Boycott Icann's New Domain Name Extension Release, Thread

[unholygod]

The end of domaining ?

Biggest Expansion to Internet in Forty Years Approved for Implementation

26 June 2008

Paris, France: The Board of ICANN today approved a recommendation that could see a whole range of new names introduced to the Internet's addressing system.

"The Board today accepted a recommendation from its global stakeholders that it is possible to implement many new names to the Internet, paving the way for an expansion of domain name choice and opportunity" said Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN.

A final version of the implementation plan must be approved by the ICANN Board before the new process is launched. It is intended that the final version will be published in early 2009.

"The potential here is huge. It represents a whole new way for people to express themselves on the Net," said Dr Twomey. "It's a massive increase in the 'real estate' of the Internet."

Presently, users have a limited range of 21 top level domains to choose from — names that we are all familiar with like .com, .org, .info.

This proposal allows applicants for new names to self-select their domain name so that choices are most appropriate for their customers or potentially the most marketable. It is expected that applicants will apply for targeted community strings such as (the existing) .travel for the travel industry and .cat for the Catalan community (as well as generic strings like .brandname or .yournamehere). There are already interested consortiums wanting to establish city-based top level domain, like .nyc (for New York City), .berlin and .paris.

"One of the most exciting prospect before us is that the expanding system is also being planned to support extensions in the languages of the world," said Peter Dengate Thrush, ICANN's Chairman. "This is going to be very important for the future of the Internet in Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia." The present system only supports 37 Roman characters.

Upon approval of the implementation plan, it is planned that applications for new names will be available in the second quarter of 2009.

SOURCE

 

[paleoglobe]

I know this opinion will have opponents, especially since I am not a specialist domainer. In the past world, you all grew up with domain names. In the present world search engines take a much more important place.

I have invested in some domains myself, but if I am honnest, I use the adress line in very few occasions. Many people have google as a startpage and type in what they want. Ofcourse I understand that a good and catchy domain name is interesting in the listings and ofcourse also if you advertise the site offline. Since a few years SEO is much more important than a premium name.

Also I find it quite stupid that many of you have very little respect for new extentions. Although these could be toppers in search results. Many of you would pay a lot more for a 3 word .com than for a fair or good for example .asia. If you follow the current evolution, this seems stupid. Why would a .fun or a .asia not appear in your searchresults? Also for offline marketing a name like have.fun would be easy to remember!

I am NOT planning on buying any of these new names, but all I want to say, is that it is possible that they reach a broad public if your SEO is done well. .com does not have a monopoly on the market. Prices go high because .coms are more rare. But lets face it, rare only makes value when there are no alternatives. And that is something that seems to be changing...

Christophe

 

[resto]

Good thread..

I agree with the above posters about times are changing and kids are growing up.

I think .com will always be cool but that is just me will the new kids think it is so cool? Probably not.

I think this new internet real estate will make .com prices drop drastically..this is going to be a major thing much bigger then a group of old guys stuck on .com.

I will always love .com to me in the future it will be like the car you see with the old license plate from 50 years ago.

 

[Keral_Patel]

I will always love .com to me in the future it will be like the car you see with the old license plate from 50 years ago.

Okay lets agree but yet you know those oldies do sell for a lot of dollars though.

Is someone seeing what I am seeing? The trend? The new domainers?

I was more or less right about the next BIG HYPE.

 

[raredn.com]

Okay lets agree but yet you know those oldies do sell for a lot of dollars though.

Is someone seeing what I am seeing? The trend? The new domainers?

I was more or less right about the next BIG HYPE.

I think the new domainers, 'think' they have missed the .com boat, so they jump at any new domain extension hoping that it will peform a 'feat of alchemy'. Just IMO of course

 

[estibot.com]

Okay lets agree but yet you know those oldies do sell for a lot of dollars though.

Is someone seeing what I am seeing? The trend? The new domainers?

I was more or less right about the next BIG HYPE.

