news The Domain Industry Is About To Change BIGTIME!!!

[daj]

The net could see its biggest transformation in decades if plans to open up the address system are passed.

The net's regulators will vote on Thursday to decide if the strict rules on so-called top level domain names, such as .com or .uk, can be relaxed.

If approved, it could allow companies to turn their brands into domain names while individuals could also carve out their own corner of the net.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7468855.stm

 

[labrocca]

Duke has stated pretty much what I have been saying. That this won't effect CNO's and if anyone is going to suffer it's biz, info, and mobi. Yes if there is a catchy extension I might register a good keyword FOR DEVELOPMENT but as proven by major players in buying..it's dot com that sells. Dot com is king.

I am new soda company and let's pretend these are my choices:

BubblySoda.com
BubblySoda.net
BubblySoda.org
BubblySoda.info
BubblySoda.biz
BubblySoda.mobi
BubblySoda.soda
BubblySoda.can
BubblySoda.drink
BubblySoda.fresh
BubblySoda.fun
BubblySoda.web
BubblySoda.xxx
BubblySoda.all
BubblySoda.gr8


What do you think they do? The money will stay with dot com. Other players are just small game. Even when a non CNO takes off...they normally work on getting their CNO's by either WIPO or buying them. Del.icio.us for example (try delicious.com).

 

[KRL]

The timing and impact on current domain values will depend on how effectively ICANN implements this enhanced TLD system. If it's a relatively easy and fast process to acquire and get approved you'll see all the major domainers and lots of private investors, and Fortune 500 companies quickly going after the best TLD's.

The money won't be an issue. I handle mostly large domain deals in my brokerage company and there are already lots of guys in this biz who write $100K and up checks like its play money. But, in addition to the power players in the industry now, this will attract a whole new crop of entrepreneurs going after the enormous bonanza owning a TLD will provide. It's alll about the "dream" and what ICANN has just done is create the ultimate "dream" opportunity for a domain investor.

As crazy as it sounds, I bet ICANN would make more money doing the distributions by a lottery process vs. a highest bidder auction process. Let entrants for each generic TLD pay $1K to enter the lottery for it. With a good PR campaign they'd probably get 50,000 to 100,000 or even more entries on each, and then the winner would have the opportunity to transfer the rights to an approved company that would actually setup and run the registry for him or he could sell it to them. This would keep some fairness and equality in play. And that would net them about $50 Mil to $100 Mil per TLD issued. Even lowballing the numbers down to 10,000 entering ICANN would pull in $10 Mil per TLD.

If ICANN goes with an auction process, pack it in for even the largest players in the industry. The Fortune 500 companies and mega wealthy investors will be able to outbid even the biggest domainers.

But like I said in my prior post, this isn't the end of .com's, just a huge change in the dimensions of the playing field that domain investing strategies will have to be retuned for.

 

[raredn.com]

.blog would be good but when this takes place, any other extension that becomes of this, can go and jump in the lake IMO :tu:

.COM
.ORG
.NET
.
.
.
.
.
.
.what
.
.
.
.what
.
.
.
.
.what
.
.
.
.
.
.
.what

 

[Sam]

Dot com is king, but not for all countries. I'm sick of .com is king of the world. The world ain't one big chunk of place. I will be releasing some basic, but nifty info about cctld local dominance.

Sam

Duke has stated pretty much what I have been saying. That this won't effect CNO's and if anyone is going to suffer it's biz, info, and mobi. Yes if there is a catchy extension I might register a good keyword FOR DEVELOPMENT but as proven by major players in buying..it's dot com that sells. Dot com is king.

