Is .net losing steam?

[cam1taylor]

I noticed that a lot of names I've tried to reg recently have the .com and .org taken but the .net is available. Is the market for .net failing? What does everyone think?

 

[Jawed]

I only develop a .NET when i see that the COM is parked and up for sale by a domainer asking for astronomical moolah.

I agree and I do the same. That's why I called it an alternative extension to .com.

 

[jmcc]

This is how .net domains stack up against the same domain in other TLDs. The figures are from 01 March 2011. It is essentially .net TLD's DNA.

http://www.hosterstats.com/net-tld.php

The most common registration pair is that of a .com and .net for the same domain. The com/org pair in .com is only 1.835 million domains but the com/net pair in .com is 5.886 million domains.

The interesting aspect of .net is that due to its historical position as a "must register" TLD, it is still the third largest TLD in in most country level markets. These markets typically have a ccTLD/com/net/org/info/biz spread with the bulk of the market being concentrated around the ccTLD/com axis.

Regards...jmcc

 

[labrocca]

I don't think .NET is dying, but I agree that it never caught on (unfortunately). It had huge potential but IMO it's always been underestimated, looked at by many as the "stepbrother of .com".

That's the mentality of strong .org and .com holders.

I have a top 3000 Alexa .net site. I own the .com too but I'm sticking with my .net.

As for the argument that .net doesn't mean anything. I think if you ask the average person what .com means and they'll give you a dumb answer like "websites". The average person probably doesn't place much thought into what an extension means. 99% of people don't understand how the internet works. Many don't even know what an address bar is. People just type and click and most just go from Google. That being true and dot net being the #2 domain extension isn't a bad place to be. Nothing will unseat dot com. And dot org is a strong extension. But fact is that it's very unlikely to ever overstep .net.

The trends seem to sway a few percentage points every year so it's not consistent that 3 years in a row .org will gain percentage. It goes back and forth.

 

[jmcc]

That being true and dot net being the #2 domain extension isn't a bad place to be. Nothing will unseat dot com. And dot org is a strong extension. But fact is that it's very unlikely to ever overstep .net.

The .com TLD is a global extension and it has such mindshare and an existing set of registrations that it is a world standard. However .de is larger than .net and .uk is larger than .org.

The trends seem to sway a few percentage points every year so it's not consistent that 3 years in a row .org will gain percentage. It goes back and forth.

Agreed. There is a long term cyclical nature to domain registrations. What many people seemed to have missed is that when Domain Tasting was curtailed, the actual growth in the TLDs fell back to 2005 levels. The effect of link decay (links to domains that have been dropped and reregistered) is also a factor in whether some domains will be dropped. And the whole domain business moves on a yearly basis so many of the domains dropping today may have been registered just over a year ago and trends in these dropping domains may well have been those active at that time. It will be interesting to see how .org TLD holds up against the growing ccTLD market.

Regards...jmcc

 

[alien51]

Which brings us to the ultimate question, as to why domain extensions "should" even matter in the first place?

If Matt Google is really looking after the welfare of mankind, then his search tool should be "blind" to whatever extension a domain carries. I mean, it should be completely irrelevant.

If that happens, then the only reason why the COMs, and the NETs, and the ORGs will worth much higher than other "exotic" extensions, is because of continuous psychological brainwashing that these stuffs are premium quality.

It's like brainwashing the population that a Sony is supposed to be "premium" brand that is why it "should" be more expensive. When in reality, a Sony is just the same quality as a Samsung.

It's all in the mind.... supposed to be.

 

[namemarket]

... if you don't see the .net version taken, that means the keyword doesn't have much value.

That opinion is not applicable involving several specific categories, even thogh it does have some validity generally speaking. Quite often when you see only .com and .org taken it's because it involves health, wellness & disease terms where .org works extremely well and can rival or even exceed .com in typeins or search, depending on the health or disease words.

 

[equity78]

How much is .net used in other countries ? I don't know the answer, for those in other countries do you see a lot of .net ? Or is it .com and your cc tld ?

 

[cam1taylor]

In my research I've found that most businesses that do not operate globally use a cctld. To be honest I haven't found too many businesses in any country that use .net

 

[Domainate.com]

.net is a popular choice in Asian countries, which is why there are a lot of them in Alexa top million. Switch over to Quantcast top million (US stats) and you'll find there are more .org than .net.

 

[trips262]

No, Thats not true, i think .net is gaining popularity instead, not as compared to .com, but instead increasing very fast. Many other gTLD are getting globally valuable, whether they are .in, .ca ....etc.

I have domain name for sale for "Domain Directory" DomainVilla.net

Auctioned for 500$ now, but still looking for $615.

---------- Post added at 05:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:04 PM ----------

I have a domain for $99, TechieWebs.com

 

[xrvel]

Even some seo guys say .net sucks and they prefer .org if .com is not available.

 

[trips262]

@ x....

Now here comes the fact that, one will register only that domain in .org, who somewhat related to an organization.

So its a limited action, you can perform.

After .com, .net is being processed much more faster.

Thanks.

 

[miitree]

So where does it leave .co ? I'm hoping OK since I bought quite a few of them. I also bought quite a few .mobi which was a mistake.

-Al

 

[daj]

I think many people trust .org domains more than .com or .net for secure purchases and accurate/factual information. I look at .org as sort of the "wikipedia" of all extensions. Even Google seems to trust the extension more, as I often see .org as a #1 result over many keyword-based .com/.net websites.

 

[Smart Niche Sites]

I think .net domain names are still good to reg. I reg a lot that have exact match for seo purposes and have ranked really well in the past and as of today.

For example I registered a .net that receives 22k exact matches per month and ranked pos 6 in google in 1 week

 

[garptrader]

I've seen my .Net sites ranking fairly well and have actually sold more .Net domains this year than .COM.