.us Petition for Ron Jackson to further discuss "ccTLDs- Is North America Immune" panel

[Jaco]

http://www.dnjournal.com/lowdown.htm

After Latona's opening comments, the show's first business session got underway with Neustar's Ken Hansen and Steve Smith of WebNames joining me in a panel discussion titled ccTLDs are Taking Over the World - Is North America Immune? The session, moderated by Rick Silver, covered the prospects for America's .US extension and Canada's .CA as they try to gain recognition on a continent where they have been overshadowed by .com.

(L to R in the photo above) Ron Jackson (DN Journal), Ken Hansen (Neustar, operator of the
.US registry) and Steve Smith (registrar Webnames) discuss the prospects for .US and .CA.

With conference activity to cover almost around the clock, I won't have time to get into the specifics of the business sessions until we produce our comprehensive conference review article a few days after the conference ends but I can say that the overall consensus from this seminar was that .US and .CA are both making slow but steady progress as more businesses use the extensions (in the case of .US, Maserati.us, Shell.us, Transamerica.us, Hitachi.us, BASF.us and Carrabas.us are just a few examples) and search engines giving them favorable positions in local search results.

Please provide an overview of this and discuss in the greatest detail possible.

Signed

Jaco

 

[acc]

Both sdsinc and DotUSDomains got it right - just two press releases on their .us registry website since 2003 and hardly any meaningful visible promotion of the extension show that the .us registry effort is stagnant, pathetic, and totally inexcusable. It is a poor example of how to run a business and totally ignore potential new clients. (Beyond just domainers.)

A while back in this thread, it was mentioned that government-related entities and educational entities in the USA have used .gov, .edu, .mil extensions for their active websites in addition to the .us used by cities, towns, etc. So add those up and then add all the (mostly small and medium sized) businesses using straight .us sites and there are a good number of defacto .us ccTLD users. (Beyond the 1.6M .us domain registrations) Too bad they're not all operating under the ".us" extension flagship. If that was the case .us usage would be closer to that of .de/.co.uk/more.ccTLDs IMO.

Most everybody in the USA knows what .gov and .edu mean and what to expect on those websites. I believe that every single college student probably has an active email address using a .edu extension under his/her college's name. Active college age students attending at some kind of college in the US number somewhere in the 10-15 million range. (I don't know the exact number but base that guess on the approx 4 million US residents of each age, and many are enrolled in 4-year schools plus graduate programs.) Can you imagine the new added exposure if just US colleges used .US instead of or in addition to .edu? Or more realistically since .edu is ingrained, at least if .us was promoted to college students?

IDEA: The .US registry should develop some kind of yearly promo or web design contest based on the entrants using the .US extension. Web design, marketing, business, and many other curriculum classes now include focusing the internet as a method to deliver messages and offer products and services. Encourage professors and teachers to include presentation of .US as an option for American students.

Offer scholarships as prizes for individual and group entries. That kind of thing could easily be expanded to high school students. How would that work for adding more exposure for the near-hidden .us extension?

Tap into the young, still-impressionable mindset. Expand their thinking to include looking beyond just .com/.org/.edu and to .US. It only took Myspace, Facebook, Napster etc. to become household words in just a few years. And now just about everybody of all age groups knows about them. (Maybe not use, but at least are aware of them). So too can this happen for the ".US" extension.

ARE YOU LISTENING NEUSTAR? Is there anyone home?:wave:
.

 

[jmcc]

Please expand on this comment further; it will be great if you could explain this in more details.

It would probably require a detailed blog post but basically there are a few characteristics that distinguish a ccTLD from a gTLD. Some of the points are just rehashes of what I have said earlier.

1. A ccTLD has a limited and clearly defined target market.
A ccTLD is a country code TLD. Its primary target market is its country. This gives it an element of self-identification in that registrants identify with their country whether are a local or national level. This kind of geographically based self-identification is not present in gTLDs.

2. Most domainers think in gTLD terms rather than ccTLD terms.
Unless there is a dominant local ccTLD, domainers will be focused on gTLDs for their speculation. And .us has the .com as a competitor.