I am new soda company and let's pretend these are my choices:

BubblySoda.com
BubblySoda.net
BubblySoda.org
BubblySoda.info
BubblySoda.biz
BubblySoda.mobi
BubblySoda.soda
BubblySoda.can
BubblySoda.drink
BubblySoda.fresh
BubblySoda.fun
BubblySoda.web
BubblySoda.xxx
BubblySoda.all
BubblySoda.gr8


What do you think they do? The money will stay with dot com. Other players are just small game. Even when a non CNO takes off...they normally work on getting their CNO's by either WIPO or buying them. Del.icio.us for example (try delicious.com).

 

[raredn.com]

Dot com is king, but not for all countries. I'm sick of .com is king of the world. The world ain't one big chunk of place. I will be releasing some basic, but nifty info about cctld local dominance.

Sam

country code domain extensions are useful, because they represent a country, I have some myself. My main argument would be against a whole lot of uneccessary 'wannabe' fill space domain names that would be the result of this new Icann domain endeavor

 

[Beachie]

Dot com is king, but not for all countries. I'm sick of .com is king of the world. The world ain't one big chunk of place. I will be releasing some basic, but nifty info about cctld local dominance.

Sam

I'm sick of the shows on TV, but that doesn't change the fact that they're there:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=.com,.co.uk,.ca,.com.au,.eu

 

[onewordonly]

I herd on TV today that it is now official, so I guess it was approved by ICann today? This has been on every TV station, newspaper and what have you over here. They are pronouncing it as the next Internet gold rush already so the general public are going to be fully prepared when the new names come on the market. This is not going to play well for current domainers, I think we might just lose value on our current domains but I guess good .com's could still hold their value, we will have to see... but in the example above "Bubbly.Soda" is another option and that could be where .com loses out....

 

[labrocca]

The old business adage is going to ring true. Location location location. Since the extensions are being opened this provides more possible locations but businesses still want prime real estate. It's CNO. No one says you can't make money in a small location in a small town but it's just harder and it's unlikely you will become a big player without tremendous work to brand yourself.

Location is everything. As an ex-retailer I know this for fact. I had 5 stores and it was really just one that made all the money. It was my most expensive location with the greatest traffic. It was more fruitful than any other and eventually I realized I made more money focusing on one place than on 5. When I downsized...I made MORE because I concentrated full effort on my best location. This is nothing new in business. You can build new shopping centers in NYC but prime locations NEVER go down in value. They just don't. CNO are very similar in that respect. They are something everyone wants but only players can get.

The more I think about this news. The better I feel about my portfolio.

Let's say I hold a so-so .com and an upstart comes with .web. What do you think will happen to my traffic at my .com? Yeah...you got it. I increase in traffic because people type keyword.com and also browsers default to .com as well.

 

[Smooth]

I think this would reduce internet phishing scams. For eg, if ebay owns the extension .ebay & markets it pretty well, I don't think someone wud spend $100k to buy .ebuy & do scams. Browsers these days, are quite intelligent to identify phishing sites. Such extensions would make it actually easier to identify & report the scam sites..

 

[Sam]

I'm sick of the shows on TV, but that doesn't change the fact that they're there:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=.com,.co.uk,.ca,.com.au,.eu

1. Well DUH, trying to compare a tld globally for a cctld doesn't make any sense. Change the regions to the local one, and you'll see they are following close behind.

I said some not all:

Example:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=.se,+.com&ctab=0&geo=SE&geor=all&date=all&sort=1

 

[soggyindo]

Duke has stated pretty much what I have been saying. That this won't effect CNO's and if anyone is going to suffer it's biz, info, and mobi. Yes if there is a catchy extension I might register a good keyword FOR DEVELOPMENT but as proven by major players in buying..it's dot com that sells. Dot com is king.

I am new soda company and let's pretend these are my choices:

BubblySoda.com
BubblySoda.net
BubblySoda.org
BubblySoda.info
BubblySoda.biz
BubblySoda.mobi
BubblySoda.soda
BubblySoda.can
BubblySoda.drink
BubblySoda.fresh
BubblySoda.fun
BubblySoda.web
BubblySoda.xxx
BubblySoda.all
BubblySoda.gr8


What do you think they do? The money will stay with dot com. Other players are just small game. Even when a non CNO takes off...they normally work on getting their CNO's by either WIPO or buying them. Del.icio.us for example (try delicious.com).

