novelty extension.

Pepsi and Coke have a monopoly on the sweet beverage industry, BUT they do not have absolute control of the beverage industry. User trends change and if someone comes out with a good quality BEVERAGE they have a fair chance of taking a good share of the market.

.com is only "king" because historically internet users have lacked the awareness that there are other extensions out there. One or two extensions would emerge every so often like .mobi and .tel, only to be shelved.

But this is different. This is not 1 .tel ,this is a complete rework of the internet extensions. With so many new extensions and big names like google to market them, people will become more aware that there are more extensions than just .com.

.com is the most registered but also the most squatted domain. Think of any good name, type it into a domain search and it will be taken. Check the site and it will be spam or parked. Rather than spend the time negotiating with the owner or squatter, people are finding creative solutions.

With the plethora of new extensions it will make it that much easier to get a good name you want without the hassle.

.com ruled the days of typing in domains, but that too is coming to an end. More and more people are using search and a parked .com cannot beat a website+any extension with content.

Google is also blacklisting more and more parked domains, reducing the value of them.

That being said, every dynasty has a timeframe. Nothing lasts forever. .com had its time and did well. But its time of ruling the internet is coming to an end.
 
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"User trends change and if someone comes out with a good quality BEVERAGE they have a fair chance of taking a good share of the market."

Not if the satisfaction level is met. Coke and Pepsi satisfies most people's cola needs. You can have a great cola, even a better tasting cola, too late. Ask Coke. Most Coke drinkers actually preferred the taste of New Coke over the Original in blind taste test studies but take the blindfold off and then let them choose, they went Original. You can look at Google and search. You had Teoma, AllTheWeb, just as good or better, too late. Google was already ingrained, just like .com.

".com is only "king" because historically internet users have lacked the awareness that there are other extensions out there. One or two extensions would emerge every so often like .mobi and .tel, only to be shelved."

There are alternative extensions already out there. They haven't taken off. What makes you think this time it will? Especially when there is a flood of them.

".com is the most registered but also the most squatted domain. Think of any good name, type it into a domain search and it will be taken. Check the site and it will be spam or parked. Rather than spend the time negotiating with the owner or squatter, people are finding creative solutions."

If the creative solution is one I mentioned, come up with something original.com. Lots of companies have. Name some big companies with greatkeyword.exotic extension.

As far as parked domains, you act like that's not going to happen with these new extensions. Yes, some .coms are parked, as in other extensions. But the biggest sites in the world are on these mainstream extensions as well.

"That being said, every dynasty has a timeframe. Nothing lasts forever. .com had its time and did well. But its time of ruling the internet is coming to a end."

Gold and Coke have a pretty solid history. You saying that .com is coming to an end is one of the more ridiculous statements you can could make.
 
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If anyone plans to drop their quality .COM to invest in great alternatives like .Physio, .CancerResearch, .CashBackBonus, .Duck, or .Ketchup (all real extensions) please let me know. I am willing to take them off your hands for peanuts.

Brad
 
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People outside the loop treat TLDs like DVD vs Blueray... Casette Tape vs CD...

They think "This is new. It will replace the old."


That's entirely wrong. With BluRay, with CDs, with MP3s and iPads... those replace old tech because they OFFER SOMETHING BENEFICIAL.


hello.kids offers NOTHING over hellokids.com


In fact, if you tell 100 people "Go to hello.kids" without letting them jot it down (as if they heard it in passing or in the car on the radio) they will get home at the end of the day and immediately try to go to hellokids.com instead.

When it doesn't resolve to the correct webpage, they'll probably give up.



All the people who think these new TLDs are going to destroy .com need to look at how "popular" all the current forgettable TLDs are.

How many of us have been to a single .name website on a regular bases?
 
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"User trends change and if someone comes out with a good quality BEVERAGE they have a fair chance of taking a good share of the market."