3. Navigation in ccTLDs is different to navigation in gTLDs.
This is one of my theories about ccTLDs. People remember the name of a place and the location of that place. A ccTLD is like a city or even a country in that people know and remember, to some extent, the sites that they regularly visit. They think locally. The gTLDs don't have that local element. There is that sense of "us" about a ccTLD that a gTLD does not have. The type-in traffic in .com is due to people typing in a term and expecting that such a website exists. The volume of type-in traffic appears to make this kind of direct navigation work because the traffic is coming from everywhere. However with ccTLDs, the majority of the traffic will be typically be from that country. People from outside that country searching for something in a ccTLD will typically use a search engine thus bypassing the whole type-in traffic route. This is why gTLD domainers tend to be way out of their depth when it comes to ccTLD speculation - the .eu ccTLD landrush fiasco being the classic example of the failure of .com speculative rules to what in effect was 27 ccTLD markets.

4. An active ccTLD has high development and utilisation.
A ccTLD will have an apparently higher level of development because it is more focused and there is a greater motivation to develop.

5. A mature ccTLD has a high level of of Uniqueness.
A mature ccTLD has a higher number of domains that exist only in that ccTLD compared to the gTLDs. (15% or more) This is because these domains often belong to businesses primarily targeting that country and they don't need to dilute their brand by confusing their customers with a .com domain. Even if many businesses have gTLD equivalent registrations, the ccTLD website will be the main one and the other domains will be 301ed to that site.

the question is how much room there is for .US to grow and what would be a realistic expectation for this extension in the future

Short term, (five years), with a development strategy rather than a park and forget strategy, 10 million.

what could be done to accelerate the acceptance of .US within the United States so that it could get to its optimum market share sooner.

Development. Usage. Marketing. Branding. (An easy to remember acronym for registries. )

When comparing the number of registrations of .US to the ones from other global TLDs it is important to keep in mind that only the portion of the registrations of those global TLDs that are specific to the United States should be used in the comparison, although I realize that it might be difficult to figure out the exact percentage for that.

It is a difficult problem from a theoretical viewpoint but I have an advantage. I have already done this kind of work before to determine Irish owned domain names in com/net/org/biz/info that were not hosted on Irish web hosters. That was based on finding thousands of domain names out of tens of millions of domains.

Regards...jmcc

 

[snoop]

Don’t be fooled by all the usual naysayers that seem to be active in every sub forum and their only duty seems to be controlling the herd of domainers and channeling them towards what serves their own interest. We need to realize that it is part of their strategy to discourage other domainers from pursuing other alternative TLDs, some naysayers are only looking out for their own individual interest while some others are being sponsored by some of the big domain companies in order to control and manipulate the domain Industry in their own favor (we know who you all are ).

The counter argument would be that you are doing the opposite. Trying to pump up this extension to help yourself. The fact is though I don't think either will have any real effect.

Its funny they always claim that they are doing other domainers (especially newbies) a favor by keeping them from making costly mistakes, but if they are so much concerned about other domainers not wasting money why is it that they are never willing to share with them any of the secrets to their own domaining success.

There is no secret. I've focused on domains with with real capital value and bought mainly names with revenue. I've also written off alt and unpopular extensions completely. Align yourself with making money today and forget about grand plans of things changing in the future, that is my opinion.

Time is running out, we need to come up with some good ideas fast to make .US better known to the small businesses and the American people in general.

So you describe this as an extension where "time is running out" yet on the other hand you complain about naysayers as though what is being said is false. You can't have it both ways.

 

[oldtimer]

The counter argument would be that you are doing the opposite. Trying to pump up this extension to help yourself.

Not quite true, we are trying to have a meaningful discussion here about the potentials and possibilities for an extension that we have invested in, it’s the constant interruptions by the naysayers that is out of place.

-

 

[snoop]

Not quite true, we are trying to have a meaningful discussion here about the potentials and possibilities for an extension that we have invested in, it’s the constant interruptions by the naysayers that is out of place.

-

You are seeing things from your own perspective only.

Understand many people genuinely feel this is a bad extension and that the calls for wide scale promotion of this extension are pointless.

 

[oldtimer]

Can you imagine the new added exposure if just US colleges used .US instead of or in addition to .edu? Or more realistically since .edu is ingrained, at least if .us was promoted to college students?

That would be a dream come true for .US fans.

By the way TopUniversities(.)US is available if you want to make it into a directory of the Top Universities in the US (has about 6k local and 27k global exact searches at google keyword tool for the month of May).