The only thing is, IMO there is one thing that can knock www.BubblySoda.com off its perch, and that's www.BubblySoda

.com is the leader because it's the closest to a "neutral", or "nothing" TLD, I've always thought. We all like our names to be as "generic" and lean as possible.

I can see a whole swathe of big companies rushing to get www.hotels or www.mac or www.car - snapping up all the type-in, direct navigation over .com. all of which would really hurt the top level of the .com market. Suddenly .com looks like an old useless appendage.

Perhaps the medium level of domaining won't be that affected - people still need names they can afford - but for the big domainers, it might be a case of expand or die. snap up one or more of these category killers yourself, or back down to the (suddenly less valuable) .com market

(all perhaps...)

 

[mcgauley10]

the only thing thats going to come out of this are a lot of burned speculators

 

[Beachie]

1. Well DUH, trying to compare a tld globally for a cctld doesn't make any sense. Change the regions to the local one, and you'll see they are following close behind.

I said some not all:

Example:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=.se,+.com&ctab=0&geo=SE&geor=all&date=all&sort=1

That's great - so Swedish people visit Swedish websites. Traffic is the true king, which is why you need to graph it globally, not by country, unless you're only selling something to the Swedish market. Talking geographically has no bearing on this discussion at all, since we're talking about gTLDs not ccTLDs.

 

[bmugford]

This will not happen anytime soon in reality anyway.

There are people with deep pockets to fight this, if they want. People who own domains like sex.com, porn.com, poker.com, etc. I could see filing suit to block those extensions

If the lawsuit is in court, and rest assured there will be many it will effectively block this from happening for years. While litigation is pending they have to put it on hold, and court cases take years to go through the system.

I could see companies getting their TM extensions, but I don't see the premium like .SEX, etc happening anytime in the near future.

 

[soggyindo]

My guess is that ICANN will only allow a company to operate a generic extension if that company allows the public to register domains for that extension. They'll allow Hilton to own .hilton all to themselves, but they'll reject the application if Hilton apply for .hotel.

What makes you guess that? If they get offered enough money my guess is ICANN will sell it to whoever. Besides obvious trademarks and government use names, most new names (in new extensions) have gone to the highest bidder.

 

[whitebark]

We who hang out on a forum like this are nothing like the average Internet user. The average user has been using the 'net for up to ten years and yet still knows little about how the Internet really works. They know .com and their cctld. Most could name .net and .org as extensions if asked, and fewer still could name .biz, info and used vanities like .tv.

With branding these new extensions can sink into people's minds but where all this will be decided is in the search algorithms. Google is in control.

 

[Beachie]

The only thing is, IMO there is one thing that can knock www.BubblySoda.com off its perch, and that's www.BubblySoda

.com is the leader because it's the closest to a "neutral", or "nothing" TLD, I've always thought. We all like our names to be as "generic" and lean as possible.

I can see a whole swathe of big companies rushing to get www.hotels or www.mac or www.car - snapping up all the type-in, direct navigation over .com. all of which would really hurt the top level of the .com market. Suddenly .com looks like an old useless appendage.

Perhaps the medium level of domaining won't be that affected - people still need names they can afford - but for the big domainers, it might be a case of expand or die. snap up one or more of these category killers yourself, or back down to the (suddenly less valuable) .com market

(all perhaps...)

But no-one will attempt to type www.bubblysoda, since 99.99% of the time they'll be trying to access a brand that hasn't spent $150k on an extension and they get a "Page Not Found". As for generics like .hotel, they'll likely be as successful as .travel and .jobs - the only truly valuable domain in terms of traffic is www.hotel. If you currently want to visit Nevada do you ever type nevada.travel?

