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

 

[GoPC]

What I see in all of this is the very dangerous trend of ICANN pursuing the DOLLAR rather than being concerned with individual domain holders. I don't like the precedent.

Yes... Time will tell.

GoPC

 

[staffjam]

I'm not normally one to write long posts as i expect other people find me as boring as i do, but this topic is an exception.
Sure i'm concerned by these events - but i won't lose any sleep.
Lets take .Rome for example, so i want to find out about the city - what i need is a city guide. I know I'll type in cityguide.rome, and risk there not being a site there - which there probably wouldn't. Or would i go to Rome.com and select the city guide.
Actually i probably wouldn't do either, i'd go to google and type in: "Rome city guide" and see what it comes up with, as even though i'm a domainer i never just type in a word.com and hope it takes me to the right thing.
Google algorithms are clever and that's why we use them.

This being the case why not register any old extension with rome.com in it as if it's well developed, after a lot of time and money you may work your way up to page 1 or 2 - Well the reason is Brandability. Rome.com is so brandable i want to kiss it. If You visit the site and if it provides you with what you need you'll remember it.
Lets just say that Cityguide.Rome does give you what you want - great, but what then, Hotels.Rome, Restaurants.Rome, Stripclubs.Rome - what are the chances of these ALL being useful developed sites? Not a lot.
I can' remember the figure but most people don't bookmark sites, and if they do they soon forget about it anyway. They remember where they were serviced well and go back, which is why you need something they know, are familiar with and can remember easily.

Another point to think about is what sort of investment would it take to bring your extension to the global markets eye - A lot! And i mean a serious amount of money, tens, hundreds of millions - and even then it's not guaranteed to work.

Lets face it parking is dying, type in is dying, the way forward is development with useful content, and if people can remember your name and are interested in the wider topic your site serves - then hey presto you have a customer.

I'll be watching it with interest and who knows in the next 3-10 years it could gain traction and take over the web making all us domain investors potless - but i don't think so. Even if it did i think most of the hustlers over here would fare just fine.

So in my opinion, the sky isn't falling or rising, (i'm not like others who thik it will have a positive effect on .com either,) i just think it'll end up as a non entity - after a few big lawsuits and some big investments going horribly wrong it could wither away - well that's what i hope anyway.

So if you fancy unloading your one word .coms then please come and see me, i'm open for buisness from 8:00 to 18:00 GMT.

I've bored you enough for this post, Goodnight

 

[deleted984054565403]

It's going to cost $100,000 to apply for an extension. Nothing for the average domainer to worry about. :imho:

 

[KRL]

Whichever way this industry changing move impacts us all, for better or worse, it will indeed dramatically change the dynamics of domain investing. Anyone who doesn't accept this new domain tsunami reality about to hit us is simply in denial. The flat board we've been playing on is about to go 3D.

Firstly, what makes this significantly different than the other 20 or so secondary .TLD's that have been out there with meager success relative to .com's will be the usage of this new unlimited TLD platform by all the major corporations in the world. Once a few jump on this, they all will and you're going to see Apple.com shift to .Apple, IBM.com to .IBM, etc. Corporations will be all over this new ability for them to own and control their own TLD. And they will pour BILLIONS of marketing and advertising dollars into rebranding. Having your own TLD is more logical and secure than having a .com. Now the big corporations won't have to hassle with the .com descriptor squatters that have been costing their legal dept's enormous amounts of money to protect their brands and TM's. This new system solves the problem and that is why they will invest the money for rebranding their new location on the Web. It wil also be prestigious for them to own their own TLD.

When all these corps bombard the public with their new web ".TLD's" the public WILL GET IT and I think they will get it fast and be extremely curious about what they'll find when typing in various combo's. Type-in traffic will surge to levels never seen before because the new TLD descriptors will create logical destinations, and much more so than .com's have. Want to find a new home in any city in the US? Just type newhomes.LosAngeles, newhomes.Miami, newhomes.Dallas. Sounds easy and simple to me and easy and simple is what works best in business.

Entrepreneurs are going to be all over this new business opportunity like when gold was first discovered out west. This is the Internet's next big "WAVE" and next big "GOLD RUSH" about to happen!

Opening up unlimited TLD's means the Internet can be catalogued and indexed much more effectively, much like a library card system.

Next, I think all domains will have their values impacted, even .com's, simply because the domain marketplace is going to expand enormously but there are only so many domain investors on the playing field. .com's will still retain quite a bit of value, but I think they will take a hit if they are undeveloped and dependant on a ppc page for income. PPC income is going to drop, because you will have a deluge of new more highly targeted advertising spots available. That's simple supply and demand mathematical reality. Traffic per domain could go down as well with hundreds of millions of new web sites popping up.