-

---------- Post added at 10:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:37 PM ----------

Understand many people genuinely feel this is a bad extension and that the calls for wide scale promotion of this extension are pointless.

I understand that some people might genuinely not like .US (such as yourself Snoopy), but why do these people feel like they have to go out of their way to prove to us that this is a bad extension or that promoting it is pointless, is it because that they want to save us money.

There are a lot of extensions (or types of domains) that I might not like to get involved with, but I am not going to every sub forum trying to convince the domainers who like to own or promote those extensions that they are making a mistake.

-

 

[snoop]

I understand that some people might genuinely not like .US (such as yourself Snoopy), but why do these people feel like they have to go out of their way to prove to us that this is a bad extension or that promoting it is pointless, is it because that they want to save us money.

Why do some people speak out out poor quality housing investments or cars that are lemons? It is simply a fact that some people will speak out about extensions they don't like. You'd be better off accepting that rather than whining about it.

There are a lot of extensions (or types of domains) that I might not like to get involved with, but I am not going to every sub forum trying to convince the domainers who like to own or promote those extensions that they are making a mistake.

Some people will speak out about extension that they feel have poor propects. That obviously isn't something you will do but others will. In short: not everyone thinks or acts like you.

 

[Sparhawke]

The .co.uk domain is very strong here in England because it got advertised on television constantly when any large company had a domain, such as Sky, BBC and others...

Maybe this is what American companies need to start doing...

I doubt any person at the top can educate the masses when most haven't even heard of them folks at Neustar.

Once American companies stop relying on the almighty .com with crap domain names and start using some of the fantastic domains they have available if they just chose another extension, only then will things change.

 

[bigbobm]

When does the Neustar contract expire? If Godaddy was in charge of marketing, not Neustar, I think .us would be promoted.

 

[snoop]

Maybe this is what American companies need to start doing...

Companies have no interest in promoting domain extensions.

Once American companies stop relying on the almighty .com with crap domain names and start using some of the fantastic domains they have available if they just chose another extension, only then will things change.

The don't "rely on it" it is just what they use. A fantasic domain is a mix of term and extension, not much point saying if they just chose another extension, that is a bit like say who cares about the term, only the extension matters. In reality both need to be right.

 

[oldtimer]

A fantasic domain is a mix of term and extension, not much point saying if they just chose another extension, that is a bit like say who cares about the term, only the extension matters. In reality both need to be right.

And when it comes to .US these are both right ,

Great selection of terms (either directly or through the aftermarket) in an extension that is affordable, credible, patriotic, and geo targeted to the US market.

-

---------- Post added at 10:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:18 AM ----------

Companies have no interest in promoting domain extensions.

But most businesses in the US would probably have an interest in associating their business with an all American extension like .US, if not for the obvious geo targeting qualities of it then probably for patriotic reasons alone. The only thing is that they must first become aware that an all American extension like .US exists (hence the need for a large scale promotional campaign for .US).

-

 

[snoop]

And when it comes to .US these are both right ,

Great selection of terms (either directly or through the aftermarket) in an extension that is affordable, credible, patriotic, and geo targeted to the US market.

At the end of the day the market has decided otherwise. These names are cheap with a "great selection of terms" because they are relatively undesirable.

But most businesses in the US would probably have an interest in associating their business with an all American extension like .US

Aah the bias. If most companies thought that way they'd be registering a .us when they get presented with that option at Godaddy or Network Solutions. Even at a fraction of the price 99% won't buy alt tlds. (eg .us currently $2.99 and .info 89 cents @ godaddy)

 

[ecigs.net]

I probably have about 400 .US domains (none of which I care to name) for my business. From a pure traffic point of view, they bring in as much traffic as similar names in other major TLDs like COM/NET/ORG. It isn't that .US sucks or can't bring in traffic, it is that .US (like .NET and .BIZ) is directly competing with .COM for the same business. As long as people (not domainers and techies, but regular folks who don't live and breathe domain names) do not know that .US exists, it will continue to be at the bottom of the ccTLD heap.

Personally, I believe that Neustar has failed and their license should be revoked. Any single person in this thread could do better at promoting .US. Two press releases in seven years is beyond laziness. The .US ccTLD belongs to the American people. Why is Neustar allowed to run it into the ground? I think the Department of Commerce should take it back. Whenever anyone applies for a business license, there should be a check box that allows them to get a free .US as part of the fee. Though people here like to say companies do not want .US. I bet you that few companies would turn down a free domain.

