As I mentioned above, I have a list of keywords and tricky phrases in which I use as a standard/starter to my domain search. This list is over 500 words/phrases in length (I think its 548 in total).
I bounced my list off of what was available with the extension .online and about 90% came back as registered (just a guess on the % but it was the largest part was showing as registered). The remaining 10% was available at premium prices of no less then $700 per year.
Just for giggles, I bounced my list off the extension again and decided to look up who registered the names.
I just chose 27 names at random from my list that showed up as registered and did the whois on them.
Here is the part that I am having troubles with. Every single one that I looked up came up with the same registrant, being RADIX REGISTRY.
And all these names where registered back in February.
Now, I have started throwing in random PREMIUM words into the whois and so far each of them have come back with the same information.
This got me to thinking. What is the chances that this company has registered a majority of the keywords/phrases is self and then listed those words as being "REGISTERED" on the GA date to inflate the numbers?
After spending some time on this forum (which is probably one of the main go to places for domainers) .ONLINE did not come off as one of the extensions that EVERYONE was excited about. If anything the reception was kind of lukewarm.
We all know that domainers are the ones that really drive the domain buying and selling industry especially in these new TLDs in which they are virtually unknown.
So how is it that (at least from my perception) an extension that was not highly anticipated and talked about before its launch garnered so many registrations?
How is it that if MANY of the keywords and tricky phrases are owned by the registry (or so it seems) that they still have those kinds of numbers.
If I was a guessing man, I would hazard to guess that the registry inflated the first day numbers by claiming the names that they registered as "being registered" that day to make it seem like there was more interest.
I would further guess, that the subsequent media coverage (here in domainer land) lead to people to pick up less then premium domains as an attempt to jump on the perceived domain train before it passes them up.
I would then guess that this kind of move would then be a self perpetuating move because as more and more people register the less then premium names, the numbers inflate more and more which then causes more and more people to feel the need to jump on the moving train all the while, the registry holds all the keyword domains and the value continue to go up and up.
THIS IS JUST A GUESS AT WHAT IS HAPPENING IF I WAS A GUESSING MAN.
It just seems very odd that from my list of keywords... the registry owns all of them and those that it does NOT, it has for sale at outrageous prices.
At $30-$40 bucks a pop... I am just having a really hard time making sense of these numbers.
Does anyone else find it odd?
What is the possibility that something like this could happen?
Where you interested in .ONLINE before the news of 15,000 in the first 2 minutes?
Was anyone able to find a single word premium domain for registration fee or something close to it?
Just curious
Cheers
