domains Status Quo Bias Favors .com Top Level Domain, But For How Long?

[Page Howe]

RB's take on .com and new top level domains published in Law Technology Today

Status Quo Bias Favors .com Top Level Domain, But For How Long?

https://www.lawtechnologytoday.org/...favors-com-top-level-domain-but-for-how-long/

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Thanks for the post. I think the article takes a fairly balanced look at the issue. A lot of sense in discussing fundamentally what a domain name is, and the nuances needed in deciding what option is best.

I think the comparison between the fragmented on demand video/broadcast world that led to many small specialized channels and the new gTLDs is a valid analogy that I had not considered before.

Thanks again,

Bob

 

[garptrader]

Perhaps a comparison can be made to toll-free numbers. Up until 1996, a 1-800 number with a meaningful keyword could be valuable (i.e. 1-800-TAXICAB is rented to taxi companies across the US). Then they introduced 1-888 and eventually several other alternatives. How many forum members are investing in 1-833 phone numbers? What has been your sales ratio? Roi on the phone # portfolio?

Toll-free phone numbers have been around for some 50+ years but how much discussion do you hear about another vanity phone extension? Look at my 1-880-keyword phone number? How much do you think it is worth?

 

[Bob Hawkes]

It is an interesting analogy, @garptrader but since the 1996 Telecom Act made it unlawful for third parties to buy and sell toll free numbers, I don't quite see the comparison (although I misunderstand your meaning).

 

[Brands.International]

RB's take on .com and new top level domains published in Law Technology Today

Status Quo Bias Favors .com Top Level Domain, But For How Long?

https://www.lawtechnologytoday.org/...favors-com-top-level-domain-but-for-how-long/

Nice and interesting article, thanks

 

[Page Howe]

thats a good comparison, hey do you know about the 1 833 i see so many of them say in auction. did they ever have the auctions, pm me if yo can. i as after 833 geotech for a company i consult for.

page

 

[ecalc]

Finding a decent domain name is nearly next to impossible if the only top-level domain extension considered is .com.

Not really. Consider the poster names above. They can all hang out their shingle today with a new hand reg law name: lolwarriorlaw.com, garptraderlaw.com, bobhawkeslaw.com, pagehowelaw.com but I'll admit my personal favorite deweycheatemandhowe is taken.

 

[garptrader]

Bob, In 2009 or 2010 (don't recall) I was doing some outbound and someone expressed interest in a domain - not the one I had mentioned but another one in my portfolio. He eventually bought that other name and did develop on it. It appears that years later his site no longer resolves. Since he was a developer of Spanish websites and had corresponding 1-800 numbers (some he was not using) and noticed I had equivalent domain names, he thought I might be interested. I was not interested in buying 1-800 phone numbers but presumably if he was offering 1-800 phone numbers for sale, he had at least grandfathered around any restrictions.

 

[Dandelion]

Google.com
Facebook.com
Amazon.com
baidu.com
Twitter.com
CNN.COM
NYTimes.com
Instagram.com
YouTube.com
Alibaba.com
Linkedin.com
VK.COM
Bet365.com
Pornhub.com
iTune.com
ESPEN.COM
Foxnews.com
Godaddy.com
Reddit.com
Pinterest.com
Flickr.com
Microsoft.com
AOL.COM

Etc,etc,etc, etc.

These are the sites that controls every of our lives, and they are all using .Com. Until these sites stops using .com and starts using .whatever. Until then, .com will always have great bias in it's favor. Because, every startups would want to be like them.

 

[Page Howe]

Not really. Consider the poster names above. They can all hang out their shingle today with a new hand reg law name: lolwarriorlaw.com, garptraderlaw.com, bobhawkeslaw.com, pagehowelaw.com but I'll admit my personal favorite deweycheatemandhowe is taken.

i never liked dewey, i did business with him, but i never trusted him....

 

[offthehandle]

Article sounds like a infomercial for promoting Ngtlds.

“New domains offer greater variety, better targeting, and more specificity. For example, while .LOANS will never be as big as .com, www.home.loans is every part as valuable as www.homeloans.com from a search perspective and is the shorter domain name.”

Seems that the "super valuable" .loans yet confused with .loan is top of the list for spammers. Kinda like XYZ and TOP was until their drops. $3.49 today, cheaper than .com by $3.51

https://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/tlds/

But to be fair- here why not pay $79 instead of $6.99 for the .com

 

[offthehandle]

I searched google for "Vacation Rentals" just now. Top are paid VRBO and Homeaway then this is the first organic listing. Somebody might verify it on their end but Vacation.Rentals didn't even rank at all and I went down 8 pages. Sad really, so much for cost recovery. And I live where there are lots of vacation rentals. AARP ranks likes 2nd page.

