.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

 

[theSun]

Why don't you email him instead?
Why didn't you purchase a ticket to the show?

 

[domainica]

Hey, if Ken Hansen says .us is making progress, there certainly isn't any reason to doubt him.:lol:

 

[DN BROKER]

Hey, if Ken Hansen says .us is making progress, there certainly isn't any reason to doubt him.:lol:

.US? its got a long way to go

 

[DotUSDomains]

Since .com still overshadows .US in America, Latona has not been a big fan of the extension, but Sequeira said Neustar was ready to start spending money to raise the profile of .US (as well as .biz, a global TLD that Neustar also administers).

Sequeira said that .US fell behind in the race for mind share because the ccTLD had been reserved for government use until the spring of 2002. By the time it was finally opened up to the general public, .com had become the default extension for most Americans.

Many current .US portfolio holders think the brand is a natural with great potential, but believe that the registry has let it wither on the vine for the past seven years. "I know there has been some criticism that we have
not done a lot of promotion or advertising to make .US more visible, but doing that will be a major priority for us in 2009," Sequeira said. "One of the main reasons I am at this conference is to build awareness for .US and .biz and this year I think you will see that we continually have things out in the marketplace for both brands."
"We did a survey that showed that people really like the .US brand but they have some reservations because they just don't see it a lot," Sequeira said. "We learned that we have to work with registrars and resellers to the end user market to build visibility for the .US brand."

We will be doing more advertising and are also looking at an incentive program aimed at end users. If they register or buy a .US domain for their site we would reward them with some sort of incentive that hasn't been settled on yet. We as a company are willing to spend some money and we are willing to partner with people to do what it takes to build the space."

The above is from feb 2009.

Did that happen ? NO
Will This happen ? NO

It sounds familiar

dont hold them to there word, thats a good lesson.

the contracts up for there year extension, < thats when neustar come out to play for a little while.

rinse and repeat next year about this time.

 

[Carlton]

I just saw a commercial for Shell Oil on prime time TV. The website displayed was Shell.US. Excellent. Came here to mention it and saw Shell.us listed above in Jaco's post.

 

[HeyNow]

Domain Name Journal - The Lowdown

(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.



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

Signed

Jaco

You sound so arrogant, like you are Ron's boss demanding follow-up work, as though you are owed something. I'm no Ron Jackson fan, but I must say you should probably get off your ass and discover there really is no great plan from Neustar, that another year from now we'll be asking the same questions, wondering why no one knows what .us is.

 

[Jaco]

You sound so arrogant, like you are Ron's boss demanding follow-up work, as though you are owed something.

The funny thing about perception is, you can perceive something and be totally, totally, 100% wrong.

This would be the case here. I'm guessing you didn't do so well in the 'reading comprehension' classes in grammar school?

 

[Jaco]

Something phrased in the context of a light-hearted, jestful 'petition' can hardly be considered demanding, unless one comprehends words on par with a 4 year old. Captain Jagoff up there apparently felt the need to lash out at something, but picked the wrong candidate.

 

[snoop]

Hey, if Ken Hansen says .us is making progress, there certainly isn't any reason to doubt him.:lol:

:lol:

To have a discussion like that it needs to panel of people with different viewpoints, not just people who are pro .us.

Regarding .ca seems to be doing fairly well, it is a country code that makes sense.

Regarding .us it is an extension that is making no real progress and has no real market. It isn't like other country codes.

When people need to roll out lists of companies who use it that is a very bad sign (like the tiring lists of .mobi, .info, .biz sites that we see on the forum), the extension spotting is another bad sign (hold the presses- I saw a .us site advertised!).

Who cares about Maserati.us, Shell.us, Transamerica.us, Hitachi.us, BASF.us and Carrabas.us? These aren't popular sites.

 

[Jaco]

You don't know much about development; do you...

Either way, that's what you call a 'circular argument'.
You cite that US isn't making any progress and has no real market, but then when one cites major companies using .US, they're dismissed with a 'who cares'?

LOL. OK.

No one is saying .us is going to supplant .com in the minds of US consumers, ever. What some people 'get' is that some mid to mid/large sized businesses don't mind .us all that much, and as far as development goes, if your objective is to target US consumers in the engines... well... nevermind.

 

[acc]

I just saw a commercial for Shell Oil on prime time TV. The website displayed was Shell.US. Excellent. Came here to mention it and saw Shell.us listed above in Jaco's post.

Nice spot Carlton, even if not everyone here appreciates it.

FYI - Funny you should mention it as I also just saw a brand new commercial on TV during the evening news today using a .US extension website: TENA.us Specialists in incontinence and bladder weakness protection products - They have the .com in use as the main live website, along with many other ccTLD sister sites. Local marketing using the market's ccTLD - nice example. This particular company also has many gTLDs regged, serious brand protectors.

It will take time for many in the US to look beyond just .com like the rest of the world. Myopia can be corrected but needs diagnosis first. Most US companies don't realize how narrow .com-only thinking is.