The generic TLD will now be hugely more valuable than it's corresponding .com, because a TLD provides a thousand times more revenue possibilities. Just ask yourself the simple question what would you rather own? Porn.com or .Porn? The answer is a no brainer.

You're going to see many sharp domainers become Muliti-Millionaires and Billionaires from this new opportunity. So although it will hurt many in the industry who don't have the resources to take advantage of and adapt their investments to this changing platform, I think the bulk of domain investors will figure a way to get in on the action and reap even more money than has been made already.

So in summary, this is the biggest game changer we've ever seen in domaining. Overall I think the vast opportunities it presents will surpass the value damage it will do to our current domain investments. More than anything, most domainers recognize that we are all dependent on technology, and history has clearly shown technology is a constant game changer, and the Internet is a perpetual work in progress. So you have to always be mentally prepared for anything to happen that can significantly alter the industry. Nothing lasts forever, and all waves of opportunity only go so far and then hit the shore and new waves arise. We also have to recognize that we've been incredibly blessed with good fortune to be able to make so much money from something so intangible, fun and easy for so many years.

It's also important to recognize that what will ultimately always hold value on the Internet is "CONTENT", because that is what people want, and our names are simply signs and means to navigate them to their sought destination and information. And one day in the future keyboards, and domains as we know them today, are going to become relics anyways.

Computers will be so incredibly powerful it will be like having a human being's mind in front of you to interact with, much like in 2001 A Space Odyssey. You won't have to type in domains anymore, nor waste time searching through 20 site links on Google serps, you will simply talk to your PC and say "Hal, fetch today's top techology news." and your PC will display a mashup of content it retreived in an instant off the most popular technology news servers on the Net, and present that info to you in an instantly created web site laid out exactly the way you like to see the information formatted, in your favorite colors and styles, no longer forcing you to see sites based on a web designers style. Lettered and named locations on the Net will become meaningless, since the fetch process will work fine off just numeric server content locations, and you won't have to go sites, sites will be instantly and dynamically created for you based on the content you want. And after reading your daily news, your PC concierge will say "Anything else you want to see from the Net today?" The process will be incredibly sophisticated on the back end, yet incredibly simple for even the most non-tech Web users on the front end. And many decades from now, we'll all be in rocking chairs, reminiscing about the good old days when you could have so much fun buying and selling Internet domains.

So not to worry about this change ahead, the Future is still ours to enjoy and profit from for many years yet to come. It's critical none of us starts panic selling as that could implode values. It's time to start developing and creating great sites on your great domains. And most importantly, it's time to invest in lots more picks and shovels, cause there are going to be a ton of new gold mines opening soon to prospect.

 

[EJS]

So do I apply for .domain or .domains? Also, .NewYork or .NY or .NewYorkCity? I am so confused.

 

[Phil]

Awesome post KRL. Rep for you!

 

[cityforums.com]

Whichever way this industry changing move impacts us all, for better or worse, it will indeed dramatically change the dynamics of domain investing. Anyone who doesn't accept this new domain tsunami reality about to hit us is simply in denial. The flat board we've been playing on is about to go 3D.

Firstly, what makes this significantly different than the other 20 or so secondary .TLD's that have been out there with meager success relative to .com's will be the usage of this new unlimited TLD platform by all the major corporations in the world. Once a few jump on this, they all will and you're going to see Apple.com shift to .Apple, IBM.com to .IBM, etc. Corporations will be all over this new ability for them to own and control their own TLD. And they will pour BILLIONS of marketing and advertising dollars into rebranding. Having your own TLD is more logical and secure than having a .com. Now the big corporations won't have to hassle with the .com descriptor squatters that have been costing their legal dept's enormous amounts of money to protect their brands and TM's. This new system solves the problem and that is why they will invest the money for rebranding their new location on the Web. It wil also be prestigious for them to own their own TLD.

When all these corps bombard the public with their new web ".TLD's" the public WILL GET IT and I think they will get it fast and be extremely curious about what they'll find when typing in various combo's. Type-in traffic will surge to levels never seen before because the new TLD descriptors will create logical destinations, and much more so than .com's have. Want to find a new home in any city in the US? Just type newhomes.LosAngeles, newhomes.Miami, newhomes.Dallas. Sounds easy and simple to me and easy and simple is what works best in business.

Entrepreneurs are going to be all over this new business opportunity like when gold was first discovered out west. This is the Internet's next big "WAVE" and next big "GOLD RUSH" about to happen!

Opening up unlimited TLD's means the Internet can be catalogued and indexed much more effectively, much like a library card system.

Next, I think all domains will have their values impacted, even .com's, simply because the domain marketplace is going to expand enormously but there are only so many domain investors on the playing field. .com's will still retain quite a bit of value, but I think they will take a hit if they are undeveloped and dependant on a ppc page for income. PPC income is going to drop, because you will have a deluge of new more highly targeted advertising spots available. That's simple supply and demand mathematical reality. Traffic per domain could go down as well with hundreds of millions of new web sites popping up.

