TechCrunch editorial on new domain suffixes - "squatters are screwed"

[greggish]

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/3...cares-if-your-domain-has-that-hot-new-suffix/

If ICANN does wind up releasing dozens or hundreds of new domain name extensions, extensions in general will become increasingly meaningless. Many people are already confused enough by the differences between common extensions like “.net” and “.com”. And they’ve generally rejected the overhyped extensions that are already out there, like “.tv”. Adding countless others to the mix will only make them more confused, to the point that they no longer care.

Instead, they’ll just turn to search engines. Many people are already using Google to search for whole domain names, and I can’t think of the last time I’ve directly entered a URL from an ad I heard on TV or the radio (I usually just type the company name into Google). Search engines generally do a better job at identifying the most authoritative sites in a space, and as they get smarter by paying more attention to user location and semantics, the bias for search engines over URLs will only become stronger.

 

[bizcorp]

I agree with what they are saying. Direct traffic from people typing these domains in the browser will be virtually non-existent. People rely on search engines to get the information they need - I can't see that changing in the near future either

 

[Timewarp]

Yes, ICANN probably knows too, even without the new extensions domain names are becoming much less important as search takes over. This is ICANNs last chance to soak everyone with a new extensions before their window of opportunity closes.

 

[useless]

but still short names will be in demand for some decent extentions

 

[vectro]

but still short names will be in demand for some decent extentions

I agree with this and I agree with the article. There is even now a thread like this here on namepros about the movie "2012" using "Google search: 2012" as a tagline in their trailer.

My traffic logs also show searches for the term "vectro" which is a word on all of my sites. I have even seen people Google my actual domain names! I have seen newbies type URL's into the Google search bar, too.

 

[snowberry]

Yes but many domain owners are speculators sitting on undeveloped top level domains while the dot tvs and the dot bizzes will grind their knes into the dust getting a site up. Google is the judge.....

 

[NP41215]

No matter what happens, the fact remains that you should have, and therefore need, a good domain name if you want a web presence.

Will any extension unseat .com? Not likely, and certainly not in the near future.

 

[npcomplete]

I feel like such a hypocrite. I *hate* parked sites even though I operate over a thousand of them. So I routinely resort to google for finding content. I tried what I *thought* was a forum name earlier today that was interesting (not domains), and ended up on a parked page. I thought to myself "another crappy parked page" and then went straight to google. I guess I had that coming!

The article makes an excellent point. Every new tld is food for google and other search engines to grow.

 

[exsedo]

If google continues to dominate the internet, even one word dot coms could lose value because of the emphasis on search. For instance, you have a site called bubbling.com and type in "bubbling" you will be lucky to find it in the serps. Only extensive development and seo will put the domain where it should rightfully be, at position 1 for the term. Google have their own agenda in the way it runs the internet and even the top domain owners can do little or nothing to influence it. How long will it be before surfers tire of all the irrelevant search results google spews out ? If I type in "bananas" the first page of results are likely to be something like Site - wikidikitechblog .com and Description - last thursday I had two bananas for my lunch. Poor old bananas.com on page 35 and I have given up already.

 

[rodash]

If google continues to dominate the internet, even one word dot coms could lose value because of the emphasis on search.

Nah, can't agree with that. I think the opposite will occur, that these names will become far more valuable, and it's to do with the vast amount of clutter on the Net.

Do a Google search on a common term and look at the crap that comes up in the first 100 search results. It's frightening. You really have to be quite skilled in key word use to get good relevance in search results, and sometimes even those skills don't help. Google now has so much rubbish and spam in its database that giving searchers useful information is its biggest challenge, and with the Internet doubling every three to five years that situation is only going to get worse. Eventually the big corporations will dominate the top of the search results, for various reasons, but mainly commercial.

A good example of how this clutter works against searchers is when you are looking to buy a DVD, and you want the lowest price. Keying in the DVD name and the keyword string "best price" or "lowest price" returns dozens, perhaps hundreds, of websites where you are not getting the lowest price. That's because web designers stack their pages with the key-word strings "lowest price" "best price" "discount" etc, and Google as yet can't distinguish between which site does in fact offer the best price. (Eventually it will build shopping bot processes into its algorithms, but that hasn't happened yet.)

To cite the other side of the coin, if you go to dvd.co.uk you know you are going to get a DVD-specific website that sells DVDs in big numbers, so logically the prices should be lower. (My experience has been that these guys are far, far lower than other online DVD shops and I've reached the point that I usually don't bother to go elsewhere. That's not a plug for this site, it's just the way it is.)