 

[H-O-V]

New top-level domain names will cost at least $100,000 (£50,000) to register, with some suggestions that highly popular top-level domains could cost in the region of $1 million (£500,000).

Ouch...

 

[Beachie]

What makes you guess that? If they get offered enough money my guess is ICANN will sell it to whoever. Besides obvious trademarks and government use names, most new names (in new extensions) have gone to the highest bidder.

Yes, but every time they've gone to the highest bidder who will offer it to the public. ICANN will disallow extensions similar to .COM, like .CON, .CMO etc because of the TM potential of a wildcarded root. For that reason I expect they won't allow Hilton to own .HOTEL - they could wildcard it and pick up traffic from marriott.hotel etc, and I think ICANN are aware of the growing pressure from the UN - allowing a corporation to dominate a generic gTLD will be frowned upon. I could be wrong (that's why I said 'guess') but my gut instinct says they'll only approve generic terms that will be offered for public registration.

 

[dax44]

How the net was won ..

I think many of the high value new gTLDs will simply end up as vanity extensions to the existing .com owner. As I have posted before .com is effectively already .nothing right now. My browser even adds it if I forget ..

There is no way the owner of a big .com will allow someone to start up with the new tld version since so many people will instinctively try to add the .com, for many years to come => lots of litigation.

However a broadening of the domain space is inevitable and is already happening rapidly in ccTLDs. I see the namespace as a pyramid with .com at the top - the pyramid will get wider , and at worst this widening will stop .com from rising higher and higher - so perhaps .com values will peak soon - but will always be top of the heap. At least for current generations of internet users.

But if you combine this possible 'peaking' of .com with the increased litigation to claim premium high value .com names - owning premium .coms is starting to feel quite risky. Hot potatoes. Maybe time to sell my nnn.com ...

But it is all great fun isn't it?

 

[ginggang]

To me ICANN's decision this makes perfect sense for the future of searching the Internet. As other posters have eluded type in will only ever be used by people looking for specific sites. Branding will be more important than ever in the future. How long will it be before the majority of Internet access will not even be with a keyboard ?

As each generation comes along we are becoming more lazy, why work when a search engine can do all the work for you ? How will search technologies deal with the extensions ? Will these new tld's shape how searches are done ?

Will there be .stores . holidays .supermarket .sex .technology ? . Seems to be there could only be a finite number of extensions that people will ever retain in memory.

People are saying .com will still be king. IMHO Search engine results will be king.

 

[daj]

http://mashable.com/2008/06/26/new-top-level-domains/

"A proposal has been approved by Icann – the non-profit organization responsible for overseeing domain registrations – that will allow anyone to become a registrar and offer their own domain extensions. Well, almost everyone. According to the BBC, the cost of getting into the business of offering up a new top-level domain (TLD) will be “in the six figures,” meaning the privilege will be reserved for those with some serious cash to invest."

Great news for those who are innovative with their TLD'S!

 

[ebatcave]

I don't know if anyone mentioned this, but aren't all of the search engine algorithms have to change because of the extension? Right now, the extension is ignored. If we have something like pizza.com vs. takeout.pizza, and the search engine ignores the extension, then they will have totally different meanings when the search results come up. I don't know how Google is going to sometimes pay attention to the extension and sometimes not in searches.

 

[bmugford]

I don't know if anyone mentioned this, but aren't all of the search engine algorithms have to change because of the extension? Right now, the extension is ignored. If we have something like pizza.com vs. takeout.pizza, and the search engine ignores the extension, then they will have totally different meanings when the search results come up. I don't know how Google is going to sometimes pay attention to the extension and sometimes not in searches.

It really does matter how these are indexed. I am sure Google will still give priority to the established extensions, which is a huge downside for potential buyers here also.

 

[daj]

My only question is...if you own a .tld

do you still have to pay ICANN to get a domain name with the .tld you bought each year? even if you own the tld? lol