.
If you use an extension like .top you tell the public that you would like to be on top but can't afford a good domain.
How this should help your business is beyond me.
Wouldn't using an extension like .top be telling the public that you
are on top? Nothing to do with affordability. Maybe more to do with availability. Probably help your business tons. People knowing it's the top. Now, that's if we are to be taking the .top extension literally. Personally, I think the .top gtld will stay successful for many many years to come, just because of this. It can both be seen as a generic tld
and a literal translation.
There's so many others that can be taken advantage of in this way, but I'll just use the some of the 3 letter gTLD's because there's simply too many out there now. Which also brings me something else you mentioned
@dordomai
I would say that 90% of the newly launched TLDs are worse than the ones mentioned above. If we use history as our guide we can imagine how things will develop.
I would agree, a greater percentage of new tlds seem bad.. But so were the rest you mentioned travel/jobs/mobi/info what can you do with those beside a very select few exact frontal and rear lobotomy matches?
So what do we got...some of the same deal with some of these, but not all
1)
.one - this one's (this is turning out to be a pun-laden sentence, aint it?) a smart one. A literal extension, less on being generic, though. Massive brandable. Thousands of brands use ONE as part of their name.
2)
.top - already mentioned: literal, very generic. Multiple meanings, such as being above, a garment worn on the upper body, and a spinning toy.
3)
.fyi - stands for For Your Information, this is a popular acronym in North America. Flows off the tongue easy. An extension like this can really only be taken literally. Not a great brandable either. But I like it more than .info. Very niche tld.
4) .
xyz - I've never understood this one. I get confused just looking at it. Looks ugly.
5)
.vip - stands for Very Important Person, another popular acronym. This extension has the advantage of not only being an acronym, it's also pronounciable. Not such a generic extension, very literal. It packs a punch, that's for sure.
6) .
onl - short for Online. It's pronouncible, barely. Really doesn't make a lot of sense, redundant even. Looks ugly. Very small niche.
7) .
red - This is an interesting one, but that's about it. Like a curiousity one sees and just moves along. Super literal, super small niche.
8) .
gdn - stands for Global Domain Name. I think this could be a very good contender for a super-generic name. The problem is, I just don't like it. I don't get the point. Maybe that is the point? That it's not supposed to have a point.
9) .
ooo - This extension IMO is very unique. It makes no sense whatsoever, but looks awesome in the url bar. I don't know if looking awesome in the url bar will be enough to keep it afloat though. And it's yearly renewals are enough to make you go "oooooo!". I would say this would be a brandable curiousity, but more generic than anything.
10)
.lol - Something funny here? Could be, but since not everything is funny all of the time, this tld has limited capacity. Literal only, not very generic.
Because of such a late arrival to the namespace world, I think the success of any new TLD has to be graded differently than those of the traditionals. There's a lot more to go around now. The value and commodity comparison of 3-4 year old babies to the 30 year old wise men is akin to comparing a caterpillar to a butterfly.
Some of these extensions and many others are bringing a brand-new experience: the ability to brand yourself however the hell you want.