 

[Kate]

The problem is that the DOC appears to have been satisfied with Neustar's handling of the TLD. They even got the contract renewed in spite of their evident failure.

 

[oldtimer]

Whenever anyone applies for a business license, there should be a check box that allows them to get a free .US as part of the fee. Though people here like to say companies do not want .US. I bet you that few companies would turn down a free domain.

That’s a good idea, although in addition to having the option to get a .US domain as part of their business license (or when registering their name on their own at the registrars like godaddy) it would be great if they were educated about what .US is and what advantages it has for them. Some businesses might stay away from .US thinking that its only for official use (like the way it was before it was opened up for general use back in April of 2002) Unfortunately the fact that .US was not open to the public (the way it is now) for so long has kept it from becoming a more popular extension among businesses. So now we have to overcome this hurdle by educating the public through some kind of a large scale promotional campaign.

A while back I heard that they might come up with some kind of a National ID for people here in the US, imagine if every person in America was given a .US domain as part of their National ID (one that could be a combination of their name and the last four digits of their social security number perhaps), that would give a lot of instant exposure to .US and could make the registration numbers reach above 300 million overnight.

If they put their mind to it the .US fans could probably come up with lots of good ideas to help make .US better known to the American public, but as anxious as we are to see this extension become more popular, unfortunately there are a few companies that spend huge amounts of money through their agents and lobbyists to keep .US (or any other extension that might threaten them) off of the center stage. That’s why we (the .US fans) must become more active in promoting our favorite extension.

-

 

[exsedo]

If .us domains were given away willy nilly, the value of your portfolio would very quickly diminish. Why buy one when everyone can get one free ? But it would serve your ultimate goal nicely, .us would become a lot better known.

 

[oldtimer]

If .us domains were given away willy nilly, the value of your portfolio would very quickly diminish. Why buy one when everyone can get one free ? But it would serve your ultimate goal nicely, .us would become a lot better known.

I am surprised that you don’t differentiate between an ordinary domain that might be given away for free and a top of the tree domain that defines a whole category or Industry.

-

 

[exsedo]

I am surprised that you don’t differentiate between an ordinary domain that might be given away for free and a top of the tree domain that defines a whole category or Industry.

-

I take your point, but I am thinking that initially, even the best domains would suffer in value. It would be like knocking the house down and then having to rebuild it. How much time would it take to go through the process ?

 

[oldtimer]

I take your point, but I am thinking that initially, even the best domains would suffer in value. It would be like knocking the house down and then having to rebuild it. How much time would it take to go through the process ?

Although .US has been made public since April of 2002, but because of the fact that not too many people know about it yet it would be like building it up for the first time now.

-

 

[snoop]

A while back I heard that they might come up with some kind of a National ID for people here in the US, imagine if every person in America was given a .US domain as part of their National ID (one that could be a combination of their name and the last four digits of their social security number perhaps), that would give a lot of instant exposure to .US and could make the registration numbers reach above 300 million overnight.

-

I think I could think up 100 "ideas" but why would the government give away free .us domains, why would they care particularly whether the extension is popular or not? The job of the government isn't to help out neustar and domainers.

These ideas are totally unrealistic. It is a bit like .mobi speculators thinking phones should/would come with a .mobi button again the question is why? I think domainers need to be looking beyond their own interests. If your interests are aligned with the businesses who spend money then it will probably work out for you. If you interests are aligned with nobody then it probably won't.

 

[ecigs.net]

I think I could think up 100 "ideas" but why would the government give away free .us domains, why would they care particularly whether the extension is popular or not? The job of the government isn't to help out neustar and domainers.

These ideas are totally unrealistic. It is a bit like .mobi speculators thinking phones should/would come with a .mobi button again the question is why? I think domainers need to be looking beyond their own interests. If your interests are aligned with the businesses who spend money then it will probably work out for you. If you interests are aligned with nobody then it probably won't.

Just answer one question Snoop, have you started a real business with a business license, DBA, maybe as an LLC or Corporation? If you have, then you know that the government., as part of their job, assist businesses in many different ways. Since dot US belongs to the people and not Neustar, it is logical that this service could be added to the process. And why would the government do this and the other services it provides to businesses? It is well know that small businesses spur growth. By assisting businesses and helping them become successful, the government increases the likelihood of collecting more tax revenue. They're not doing it out of the goodness of their heart.