Single word dot com and quality compound word dot coms offer the visitor a 100% relevant search experience, if set up properly. They make the perfect shop. It's only a matter of time before all these parked premium dot coms are developed as niche websites and turned into shops or information sites. Even if you own an obscure product name (eg SilverLabels dot com, which is one of my lesser lights), you will eventually get enough people keying that name in globally to make a nice income. You won't make millions, but you'll make an excellent multiple of your annual renewal fee. If I was looking for silver labels, I would try SilverLabels dot com before using Google - at least I'm going to get silver label stationary, not the Silver labels pop band or Silver Labels alias in a chat room, or the name of some obscure shop in mid-western USA that doesn't sell stuff online.

 

[exsedo]

Nah, can't agree with that. I think the opposite will occur, that these names will become far more valuable, and it's to do with the vast amount of clutter on the Net.

Do a Google search on a common term and look at the crap that comes up in the first 100 search results. It's frightening. You really have to be quite skilled in key word use to get good relevance in search results, and sometimes even those skills don't help. Google now has so much rubbish and spam in its database that giving searchers useful information is its biggest challenge, and with the Internet doubling every three to five years that situation is only going to get worse. Eventually the big corporations will dominate the top of the search results, for various reasons, but mainly commercial.

A good example of how this clutter works against searchers is when you are looking to buy a DVD, and you want the lowest price. Keying in the DVD name and the keyword string "best price" or "lowest price" returns dozens, perhaps hundreds, of websites where you are not getting the lowest price. That's because web designers stack their pages with the key-word strings "lowest price" "best price" "discount" etc, and Google as yet can't distinguish between which site does in fact offer the best price. (Eventually it will build shopping bot processes into its algorithms, but that hasn't happened yet.)

To cite the other side of the coin, if you go to dvd.co.uk you know you are going to get a DVD-specific website that sells DVDs in big numbers, so logically the prices should be lower. (My experience has been that these guys are far, far lower than other online DVD shops and I've reached the point that I usually don't bother to go elsewhere. That's not a plug for this site, it's just the way it is.)

Single word dot com and quality compound word dot coms offer the visitor a 100% relevant search experience, if set up properly. They make the perfect shop. It's only a matter of time before all these parked premium dot coms are developed as niche websites and turned into shops or information sites. Even if you own an obscure product name (eg SilverLabels dot com, which is one of my lesser lights), you will eventually get enough people keying that name in globally to make a nice income. You won't make millions, but you'll make an excellent multiple of your annual renewal fee. If I was looking for silver labels, I would try SilverLabels dot com before using Google - at least I'm going to get silver label stationary, not the Silver labels pop band or Silver Labels alias in a chat room, or the name of some obscure shop in mid-western USA that doesn't sell stuff online.

I agree with some of what you say but a lot of it depends on what may happen rather than what is happening now. At the moment, google is the be all and end all of the internet. Google rules virtually unchallenged. As for the clutter in search, it has been debated that google actually benefits financially by all the spammers, scammers, and junk sites in its index so it would have to be them who clean it up. I dont think changes here would come from a natural progression.

The fact that the internet will double every 3 - 5 years poses another problem. New users need time to learn how to navigate to what they are looking for. My guess is that a new internet users first experience will be the google search engine and it would take a considerable time for them to move away from that to direct search which I agree is the best method. All the time this is happening new users are joining the internet and so it goes on.

As things stand, if google do not wish to make changes to the search, why invest in a one word .com for a massive amount of money when you can buy a $10 domain and get it to No1 in the index for any keyword you choose just by clever manipulation. I dont have any figures but I suspect that most of the good generic .coms are parked at the moment generating income from type-in traffic and until conditions change, if that is the best option for the owners, who can blame them for having them parked.

One example of googles domination is their compulsary geo-targeting policy, if you have an international sales business and your keyword is already taken in .com, your next option is your country code extension. This is placing a restriction on your trading abilities. The geo-targeting should be optional.

My original statement should have been " If google continues to dominate the internet without making changes to its search and indexing policies, even one word .coms could lose value".

 

[.Andy]

I agree with this and I agree with the article. There is even now a thread like this here on namepros about the movie "2012" using "Google search: 2012" as a tagline in their trailer.

My traffic logs also show searches for the term "vectro" which is a word on all of my sites. I have even seen people Google my actual domain names! I have seen newbies type URL's into the Google search bar, too.

There not necessaraly newbies I do that