I think the new domainers, 'think' they have missed the .com boat, so they jump at any new domain extension hoping that it will peform a 'feat of alchemy'. Just IMO of course

Yup, and of course that's already happened with .tv, .mobi and .asia (to name but a few examples), so nothing new there. That's why the only way to make money out of this is to own a TLD instead of throwing money at those who do own one..

If that's not your cup of tea, then I think it's worth keeping a keen eye on the market, and trying to understand how this will affect the value of your current portfolio, and take appropriate action. Mostly this means anticipating a value drop of all but the premium tlds.

This is potentially not "just another hype" though - it is a bit different from the sporadic introduction of new tld's - if there is a sudden massive increase of tld's, then the whole market will be affected. Lots of hype to be expected, new TLD owners luring in domainers to register thousands of names, but that's not what I mean. I mean the impact that this change will have on the market as a whole.

Just IMHO of course.

 

[tipsfromthetop]

I think the new domainers, 'think' they have missed the .com boat, so they jump at any new domain extension hoping that it will peform a 'feat of alchemy'. Just IMO of course

No your right mate, i hope the new domainers boats do come but if your a realist no matter how your boat floats they will never hold the prestige/value the .com and the .co.uk, .de etc etc does today.

Every enduser either has the .com or country extension for there business why because thats the way the internet has moulded these companies. How many adverts do you see on telly.. Confused.com.. google.com, yahoo.co.uk, CNN.com ... have you ever seen any of these new extensions imprinted on your eyes through magazine ads, tv comericials etc etc if you have its rare..

Everyone has there own views and i will only advise its down to the individual at the end of the day how they want to spend there money.. but for 99% of domainers being a domainer sure is a hobby but its also a business like property you invest in the hope to make a profit.

I wish you all well

Steve

 

[DnFloorCEO]

Out of the 14 domains listed, only 2 taxicab companies are represented here. So please, who is being greedy?

If I was the head of the National Taxi Association, I think it would be a service to my members to start dotCab and limit it to TAXI companies.

However, limited .extensions increase competition. What do you think the 12 parking sites hope to accomplish? Their ultimate goal would be to find a taxi company end user. If people are going to get these crappy extensions instead of buying already regged domains, it's just going to end up hurting the domain industry as a whole.

 

[scandiman]

Here's a break down of Taxi/TaxiCabs -

Taxi.com Owned by A & R company
Taxi.net NL Taxi Company
Taxi.Org NL Taxi Company (same as Net)
Taxi.info redirects to 1maia.com
Taxi.biz redirects to hopescience.com
Taxi.us redirects to SEDO auction page where domain is being auctioned for $35,000 (reserve met)
Taxi.de Owned and being used by Taxi company
Taxicab.com (Parked and ugly)
Taxicab.net (Parked and ugly)
Taxicab.org (Parked and ugly)
Taxicab.info (Parked and ugly)
Taxicab.us (Parked and ugly)
Taxicab.biz (Parked and ugly)
Taxicabs.de (Parked and ugly)

You left out TaxiCab.mobi, a very useful developed website.

 

[ecigs.net]

Don't Panic.

You left out TaxiCab.mobi, a very useful developed website.

Wow. Cool Site!! Great Format too. Right where you need it too -- on a mobile phone. It was definitely not my intention to leave out MOBI. I was in a hurry and forgot it.

FGClips, you wrote:

However, limited .extensions increase competition. What do you think the 12 parking sites hope to accomplish? Their ultimate goal would be to find a taxi company end user. If people are going to get these crappy extensions instead of buying already regged domains, it's just going to end up hurting the domain industry as a whole.

Are you nuts? In a free market, competition is always good. No competition means monopoly and higher consumer prices. Besides that, since when has a new TLD effected COM in any way except positively? Premium domains will always be the best you can get. So why worry? More people getting into the industry is good for everyone. So why the panic?