And unfortunately Neustar doesn't appear to care a wit about promoting .US. Too small a part of their overall business I guess. Speaking of being myopic, Neustar ... HELLLLLLOOOOOO .... letting a potential cash cow like .US extension starve due to lack of promotion like this is business-insanity. Your marketing guys should be getting negative bonuses. The .US extension should have around 5-10x as many active regs as it does now. Potential for .US registrations and renewals is staggering considering:

US: 300 million population and only 1.6M .US regs
UK: 60 million population and 8M regs
DE: 80 million population and 13M regs

There is some hope. Registrations are growing slowly but steadily. Adoption is slow but I have seen more .US sites now than before and notice more whois records showing non-domainer registrants.

Every new TLD that comes out no matter how well accepted (by stubborn self-interested domainers) and adopted (by actual companies) chips away at the ".com-only internet" castle. Dot com is its own kind of big beautiful walled garden, but there is plenty of life growing outside the walls and the pie is sure to grow making room for all.
.

 

[Carlton]

Nice spot Carlton, even if not everyone here appreciates it.

Thanks. It's a great extension that is growing considerably. Noticed AirFrance.US as well. Nice targeting. And Aldi.US too.

 

[bmugford]

Snoop, you just seem to be anti-everything.

Will .US take down .COM? Of course not. I have not seen anyone make that ridiculous argument, unlike other threads (.TV and .CO)

.US is a value play at this point.

At the end of the day .US is the ccTLD of the richest most powerful country on Earth, it is not a 5th string gTLD.

Brad

:lol:

To have a discussion like that it needs to panel of people with different viewpoints, not just people who are pro .us.

Regarding .ca seems to be doing fairly well, it is a country code that makes sense.

Regarding .us it is an extension that is making no real progress and has no real market. It isn't like other country codes.

When people need to roll out lists of companies who use it that is a very bad sign (like the tiring lists of .mobi, .info, .biz sites that we see on the forum), the extension spotting is another bad sign (hold the presses- I saw a .us site advertised!).

Who cares about Maserati.us, Shell.us, Transamerica.us, Hitachi.us, BASF.us and Carrabas.us? These aren't popular sites.

 

[Jaco]

And unfortunately Neustar doesn't appear to care a wit about promoting .US. Too small a part of their overall business I guess. Speaking of being myopic, Neustar ... HELLLLLLOOOOOO .... letting a potential cash cow like .US extension starve due to lack of promotion like this is business-insanity. Your marketing guys should be getting negative bonuses. The .US extension should have around 5-10x as many active regs as it does now. Potential for .US registrations and renewals is staggering considering:

US: 300 million population and only 1.6M .US regs
UK: 60 million population and 8M regs
DE: 80 million population and 13M regs

There is some hope. Registrations are growing slowly but steadily. Adoption is slow but I have seen more .US sites now than before and notice more whois records showing non-domainer registrants.

Every new TLD that comes out no matter how well accepted (by stubborn self-interested domainers) and adopted (by actual companies) chips away at the ".com-only internet" castle. Dot com is its own kind of big beautiful walled garden, but there is plenty of life growing outside the walls and the pie is sure to grow making room for all.
.

Did you get my email on B*****T****.us?
I've been having some 'spam filter' issues with inbounds

 

[jmcc]

I think that very few domainers understand the dynamics of ccTLD registrations. The attitude of the ccTLD registry and the marketing of the ccTLD are extremely important but at the heart of every ccTLD is the self-identification of the registrant with the ccTLD. This is what drives registrations - the idea that it is a country's own TLD rather than the banality of .com or other gTLDs. The .us ccTLD has been poorly marketed but it is in the same position as many of the European ccTLDs in the early 2000s.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Kate]

at the heart of every ccTLD is the self-identification of the registrant with the ccTLD.

One peculiarity is that the US has not one but several TLDs.
.gov
.mil
.edu is mostly (80%+ I think) American too

US authorities at all levels also use .us, .com and other extensions - the result is a loose identification of the American public with .us.

The .us ccTLD has been poorly marketed but it is in the same position as many of the European ccTLDs in the early 2000s.

I agree, but I am willing to accept that unlike the European ccTLDs .us might never really take off.
IMO it is as much stagnant as it was 5 years ago. Of course there is growth in the number of registrations but even .biz is growing. It still has a low profile.

I am pro .us myself but we need to accept that each market is different. Just because the ccTLDs are thriving in other parts of the world does not mean all countries are good candidates. The level of risk is different too. For example, there is more censorship in .us or .fr than say, .be or .cz (in my experience).

 

[mwzd]

Don't you mean USA when you say "North America"?

.CA seems to be doing fairly well, with a lot of local adoption, if not a robust aftermarket. (ok .ca guys, don't shoot me, just my opinion here. :p )

And yeah, a pm / email might make more sense if all you want is a editorial insight.

