opinion My personal experience with .tech

[Michael M]

For what it is worth, here is my personal end user experience with .tech

When the .tech extension first came out I was excited. Being a computer programmer, and getting my first computer back in 1989 at age 7 (IBM XT 8088 with a green monochrome screen) – I jumped on to my registrar and “pre-reserved” a pile of them. When the registry finally released the extension I was disappointed to see I missed the majority of them during pre-registration or the registry deciding they were premium.

In the end I picked up a couple, and as a IT person I registered one to use as my professional business site and email. It is short, easy to remember (I thought) and perfectly described my services.

To my disappointment – reality set in quickly. Whenever speaking to a client in person or on the phone I have found it is very difficult for them to understand the domain.

“is that .tec?”
“I sent you an email and I never received response.” (in the end I find out they were sending to .pech )
“what?"
“so that is ####.tech.com?”

I find myself needing to explain my address to each person I give it to. “My email is ### at ####.tech. That is T-E-C-H. T as in Technician or Technology. Dot Tech. There is no dot com after dot tech. That is just like the dot COM but it is dot TECH.” And then they say oooooohhhk. I think I got it.

If you look on NameBio you will see that .tech is not available from their drop down. I contacted them and they say that dropdown is dynamically filled out so as soon as there is a reported sale over $100 then it will show up.

For this reason I do not believe this extension will ever make it, sadly. There may be some end user sales in the end – but I believe the end user will be seeking a .com to replace the .tech if they rely on the radio test or trying to explain the address to someone in person. If it is not a clickable link, or a reply to an email, the typical internet user out there just can’t grasp this one.

Just my 2 cents - for what they are worth. Sorry for anyone heavily invested in these. I am not trying to start an argument, just giving my experience as an end user of one.

-Mike

 

[doubleU]

.tech is likely to appeal to the younger generation and generations that have not even been born yet.

So, when they grow up and use the internet they will not know or care which came first .com or .tech.

Why should they care?

 

[AuctionBio]

I loved it as you used it in real world, What I think is, there is a flood of these kind of extensions and this makes most of the extensions useless. There is no set planning, every nownthn a new extension hits the market and suddenly goes out of radar. it is sad story about these extensions.
But I appreciate that you yourself did this experience. being in tech I also know its handy, but out tech, its really useless like all other extension that are meaningful with only some keywords.

 

[Kate]

100,000 reasons why you might be wrong.

http://www.indiainfoline.com/articl...tions-in-less-than-a-year-116050700454_1.html

It's always the same PR fluff: when companies like Microsoft make defensive registrations as usual - it is presented like an endorsement. What would be interesting to know is how many of those names are not parked, inactive, or redirects.

But I think .tech is far from being the worst. PS: .technology has about 24K regs...

.tech is likely to appeal to the younger generation and generations that have not even been born yet.

So, when they grow up and use the internet they will not know or care which came first .com or .tech.

Wishful thinking. They are probably not going to learn from their parents anyway
Why would the younger generation embrace new extensions, especially when they have grown up in a dotcom world (or a country with a strong ccTLD).

Why should they care?

They should if they will be using domain names for their businesses. If new extensions are not picking up now, are they going to become fashionable by magic in the future ?

 

[doubleU]

It's always the same PR fluff: when companies like Microsoft make defensive registrations as usual - it is presented like an endorsement. What would be interesting to know is how many of those names are not parked, inactive, or redirects.

But I think .tech is far from being the worst. PS: .technology has about 24K regs...

Wishful thinking. They are probably not going to learn from their parents anyway
Why would the younger generation embrace new extensions, especially when they have grown up in a dotcom world (or a country with a strong ccTLD).


They should if they will be using domain names for their businesses. If new extensions are not picking up now, are they going to become fashionable by magic in the future ?

They said the same about candles when light bulbs came out !

 

[Kate]

Yes, but didn't they say that when .biz and .info were released 15 years ago ? And what about all the subsequent TLDs ? If you read old posts over here from 2013, they said new extensions would be mainstream in 3 to 5 years. Are we getting there yet ?The definition of mainstream was of course left to your own imagination.

 

[ZapNano]

I wouldn't want to changed. Yes it is an old paradigm; so I will convence myself to never think of other possibilities and allow progress. Being in the same box for almost a century; doing the same thing over and over, this things gets so dry. The thing in the past just drag on and on. I think I will stay in the same old box and never change; this is my progress..

 

[DU]

I use a .TV for my email and in all the time I've used it I think I've only had one question.

Some people said ... "dot TV" ...that's interesting... but I get spammed as much as the next person too!

There's definitely a curve with non ccTLD but I have a hard time believing that .tech is such a problem. I have no idea why people would think TEC vs TECH and PECH? I know people that have used .IT with no issue

There are plenty of successful sites on .io (I literally find a new working .io every day ... sandstorm.io, seldon.io being the latest..

That said:

If anything I think that lay-people are just getting crap with using email/websites in general. People seem to think that living with digital tools makes them more 'digitally' educated. My experience is telling me that most 'digital' people are consumers and not users and that's a key difference. It's just like the microwave didn't produce great chefs.

A domain name is mostly as good as the person running the site, imho. Often a two word /three word .com /ccTLD is available and would be fully functional for well under $X,XXX. The price only goes up when you're seeking premium - which is a specific market that most companies aren't operating in.

 

[1NiteStand]

.pech? clearly this person isn't wearing their glasses. and besides, it's part of your job to educate the buyer... back to basics.

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

Why .tech

Looking for new ways to make your technology website more relevant?
The perfect domain for all websites related to technology
Anyone managing a technology-related website can distinguish themselves from the competition by having a memorable .tech domain name.

 

[1NiteStand]

.tech I believe has a lot of potential not now obviously, but 2020+