As far as giving things away, I wrote: free as part of the fee. That's not free at all. I never wrote anything about giving domainers free US domains.

Furthermore, I got this idea from the BE giveaway that happened a few years ago. As you know, giving away BE for a year substantially increased BE registrations in the years that followed. Since we are talking about a product (domain names) that do not exist at all in the real world and cost absolutely nothing in reality, no money is lost at all. If I had said give businesses a free computer, it would be different. Domain names on the other hand cost almost nothing.

Since you suggested that you have 100 ideas, please list 5 good ideas. Just five Snoop. :] I'd really like to see what a good idea looks like.

As for .mobi being added to phones, why not? .COM is on my phone. I wish I had a plug-in to add more. I wish it had a drop down screen that allowed me to easily flick through TLDs. I hate typing on the tiny iPhone screen. Providing services is always good for a company. It doesn't cost anything to do it, so why not add more?

 

[snoop]

Just answer one question Snoop, have you started a real business with a business license, DBA, maybe as an LLC or Corporation?

Not sure what you mean "real business", my business is domaining. Have I set up a company and done business registrations? Yes.

If you have, then you know that the government., as part of their job, assist businesses in many different ways. Since dot US belongs to the people and not Neustar, it is logical that this service could be added to the process. And why would the government do this and the other services it provides to businesses? It is well know that small businesses spur growth. By assisting businesses and helping them become successful, the government increases the likelihood of collecting more tax revenue. They're not doing it out of the goodness of their heart.

Giving them a .us domain doesn't sound like assistance to me, it sounds like promotion.

As far as giving things away, I wrote: free as part of the fee. That's not free at all. I never wrote anything about giving domainers free US domains.

If it is not even free then why give them a domain in an extension that most people don't use or recognize? Most people outside of .us speculators would consider it a bad idea to start a website on a .us domain so why should the government encourage it?

Since you suggested that you have 100 ideas, please list 5 good ideas. Just five Snoop. :] I'd really like to see what a good idea looks like.

I didn't say I had 100 *good* ideas, I said I could think about 100 similar ideas, ideas that are completely unrealistic just like the idea of .us addresses with business registrations,

eg

-give out a .us domain to every newborn baby
-give out a .us domain when people walk into a cinema
-give out a .us domain when someone buys a ream of paper form the local store
-give out a .us domain with every shake at Mc Donalds
-give out a .us domain when people graduate from college

As for .mobi being added to phones, why not? .COM is on my phone. I wish I had a plug-in to add more. I wish it had a drop down screen that allowed me to easily flick through TLDs. I hate typing on the tiny iPhone screen. Providing services is always good for a company. It doesn't cost anything to do it, so why not add more?

Because nobody uses .mobi! Domainers need to understand features are driven by what is best for the provider and customer, not what would be good for you or me.

For a couple of years .mobi enthusiasts speculated about the coming .mobi button. Why could they not see the only people it would make sense for would be thsemselves and the .mobi registry?

 

[ecigs.net]

I didn't say I had 100 *good* ideas, I said I could think about 100 similar ideas, ideas that are completely unrealistic just like the idea of .us addresses with business registrations,

eg

-give out a .us domain to every newborn baby
-give out a .us domain when people walk into a cinema
-give out a .us domain when someone buys a ream of paper form the local store
-give out a .us domain with every shake at Mc Donalds
-give out a .us domain when people graduate from college

That's sad. I seriously thought you had something constructive to say. Let me know when you develop some real ideas.

 

[snoop]

That's sad. I seriously thought you had something constructive to say. Let me know when you develop some real ideas.

The ideas are as unrealistic as giving out .us domains with business registrations. They are examples of equally bad ideas.

I'm not sure why you would expect me to develop some real ideas. I'm negative on .us and have been for a long time, I'm arguing people need to give up on crazy ideas and accept .us for what it is.

If you are making money today from domaining in .us, great. If you are hoping to make money due to some sweeping changes in the future, forget it. Be realistic. .US is an alt tld, it isn't someparable to .co.uk or .de, it is a completely different type of extension.

 

[ecigs.net]

I am sorry that I assumed that you had some real ideas. :zzz: