.COM - The original and still the best?

[MTB]

There is value in every domain extension but I register 95% .com. In fact, now exclusively .com. The logic here is that good available .com's are becoming rarer and more valuable, especially the early ones from the 90's which pop up daily on ExpiredDomains/net.

When people guess a company's domain name they usually type .com. - which has stood the test of time for 30 years. I see the most open opportunity (for domain name traders) in .com on brandables which can still be registered for a few dollars, and with the free social media accounts.

Ten years from now I predict .com will be as strong as ever, but with less characters in the string (couldn't find any data to support this assumption - sources appreciated).

.com - The original and still the best.

 

[Dream Domains]

Yes.

 

[jmcc]

For the global market, yes.
For the US market, yes.
For country level markets outside the US, no.

Regards...jmcc

 

[HotKey]

I don't think social media will be so free in the years to come.. there will be a price to pay. Whether its through the incessant bombardment of advertising, or the sale of your personal info, the days of "free" will be no more. It's pretty much already here.

Which is why its more important than ever for people/businesses to secure their own DN in which to represent themselves.

Saying that, .COM is definitely still the big daddy. Nothing quite like securing a killer .com, and the sense of pride, prestige and trust that comes along with it. It is universally known, and accepted. I don't think there will ever be another extension quite like it, even if there's a paradigm shift to move to something newer, the combination of history and sheer usage will never be matched.

I think there's a common misconception among some new investors that a new extension is going to come along and "replace" .COM. It's all a bunch of rhetoric, where discussions are opened with these investors commonly stating outlandish claims like .top, .best or .gold or .whatever is the next big one, trying to convince themselves and others with reasons why.

If .COM is ever uprooted from its top spot, it's not going to be a single TLD that does it. It's impossible for that to happen, because there is no other single TLD that is as ubiquitous as .COM. It will have to be a combination of several TLDs that cover the proper range of keywords. These combined TLDs would have to prove a global consistency in recognition, usage, renewals and trading.

Why can it only be a combined number of TLDs to potentially match the success of .COM, and not a single TLD? Because the new extensions are keyword-specific; in most cases they mean something, so were designed to target a specific niche. And there is no one specific niche that is ubiquitous enough to satisfy the branding of all, such as .COM. And then there's extensions that don't really mean anything at all and have either have been mashed together in a "hip" phrase or relegated to an acronym. Eg. .xyz. When you have to spell out the extension, and can't say it as one word, like .COM, it becomes awkward and forgettable.

If there comes a time when .COM is not the best, it is very likely the internet as we know it today will be a very different landscape, and perhaps not even the internet at all, but some other type connection experience, one that doesn't use URLs, webpages, or domain names, but rather a holographic system of sorts, or something we haven't even conceived of yet. Until then, yep, respect the .COM for the powerhouse it is.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

I see the most open opportunity (for domain name traders) in .com on brandables which can still be registered for a few dollars

Endusers also see them...
Most brandables are question of luck only.
It must be really high motivation to buy them if it is possible to get just another brandable name for regfee.
This is how most creative endusers think...

 

[MTB]

Ex

I don't think social media will be so free in the years to come.. there will be a price to pay. Whether its through the incessant bombardment of advertising, or the sale of your personal info, the days of "free" will be no more. It's pretty much already here.

Which is why its more important than ever for people/businesses to secure their own DN in which to represent themselves.

Saying that, .COM is definitely still the big daddy. Nothing quite like securing a killer .com, and the sense of pride, prestige and trust that comes along with it. It is universally known, and accepted. I don't think there will ever be another extension quite like it, even if there's a paradigm shift to move to something newer, the combination of history and sheer usage will never be matched.

I think there's a common misconception among some new investors that a new extension is going to come along and "replace" .COM. It's all a bunch of rhetoric, where discussions are opened with these investors commonly stating outlandish claims like .top, .best or .gold or .whatever is the next big one, trying to convince themselves and others with reasons why.

If .COM is ever uprooted from its top spot, it's not going to be a single TLD that does it. It's impossible for that to happen, because there is no other single TLD that is as ubiquitous as .COM. It will have to be a combination of several TLDs that cover the proper range of keywords. These combined TLDs would have to prove a global consistency in recognition, usage, renewals and trading.

Why can it only be a combined number of TLDs to potentially match the success of .COM, and not a single TLD? Because the new extensions are keyword-specific; in most cases they mean something, so were designed to target a specific niche. And there is no one specific niche that is ubiquitous enough to satisfy the branding of all, such as .COM. And then there's extensions that don't really mean anything at all and have either have been mashed together in a "hip" phrase or relegated to an acronym. Eg. .xyz. When you have to spell out the extension, and can't say it as one word, like .COM, it becomes awkward and forgettable.

If there comes a time when .COM is not the best, it is very likely the internet as we know it today will be a very different landscape, and perhaps not even the internet at all, but some other type connection experience, one that doesn't use URLs, webpages, or domain names, but rather a holographic system of sorts, or something we haven't even conceived of yet. Until then, yep, respect the .COM for the powerhouse it is.

Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed response. You make a good point about a different internet landscape in the future which could make all domain name extensions obselete. Hope it doesn't happen for a while! p.s. Happy to award you your 5,000th like!