The generic TLD will now be hugely more valuable than it's corresponding .com, because a TLD provides a thousand times more revenue possibilities. Just ask yourself the simple question what would you rather own? Porn.com or .Porn? The answer is a no brainer.

You're going to see many sharp domainers become Muliti-Millionaires and Billionaires from this new opportunity. So although it will hurt many in the industry who don't have the resources to take advantage of and adapt their investments to this changing platform, I think the bulk of domain investors will figure a way to get in on the action and reap even more money than has been made already.

So in summary, this is the biggest game changer we've ever seen in domaining. Overall I think the vast opportunities it presents will surpass the value damage it will do to our current domain investments. More than anything, most domainers recognize that we are all dependent on technology, and history has clearly shown technology is a constant game changer, and the Internet is a perpetual work in progress. So you have to always be mentally prepared for anything to happen that can significantly alter the industry. Nothing lasts forever, and all waves of opportunity only go so far and then hit the shore and new waves arise. We also have to recognize that we've been incredibly blessed with good fortune to be able to make so much money from something so intangible, fun and easy for so many years.

It's also important to recognize that what will ultimately always hold value on the Internet is "CONTENT", because that is what people want, and our names are simply signs and means to navigate them to their sought destination and information. And one day in the future keyboards, and domains as we know them today, are going to become relics anyways.

Computers will be so incredibly powerful it will be like having a human being's mind in front of you to interact with, much like in 2001 A Space Odyssey. You won't have to type in domains anymore, nor waste time searching through 20 site links on Google serps, you will simply talk to your PC and say "Hal, fetch today's top techology news." and your PC will display a mashup of content it retreived in an instant off the most popular technology news servers on the Net, and present that info to you in an instantly created web site laid out exactly the way you like to see the information formatted, in your favorite colors and styles, no longer forcing you to see sites based on a web designers style. Lettered and named locations on the Net will become meaningless, since the fetch process will work fine off just numeric server content locations, and you won't have to go sites, sites will be instantly and dynamically created for you based on the content you want. And after reading your daily news, your PC concierge will say "Anything else you want to see from the Net today?" The process will be incredibly sophisticated on the back end, yet incredibly simple for even the most non-tech Web users on the front end. And many decades from now, we'll all be in rocking chairs, reminiscing about the good old days when you could have so much fun buying and selling Internet domains.

So not to worry about this change ahead, the Future is still ours to enjoy and profit from for many years yet to come. It's critical none of us starts panic selling as that could implode values. It's time to start developing and creating great sites on your great domains. And most importantly, it's time to invest in lots more picks and shovels, cause there are going to be a ton of new gold mines opening soon to prospect.

Kevin you see the big picture that everybody is missing in all this ... the

high price to get an extension is actually a DREAM for any self respecting

rich business man that loves barriers to entry.

 

[scandiman]

.
.
It's also important to recognize that what will ultimately always hold value on the Internet is "CONTENT", because that is what people want, and our names are simply signs and means to navigate them to their sought destination and information.
.
.
.

So not to worry about this change ahead, the Future is still ours to enjoy and profit from for many years yet to come. It's critical none of us starts panic selling as that could implode values. It's time to start developing and creating great sites on your great domains. And most importantly, it's time to invest in lots more picks and shovels, cause there are going to be a ton of new gold mines opening soon to prospect.

So true KRL, Rep+ for an insightful post

 

[aki]

This is a big mess if you ask me.

I'm not concerned about brand names as GTLD's.. .google, .amazon and .yahoo sounds nice and dandy.
What I AM worried about are the key words.
Let's say google buys .search (it only makes sense), what will then they do? Create google.search?
Isn't that a TAD unfair to yahoo, microsoft, and every other search engine?
.search would create such huge leverage over other search engines.
The same could be said for .clothes, .food, .travel etc.
Why would ONE brand name company need to hog an entire tld for themselves?

Wouldn't it be better, if they are going to change the entire setup like this, to force search engines to .search, travel companies to .travel, food/grocery stores to .store/.food, and so forth.
At least it would be a bit comprehensible then.

Not to mention, what would happen if google got .search, wouldn't say yahoo be a tad jealous/angry?
yahoo.com would only be able to ride on the traffic now.

Speaking of traffic.
As mentioned before, how do icann propose we keep this as least confusing as possible?
Not to mention the mayhem a hyphen or non com domain can create in regards to typos, let's now imagine if the domain doesn't have a gtld to begin with.

No, this not only ruins the potency of com/net/org as standardized extensions, it also creates confusion among everyone else not into domains.
EVEN IF they cost in the hundred thousands, this is peanuts for companies that earn billions in revenue. And many companies have billions in revenue.