Not if the satisfaction level is met. Coke and Pepsi satisfies most people's cola needs. You can have a great cola, even a better tasting cola, too late. Ask Coke. Most Coke drinkers actually preferred the taste of New Coke over the Original in blind taste test studies but take the blindfold off and then let them choose, they went Original. You can look at Google and search. You had Teoma, AllTheWeb, just as good or better, too late. Google was already ingrained, just like .com.

".com is only "king" because historically internet users have lacked the awareness that there are other extensions out there. One or two extensions would emerge every so often like .mobi and .tel, only to be shelved."

There are alternative extensions already out there. They haven't taken off. What makes you think this time it will? Especially when there is a flood of them.

".com is the most registered but also the most squatted domain. Think of any good name, type it into a domain search and it will be taken. Check the site and it will be spam or parked. Rather than spend the time negotiating with the owner or squatter, people are finding creative solutions."

If the creative solution is one I mentioned, come up with something original.com. Lots of companies have. Name some big companies with greatkeyword.exotic extension.

As far as parked domains, you act like that's not going to happen with these new extensions. Yes, some .coms are parked, as in other extensions. But the biggest sites in the world are on these mainstream extensions as well.

"That being said, every dynasty has a timeframe. Nothing lasts forever. .com had its time and did well. But its time of ruling the internet is coming to a end."

Gold and Coke have a pretty solid history. You saying that .com is coming to an end is one of the more ridiculous statements you can could make.


Not if the satisfaction level is met. Coke and Pepsi satisfies most people's cola needs. You can have a great cola, even a better tasting cola, too late. Ask Coke. Most Coke drinkers actually preferred the taste of New Coke over the Original in blind taste test studies but take the blindfold off and then let them choose, they went Original.

Your missing the point. Coke and Pepsi own the Cola Market. But not the beverage market. If people start buying healthy drinks they deplete coke and pepsi's market share regarless of their monopoly on cola. dot com is a extension in a bigger marketplace.

You can look at Google and search. You had Teoma, AllTheWeb, just as good or better, too late. Google was already ingrained, just like .com.

Well Bing launched in 2009 and has 15% market share. Google had an evolving product while alltheweb altavista were stagnant, so thats why it won.


If the creative solution is one I mentioned, come up with something original.com. Lots of companies have. Name some big companies with greatkeyword.exotic extension.

Well, I don't have a list but off the top

Justin.tv (by the way a dumb squatter bought justintv.com for $23,000 to capitalize but justin.tv couldn't care less)

Donuts.co

About.me

pl.ayli.st

More and more companies are starting to do this in the last few years.


Gold and Coke have a pretty solid history.

Gold serves a backbone for financial currency, see gold standard. Coke created a great product and has stayed a monopoly by buying tons of drink companies like fruitopia, minute maid, fuze.

You saying that .com is coming to an end is one of the more ridiculous statements you can could make.

I'm sure it was also ridiculous to sell shares when NASDAQ was at 6000 and everyone thought it would keep going up.
 
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People outside the loop treat TLDs like DVD vs Blueray... Casette Tape vs CD...

They think "This is new. It will replace the old."


That's entirely wrong. With BluRay, with CDs, with MP3s and iPads... those replace old tech because they OFFER SOMETHING BENEFICIAL.

Right those created benefits for consumers.

However the new gTLD was not some organic solution that was created by popular demand, it was a solution that was created for a problem that did not exist.

It is a cash grab for ICANN and other major players (registries, registrars, consultants, etc). The rich get richer.

There is absolutely no benefit to the general public.

All the people who think these new TLDs are going to destroy .com need to look at how "popular" all the current forgettable TLDs are.

How many of us have been to a single .name website on a regular bases?

If .Travel, .Jobs can't make it why would loading the marketplace with thousands of crappy alternatives do any better?

Brad

---------- Post added at 01:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:58 AM ----------

Justin.tv (by the way a dumb squatter bought justintv.com for $23,000 to capitalize but justin.tv couldn't care less)

Actually they did care, because Justin.TV lost a ton of traffic to JustinTV.com. In fact they filed and won a UDRP for the domain -

http://www.udrpsearch.com/naf/1436777

Brad
 
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You and I agree, not sure if my point got across correctly.
 