 

[Soofi]

ngtld boosting article

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Not really. Consider the poster names above. They can all hang out their shingle today with a new hand reg law name: lolwarriorlaw.com, garptraderlaw.com, bobhawkeslaw.com, pagehowelaw.com but I'll admit my personal favorite deweycheatemandhowe is taken.

Oh wow, I could be a lawyer after all? i love my law domain name above so much! Is it just the domain I need to buy or do I need to like do more? I had considered law school in my young life, but went another path. I have failed to complete a Harvard U Contract Law MOOC 3 times, but I guess that is not really a legal education?

But to be serious , I think tend to agree that the vast majority of law firms can and will find their exact legal partnership name followed by a country code or com extension.

Bob

PS Just as I was about to post I did a search using site:.law for my region of Canada. More firms using one that I would have guessed.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Somebody might verify it on their end but Vacation.Rentals didn't even rank at all and I went down 8 pages. Sad really, so much for cost recovery

For me it was 6th page now. At the time of NamesCon I think they said they were third or fourth page (after being first for awhile). Just to provide a bit of perspective (from my memory of the NamesCon panel) the people running vacation rentals a small operation (I think less than 2000 listings), not very technically strong web wise, and their goal always was to move from tier 3 to tier 2, never to compete with AirBnB (I think their goal is ultimately 1% of AirBnB). They need a subscription base about double what they have now to make the $500k investment pay off.

One thing that has not much been reported but I learned in discussion at the Donuts booth is that there have been many platinum sales the last year (much more than the previous year), and some of those are at the top of Google. For example (he did not tell me this one but it is one I recently stumbled on) if you do a search on the rather generic 'seller tools' the number one in Google for me is a site offering a service operating at the tools extension.

Bob

 

[Tewksbury]

One thing that has not much been reported but I learned in discussion at the Donuts booth is that there have been many platinum sales the last year (much more than the previous year), and some of those are at the top of Google. For example (he did not tell me this one but it is one I recently stumbled on) if you do a search on the rather generic 'seller tools' the number one in Google for me is a site offering a service operating at the tools extension.

Bob

Perhaps the uptick in platinum sales @ Donuts is further evidence that new TLDs are becoming mainstream. New TLDs can be good for business. Look what happens when you enter the search phrase "good business" into the Google machine (with or without quotes). Notice what's missing in front portion of the green URL -just under the page title in search results. Google is displaying this new TLD domain name differently in search.

 

[JB Lions]

-aye-

 

[garptrader]

Namestat.org shows about 1.6 million new tld drops in the last four weeks - a pace of about 400k weekly. At that pace more than 20 million drops would occur in a year's time - some 80% of the registrant base of nearly 24 million several weeks ago. With $1 to $3 first year registration promos the net decline is much slower. While many domain portfolio owners will prune some inventory annually, the drop rate is normally less than 10%. So why such an aggressive non-renewal rate with the newer extensions?

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Namestat.org shows about 1.6 million new tld drops in the last four weeks - a pace of about 400k weekly. At that pace more than 20 million drops would occur in a year's time - some 80% of the registrant base of nearly 24 million several weeks ago. With $1 to $3 first year registration promos the net decline is much slower. While many domain portfolio owners will prune some inventory annually, the drop rate is normally less than 10%. So why such an aggressive non-renewal rate with the newer extensions?

There are probably several reasons but the failure of Alpnames is significant. Since they suddenly closed it has been impossible for those with 2FA to renew or move, and now even the workaround with unlocking no longer works. Also of course they are registering no new ones. Alpnames were a major new extension registrar. Also about the time of ICANN64 two registries did a major culling of bad actor names accounting for I think a total of at least 60,000 sites shut down. A 4 week period is not long enough to establish any overall pattern. Other than ongoing .icu and one month .best there are relatively few good promotions right now. The total ngTLD registrations have gone up and down with promotions but have been relatively constant since mid 2016. If you compare with nTLDstats currently new extension registrations are up about 2 million from the same time a year ago.
Bob

 

[johnnie018]

Thanks for the post. I think the article takes a fairly balanced look at the issue. A lot of sense in discussing fundamentally what a domain name is, and the nuances needed in deciding what option is best.

I think the comparison between the fragmented on demand video/broadcast world that led to many small specialized channels and the new gTLDs is a valid analogy that I had not considered before.

Thanks again,

Bob

That is funny Bob, where is @lolwarrior to agree with you that an article from new tld people saying new tlds are doing well is balanced!