GAH I HATE YOU ICANN!

 

[cityforums.com]

This is a big mess if you ask me.

I'm not concerned about brand names as GTLD's.. .google, .amazon and .yahoo sounds nice and dandy.
What I AM worried about are the key words.
Let's say google buys .search (it only makes sense), what will then they do? Create google.search?
Isn't that a TAD unfair to yahoo, microsoft, and every other search engine?
.search would create such huge leverage over other search engines.
The same could be said for .clothes, .food, .travel etc.
Why would ONE brand name company need to hog an entire tld for themselves?

Wouldn't it be better, if they are going to change the entire setup like this, to force search engines to .search, travel companies to .travel, food/grocery stores to .store/.food, and so forth.
At least it would be a bit comprehensible then.

Not to mention, what would happen if google got .search, wouldn't say yahoo be a tad jealous/angry?
yahoo.com would only be able to ride on the traffic now.

Speaking of traffic.
As mentioned before, how do icann propose we keep this as least confusing as possible?
Not to mention the mayhem a hyphen or non com domain can create in regards to typos, let's now imagine if the domain doesn't have a gtld to begin with.

No, this not only ruins the potency of com/net/org as standardized extensions, it also creates confusion among everyone else not into domains.
EVEN IF they cost in the hundred thousands, this is peanuts for companies that earn billions in revenue. And many companies have billions in revenue.

GAH I HATE YOU ICANN!

Now you're talking this is ONLY about killing the little guy ...

Big Money is trying to level the playing field in their favor.

 

[dgridley]

Exactly what will happen.. big money will own the internet and effectively quash any competition

Now you're talking this is ONLY about killing the little guy ...

Big Money is trying to level the playing field in their favor.

 

[GF]

I guess this means I should buy .con and get all the .com typos

 

[dotnom]

I clearly don't understand how ICANN helps the internet with this move
First i believe this will hurt domainer a big time
The rules says that when the offer is limited the price is high
Would the 3L or 4L have these prices if they were registered only half of them ?

The more options the more buyers will select other TLDs/their TLDs

This will also kill typein traffic

Something that came to my mind right now
What will happen to the business model of Centralnic.com if this measure pass ?

 

[autotim]

It is official

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7475986.stm

Note:
Others point out that some generic domain names - such as .news or .sport - could become subject to contention and a bidding war. It will implement an arbitration process to oversee disputes and has said that if all else fails a domain would go the "highest bidder" in an auction.

--------------

Unless you have the money to own and manage a gTLD you may as well forget domaining. Our.com investments will significantly lose their value, especially GEO's (which will be among the first granted). Domaing is about to shift to the large corporations and there isn't much we smaller investors can do about it except remember the good old days when we could sell crappy domains that meant nothing to anyone but ourselves at 3-10x wholesale EPS.

 

[martinisky]

this is pretty crazy. who knows what will truly happen as only time will tell but it does raise a lot of questions.... here's one that might not have been brought up yet...

Obviously the generic .words will be auctioned off for some ridiculous amounts of money, but lets just say Business.com wins the auction to own .business.... what's to keep them from just forwarding every single domain that ends in .business to business.com? that way anyone who tries to find something .business get redirected to business.com? Or the same can be said with most any generic word.

Sounds like a legal nightmare to me as well....

 

[cityforums.com]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7475986.stm

Note:
Others point out that some generic domain names - such as .news or .sport - could become subject to contention and a bidding war. It will implement an arbitration process to oversee disputes and has said that if all else fails a domain would go the "highest bidder" in an auction.

--------------

Unless you have the money to own and manage a gTLD you may as well forget domaining. Our.com investments will significantly lose their value, especially GEO's (which will be among the first granted). Domaing is about to shift to the large corporations and there isn't much we smaller investors can do about it except remember the good old days when we could sell crappy domains that meant nothing to anyone but ourselves at 3-10x wholesale EPS.

at least you will be able to tell your grandkids that at one

time the internet was free and that anybody could have bought a domain.

 

[vitalir]

My initial thought was: it may harm young extensions with potential: .eu and .asia.

But the secondary and final thought is: no one would care about the new extensions to come thanks ICANN decision - they will simply end nowhere. Like .travel .aero and many others. I am not worried.

 

[nu-money]

What is stopping someone from registering .cpm, .couk, .nte, .moib, and other Kevin Ham style typos?

 

[dotnom]

""On balance, the board feels that adopting this resolution is in the best interests of the internet and the public at large," said Icann board member Dennis Jennings"

Yes sure
Is this translated to "The best interest of ICANN" ?

 

[autotim]

Even though Marchex is trading at 50% of its highs, is it time to short at $13.20? Seems like the market hasn't reacted to this news. What about DBS in Australia (500k domain names)? It traded sideways yesterdays at 0.38c (although has also halved in 6 months).