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You and I agree, not sure if my point got across correctly.

I agree with all points you made.

I was just expanding on what you said and reinforcing your point.

Brad
 
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Right those created benefits for consumers.

However the new gTLD was not some organic solution that was created by popular demand, it was a solution that was created for a problem that did not exist.

It is a cash grab for ICANN and other major players (registries, registrars, consultants, etc). The rich get richer.

There is absolutely no benefit to the general public.



If .Travel, .Jobs can't make it why would loading the marketplace with thousands of crappy alternatives do any better?

Brad

---------- Post added at 01:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:58 AM ----------



Actually they did care, because Justin.TV lost a ton of traffic to JustinTV.com. In fact they filed and won a UDRP for the domain -

http://www.udrpsearch.com/naf/1436777

Brad

You make excellent points.

The main reason for all the hype over this is the large LLC monopolized domain "entreMANURES of domaining. They know who they are. For years they have manipulated domaining by bringing in snake oil and impossible dreams to desperate domainers. Maybe this will be their last HOO RAHH, I certainly hope so. And i hope they go broke doing so.
 
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Finite shelf space is a significant barrier to new TLD visibility and adoption. John Q Public goes to Godaddy, is greeted by a search box with com default, ignores the TLD dropdown, types in SLD and clicks 'search'. The next page says com is taken and offers co/info/net/org/ws/us/ca/biz/mobi options above the fold. It's a motley crew but it's product on the shelf. John has a short attention span and no patience to boot. He either takes a sad sack TLD off the shelf or searches different SLDs until the pizza arrives. Can web or llc knock ws or mobi off the shelf? Does Dolly Parton sleep on her back? No big deal. New sad sacks. Shelf space (screen size) is shrinking. Dotcom isn't.
 
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I kinda want a tld now. Just for the Hell of it.

I wonder if this will someday get so ridiculous that the price drops and the process is simplified to the point that there are tld speculators.

We'll need a tld bargain bin forum here.


"99 cent starting bid! - .gump tld"
 
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Users will not pay a premium for a .com when they can get keyword+new extension.
Then why do they continue to pay a premium for .com when they can pay 90% less for .net? 99% less for .info? Why do they offer $1,000 for a .com when the .net is available for regfee?
 
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I wonder if this will someday get so ridiculous that the price drops and the process is simplified to the point that there are tld speculators.

IMO a lot of the new TLDS are speculations where the whole TLD will get sold off later. Or go out of business. Or be marginalised by others as new TLDs get cheaper and cheaper to set up.
 
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"User trends change and if someone comes out with a good quality BEVERAGE they have a fair chance of taking a good share of the market."

Not if the satisfaction level is met. Coke and Pepsi satisfies most people's cola needs. You can have a great cola, even a better tasting cola, too late. Ask Coke. Most Coke drinkers actually preferred the taste of New Coke over the Original in blind taste test studies but take the blindfold off and then let them choose, they went Original. You can look at Google and search. You had Teoma, AllTheWeb, just as good or better, too late. Google was already ingrained, just like .com.

".com is only "king" because historically internet users have lacked the awareness that there are other extensions out there. One or two extensions would emerge every so often like .mobi and .tel, only to be shelved."

There are alternative extensions already out there. They haven't taken off. What makes you think this time it will? Especially when there is a flood of them.

".com is the most registered but also the most squatted domain. Think of any good name, type it into a domain search and it will be taken. Check the site and it will be spam or parked. Rather than spend the time negotiating with the owner or squatter, people are finding creative solutions."

If the creative solution is one I mentioned, come up with something original.com. Lots of companies have. Name some big companies with greatkeyword.exotic extension.

As far as parked domains, you act like that's not going to happen with these new extensions. Yes, some .coms are parked, as in other extensions. But the biggest sites in the world are on these mainstream extensions as well.

"That being said, every dynasty has a timeframe. Nothing lasts forever. .com had its time and did well. But its time of ruling the internet is coming to a end."