PS - Those parking sites do not help domainers in any way. Not one of the parked sites I mentioned shows up in Google in the first 5 pages for the terms, "taxi" or "taxicabs". A domain should easily be in the top ten searches fora search of its own name. Therefore, parking houses are not helping the domainer make money. The sites would sell faster if they were in the top three search results on page one. So, I disagree. Parked sites are not there to find endusers. They are there to make parking companies money.

 

[AndyR]

I think that I am with the majority here in thinking that this was probably inevitable and now that it has been announced, certainly inevitable. With corporations becoming bigger than countries, why should they not own a TLD.

The growth in the market is to be welcomed, as has been often stated, the market is king, protectionism for any sector is to be avoided. If internet users are now at a billion and much of this number in the last few years, adapting moores law says that probably this will double in the next five, where are the millions of names that new users will want as their personal domain.

Every large ISP will probably be looking at their own top level domain .virgin etc. The churches will see this as a route to more bucks, political parties. You will get a free hosted yourname.ford if you buy one etc. Competition prizes, advertising, the skies are the limit on this one and I see little virtue in closing ones mind to it. There is money to be made here methinks,

andyr

 

[Ray]

I am not interested in these new extenstions... I will join the boycot!!

 

[paleoglobe]

I don't think it matters if you are pro or contra these new extentions. Most of us won't even get close to owning one. If this will be a success, it will be a game that is played on a higher level. Major Companies might consider asking domain consultants to help them choose the appropriate tlds, but thats it.

PS. I agree with the above. Your ranking will become more important, type in traffic will become less important. The ease of search engines has grown and the internet is becoming more and more complex. Why still pay 20.000$ on a .com if you can get another domain and SEO it to a higher rank...

Extentions will become less important in my opinion.
Rankings will become more important.

And if this means that a .asia gets higher than the .com variant, than so be it. And who will make the most money from visitors? You do the math.

Christophe

 

[dotnom]

Well i see some people claiming domainers are few and want to retain the com glory because they already have .com domains and that the internet has changed ......

Most of you forget one basic thing to human psychology
See and replicate

The only reason and the only hop for the new TLDs to survive (even if all domainers boycott the TLDs) is to see really big corps support them.

For me the TLD issue works like this :

1. Big corporations with lot of influence to buyers build a site under a TLD
2. The product awareness they have to their market supports the TLD
3. Internet users see this support/trend and they replicate it as good/valid/strong
4. One company see the other company and replicate. Their customers follow (same happens also with no profit but reputable persons/organizations/......)

We saw commercial sites with .info, warez sites with .org, .net for personal pages....
So it's not about internet categorization but what big guys will do with these TLDs

For example let's assume that microsoft or google go and support a generic TLD say .games do you think .games will not be popular the same moment ?

I think even with the boycott of the new TLDs i give them value
I just don't care for them

Maybe some TLDs will be interesting (for me the .games examples i mention above will be interesting indeed) maybe some not but the case here is that for the next years the owners of the .whatever TLD will give their traffic to the similar .com websites

 

[npcomplete]

Boycotting new markets is usually as effective as boycotting entropy. Good luck with that. Both Entropy and Free Market dynamics are based on large numbers. "Boycotts" are already taking place within the market via the individual decisions of those that comprise the market. If a tld fails that is a natural market result.

Personally I love to see competition in the market, regardless of whether it hurts my own market position... that just means you need to adjust your position. I am hoping for some new excellent tld's to change the market. New markets create new opportunities for investment.

 

[resto]

Okay lets agree but yet you know those oldies do sell for a lot of dollars though.

I agree they are worth $ and probably always will be worth some $.

Personally I love to see competition in the market, regardless of whether it hurts my own market position... that just means you need to adjust your position. I am hoping for some new excellent tld's to change the market. New markets create new opportunities for investment.

I like to see markets change the thing that might suck for average investors is that these new domains will probably be controlled and the profits will probably be all made by the big guys with 150,000 to invest in the name and the big marketing campaigns they already have in place with their company names.

People are so hypnotized by consumer logos and icons I'm sure they will buy into the commercialized domain names.