 

[acc]

One peculiarity is that the US has not one but several TLDs.
.gov
.mil
.edu is mostly (80%+ I think) American too

US authorities at all levels also use .us, .com and other extensions - the result is a loose identification of the American public with .us.


I agree, but I am willing to accept that unlike the European ccTLDs .us might never really take off.
IMO it is as much stagnant as it was 5 years ago. Of course there is growth in the number of registrations but even .biz is growing. It still has a low profile.

I am pro .us myself but we need to accept that each market is different. Just because the ccTLDs are thriving in other parts of the world does not mean all countries are good candidates. The level of risk is different too. For example, there is more censorship in .us or .fr than say, .be or .cz (in my experience).

Great point about .gov/.edu/.mil - all those have been in solid ongoing use since internet day 1 for the appropriate agencies/institutions. It surely has and does take away from a potential single point of focus on .us.

I disagree with you about .us being as "stagnant as 5 years ago". I've been seeing it in use more and am seeing more frequent enduser's whois info. Not at any breakthrough threshold level yet for sure, just somewhat better. Just this AM I was looking for an industrial product and found a generic term acronym .us name in use as a shortened complement to a longer company name in .com.

Long way to go, but everything can grow.
.

 

[Greg]

Several high profile .us name holders let their names drop or nearly drop in the last 2 weeks. One being Wolverine Worldwide and the famous "shoe" drop and the other was The National Hockey League which was one day away from several high profile names going into pending delete.

Is it a coincidence or just a glimpse of things to come??? I know what I am banking on...

 

[bmugford]

Great domains drop daily in every extension for various reasons. That is not unique to .US only.

Brad

Several high profile .us name holders let their names drop or nearly drop in the last 2 weeks. One being Wolverine Worldwide and the famous "shoe" drop and the other was The National Hockey League which was one day away from several high profile names going into pending delete.

Is it a coincidence or just a glimpse of things to come??? I know what I am banking on...

 

[acc]

Several high profile .us name holders let their names drop or nearly drop in the last 2 weeks. One being Wolverine Worldwide and the famous "shoe" drop and the other was The National Hockey League which was one day away from several high profile names going into pending delete.

Is it a coincidence or just a glimpse of things to come??? I know what I am banking on...

Saw those "shoes" names dropping and noticed nice grabs by a few alert folks here.

I vote for it being negligence/ignorance by >individuals< at companies who don't understand/comprehend/care about the potential of having and using those top targeted keywords, whether in .us or in .com or .anything else. SOMEONE will have gain consimer eyeballs from having and using them.

What a downright inexpensive marketing tool it is to have (and have live) prime keyword names like that. I shake my head in disbelief whenever I see keyword term domains held by companies or their IP services not even resolve. See it far too often in all extensions. Pure stupidity or ignorance. Even if it's purely a defensive reg it should at least have a landing page with logo for term/company association or an immediate redirect to the main company website. Missed marketing opportunities. Probably not big enough to bother with in their eyes unlike like their traditional ad campaigns.
.

---------- Post added at 12:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:01 PM ----------

Also forgot to mention (more in the case of small companies) sometimes it's likely that whoever was "in charge" of admin of domain names left the company. And the registrant contact email is no longer in use or monitored after that person is gone.

I witnessed just that happen at a small company I used to work for in the early days of the web.

Damn humans ...:notme:

 

[oldtimer]

...I am willing to accept that unlike the European ccTLDs .us might never really take off.

That really depends on whether that is because that most Americans just don’t like this extension or whether its that they just are not aware that it exists yet (because most don’t even know what a ccTLD is).

If people just don’t like .US then what the naysayers are saying might very well be true (although even that can change in a generation or two), but if the American people don’t even know that .US exists, then that’s where all the talk about promotions and marketing comes to play.

You can’t just give up on this extension so easily before having some kind of a large scale promotion to let the American people know that it exists and what its good for. Once everyone is educated about the advantages of having .US then there is a good chance that a certain percentage of people and businesses might get attracted to this extension which might be enough to sustain it until it gets more popular overtime.

Great point about .gov/.edu/.mil - all those have been in solid ongoing use since internet day 1 for the appropriate agencies/institutions. It surely has and does take away from a potential single point of focus on .us

And yet .US is the only one that is approporiate for small businesses because it is geo targeted to the United States and conveys a certain level of trust and credibility over other commercial extensions.

-

 

[exsedo]

And yet .US is the only one that is approporiate for small businesses because it is geo targeted to the United States and conveys a certain level of trust and credibility over other commercial extensions.

-

Yahoo recently stopped serving its ads on .us domain names, anyone know why ?

 

[mhdoc]

I have been buying some .us domains because I can get much better quality at a price I can afford. Since 99% of the traffic to my existing websites is from organic search the tld seems MUCH less important than a really choice keyword/phrase domain.

I also have sites where 80%+ of the traffic comes from longtail organic search. In those cases neither the domain nor the tld would seem to make any difference. What counts is coming up first in the search results.