Gold and Coke have a pretty solid history. You saying that .com is coming to an end is one of the more ridiculous statements you can could make.
Dammit guys. Now I gotta drive 4 miles to the all-night convenience store just to buy a freakin Coke. :yell:
 
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Didn't we already have a thread talking about this same issue in the past? That was a very long thread with the same answers being posted.
 
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.com will erode imo. It's only so long a bubble can last. Users will not pay a premium for a .com when they can get keyword+new extension.
If you think .com will erode don't you think other extensions should be hit even more ? Perhaps you should consider liquidating your portfolio immediately.

There are already plenty of alternatives on the market...
The people who don't want to buy on the aftermarket will settle for the first acceptable alternative. If .biz is taken then they move on to .pro .corp .llc or whatever.
It's not business lost to domainers anyway.

.com is only "king" because historically internet users have lacked the awareness that there are other extensions out there.
It's not just a problem of awareness.
For example, until 2002 you couldn't easily register a .us domain.

For other ccTLDs you often had to send a fax to some govt body...

In 1995 registering a .com was natural because you could do it online with a credit card.

But this is different. This is not 1 .tel ,this is a complete rework of the internet extensions. With so many new extensions and big names like google to market them, people will become more aware that there are more extensions than just .com.
That's the theory.
New extensions are not new, they have been released slowly for a decade.
Awareness will only materialize with heavy promotion and usage. In other words, a critical mass of end users must endorse them.
Good luck with .ketchup.

Since you mention Google, they don't succeed in everything they do. They have had their share of failed projects. They were also a .mobi backer right?

.com ruled the days of typing in domains, but that too is coming to an end. More and more people are using search and a parked .com cannot beat a website+any extension with content.
In the 1990s some people were already predicting domain names would become irrelevant because of the search engines.
But domain names are not just conduits to a website, they are the online extension of your business card, they are branding tools.
 
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all extensions would erode - .tv and .ketchup would stay and live forever :)
 
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Point 1) 2013 and 2014 will be very good years for buying .com / .net / .org / .info from others, since probably many will be influenced by the hype and spend some money in the new tlds. And many owners of the established extensions might get nervous and sell their names cheaper that they would do today. Therefore, i personally am preparing to buy a lot of .coms, and CCTlds etc. in the following years and am saving funds just to do that.

Point 2) There is no difference between a .BIZ , .TV , .info , .JOBS, etc. and the new extensions coming out next. We saw how "successful" these extenions were in the last years and how they "ruined" the .com Owners (/sarcasm off). The only difference will be that the new extenions will not even have the "success" of .biz / .jobs / .etc because these extenions didn't have much competition (from others TLDs) when they came out and even WITHOUT the competition they were NOT successful, something like .BIZ or .INFO would have been two of the best TLDs coming out 2013 (IF they were not operating already). Now With 1000s of TLDs coming out next year, calculate the Chance of them to be successfull based ON FACTS (FACTS: similar tlds in the past , i.e. BIZ , JOBS , MUSEUM, etc.)

3) Don't trust People Who Tell You in Their Blogs, etc. How Successful the new TLDs will become. Some of them are involved indirectly in one or more of those tlds. So they want you to believe that and spend your money in Reg Fees.

Conclusion: Base your Opinion on FACTS not on DREAMS
 
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Another effect of allowing vanity TLDs is that ICANN cuts out the middleman - in essence selling directly to end users for sums that registrars can only dream of.

Reportedly, ICANN has taken in over $350 million in TLD application fees, which is practically all profit (ie. for GoDaddy to match that, assuming they net a generous $2 per domain, they'd still have to sell 175 million to match what ICANN did in one swoop!), and that's just at the get-go. TLD registrants will have to pony up around $25K or even more every year.

The idea that vanity TLD holders are going to act like traditional registrars and open up registration to the public is a farce, and many of the TLD applications clearly reflect that, such as MCDONALDS, METLIFE, ALLSTATE, DUPONT, FIRESTONE, etc.

While the motivation of ICANN is clearly $$$, the end result may be something even worse for the public at large - such vanity TLDs, many of which are restricted, could lead to increased balkanization of the internet.
 
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