In the future if there is all of these extensions with glamorized marketing attached to them .com will probably look boring.

But it will be interesting to see what new changes take place.

Will there be anywhere for the small guy?

 

[recluse99]

Here's a reason for ICANN, profit
pure and simple
Any business will want more profit, even the non-profit sector(they have bills to pay too)
It was inevitable that dotMCDONALDS and dotMICROSOFT would come into existience.
http://www.software.microsoft
http://onlineorder.mcdonalds
http://boycott.icann ....

 

[ecigs.net]

Software.msn?

Here's a reason for ICANN, profit
pure and simple
Any business will want more profit, even the non-profit sector(they have bills to pay too)
It was inevitable that dotMCDONALDS and dotMICROSOFT would come into existience.
http://www.software.microsoft
http://onlineorder.mcdonalds
http://boycott.icann ....

Do you sell domains for non-profit purposes or do you want to sell them for the most amount of money you can? I'm just curious. You seem to be posting against profit.

dotMcDonalds What a concept. Buy a Happy Meal and get a free LLL.McD. (Offer available to the first customers 17,576 only.)

 

[recluse99]

Do you sell domains for non-profit purposes or do you want to sell them for the most amount of money you can? I'm just curious. You seem to be posting against profit.

ICANN is a nonprofit,
They create work for themselves to get a bigger salary...
The company may be nonprofit but who really gets paid...the big bosses
Most nonprofit do good, then people figure out that a large portion of the monies they collect go to the ones who run the show. I'm not against the profit, I'm against the 'extra' work that sucks the till dry by paying the higher ups a fat-ass salary, their friends who work as 'consultants', and other 'for-profit' businesses they work with...
imo,

 

[ecigs.net]

Icann

One of ICANN's self-proclaimed jobs is to promote expansion.

"ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet."

Creating new TLDs fits within the scope of their intended purpose.

They also say, ICANN "promotes competition". Competition creates growth. Increasing competition in our industry will make it stronger, not weaker.

 

[siga]

Most interesting thread cheers OP.

Firstly I agree with Rob J. IMO Most people especially the younger generation pick up the link from
<a> advertising campaign in the media using a example already mentioned else where (levi.jeans) or as I found from the work canteen a present one for the catering campany (abetterday.tv)
<b> a search engine
<c> from someother link ie other website/ friend/ referall/ signature...

Some people type in the address bar but I personally have only really started doing this on mass since entering domaining. Previously I was limited using the address bar for (searching for google or hotmail) as a quicker means of getting somewhere I knew who to get to already. Afterworking in internet cafes when I was a student I noticed most people seem to use search engines this is why there are search engines on the home page of most internet cafes you will go to. The people who use address bars are at the poles of both ends of the spectrum "the confused" and "the very well informed"

My point is: if you are being linked to something from a reputable company ie search engine, or other internet internal source the general user in the future will go to it or type it in. this goes with external links such as tv ads/ flyers/ phone books / even text messages. (which are now easier and you can just click on the link in you text message to take you to the web page.)

To further back up the new TLDs my friends family and other s that I have spoken to regarding this subject (people who are in the middle of the spectrum I discussed in the paragraph above) all think this is a great big change and it will be greatly used ie the proposed .xxx or .porn .jeans etc will be used the whole time. Some even suggest this is a good time for speculation knowing I've been dabbling with DNs. Therefore there will be quite a few newbs jumping on the band wagon and trying there luck.

Having said that

I will be sticking to current popular tlds and a few cctlds for the most part. Although I will not boycott the New Tlds I just feel they will be more of a marketing game and highly volitile from my own domaining perspective.

Esa mentioned the new winners will be the sponsors of these new tlds this is very true. I imagine if you have the contacts in the industry and a good rep this will open great oppertunitys to make money. Go to levis, diesel, wrangler and evisu and get them interested in <.jeans> on a long term contract and the other jean companys will fall into suite behind them.

Out of interest does anyone think this will increase the popularity of domain hacks to end users?