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]

Two words:

EPIC FAIL

 

[cityforums.com]

Two words:

EPIC FAIL

the other possibility for some: 2 words

GIANT SUCCESS
:cy:

 

[soggyindo]

the other possibility for some: 2 words

GIANT SUCCESS
:cy:

i guess there will be a bit of both.

a few thoughts i find myself thinking:

- i've wasted a lot of $$$/time/energy on my average names that i'm not going to develop
- think that you're at the start of the next boom, not the end of the last
- (besides the wealthy) we'll be the best placed with knowledge to take advantage of this
- much more than LL.coms, these will be the ultimate domains to own
- eventually this will be great for developers looking for good, memorable names for their sites, with more extensions to chose from
- this is terribly swayed towards making the already wealthy much wealthier
- this is the privatization of language

with the latter - i didn't really mind if someone owned "flowers.com" or "health.org" - as these were technical abstractions, just for the internet, that would some day go out of date.

but if people can go and buy "love", "interesting", "life" and whatever...words...i don't know, shouldn't some things be common ownership? it seems the world should tell ICANN: before you start raking in the multi millions - we have prior use over these things...

 

[equity78]

Prior use of what ? Its called another extension. And let's be honest we have already seen how this experiment has worked.

Has .pro,.jobs,.name,.travel,.coop,.aero,.museum,.asia have any of these hurt .com ? NO anyone who says otherwise has a personal agenda to support nothing else.

These are all good word type TLD does even 1/10 of 1 % of the internet population know of them ? NO

There will always be creative people who use a hack or obscure extension to start a business to stand out. They are few and far between.

Then how much is a .sex domain going to sell for ? Not $7 imo probably more like $50 to $100. Plus many different groups will get involved to either have certain extensions not allowed or banned in their country.

Does the average person know about this ? NO Would they care ? IMO NO.

Icann looks like hypocrites because these domains open the flood gates for phishing and the average internet user will be lost and back away. So it will become with VERISIGN leading the movement, "LOOK FOR THE .com SEAL OF APPROVAL. Again IMO

 

[labrocca]

Icann looks like hypocrites because these domains open the flood gates for phishing and the average internet user will be lost and back away. So it will become with VERISIGN leading the movement, "LOOK FOR THE .com SEAL OF APPROVAL. Again IMO

And if people are confused they will turn to the trusted dotcom.

 

[equity78]

Exactly and I can see Verisign leading the charge. People will call their tech savvy relative, "What's .hypocrite ? and the relative will say "Only trust .com/.net/.org hit the back button or delete the email STAY AWAY." Again IMO

 

[james2002]

Will ICANN allow domains without extension in near future?

I wonder ICANN might say yes to domains without extension near future.

e.g. http :/ / mortgage
http : / / makemoney

etc....

For example,

if you type "mortgage" in address bar, you will be taken to the website which owns "mortgage" domain without extension.

Could it be possible?

What is your reasoning?

 

[soggyindo]

Prior use of what ? Its called another extension.

i just mean if you can have "love" as your company address (no subdomain, no dots, just the word)... if you can 'buy' love as a name.

and if all information (tv, news, internet, books) end up going through the ICANN/ internet system....

just seems like a step too far for ownership over language, IMO. the world invented it, so why should you be able to sell it

 

[weblord]

it would be a chaotic world for domainers i hope not.

 

[bmugford]

On the bright side this could make ClownPenis.fart a reality finally!

 

[soggyindo]

On the bright side this could make ClownPenis.fart a reality finally!

well, pluses and minuses, obviously

 

[cityforums.com]

And if people are confused they will turn to the trusted dotcom.

Jesse yes .COM will benefit from this confusion overall ... but some .COMs ...

mainly PREMIUM .COMs may take a SERIOUS hit, which is probably why the

whole thing has been proposed to begin with.
:td:

 

[autotim]

You're missing the point

I really think those of you that say that this whole thing is another reason to load up on .coms or that prices of .coms will remain firm/rise .... are missing the point.... these gTLD's will create massive confusion. People will have no idea which extension to type in because they will assume that a) different companies will inhabit different extensions of the same name and b) that big generics will become directories like .shoes or .shopping or whatever..... so search engines will become ever more critical to the average Joe's web experience. Even if you are sitting on shoes.com you've got to be worried about the dilutive effect of the gTLD .shoes on the potential for capital appreciation of shoes.com.

At less than 1% of traffic (inlcuding typos), direct naviagtion generally isn't profitable anymore and does not generate annuity type income flows. So domainers will no longer pay 3-8x wholesale for crappy .com DN's. Geo's also look like a big wind-up as google and yahoo let advertisers opt out of parked page sites. It's real simple now - develop or let your DN's die.

 

[OctaneInv]

Two words:

EPIC FAIL

This is why I love this guy. Short and sweet.

This is one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard. Seems like it would be more work too, for ICANN, than profit.

 

[Beachie]

If you need an example of what we can expect, take a look at the history of .TRAVEL - it's one of the most obvious choices for a new extension, if it didn't already exist, yet by last year the company running it was on the verge of bankruptcy.

 

[cityforums.com]

If you need an example of what we can expect, take a look at the history of .TRAVEL - it's one of the most obvious choices for a new extension, if it didn't already exist, yet by last year the company running it was on the verge of bankruptcy.

This means nothing.

Burgers were sold by thousands of others before McDonalds came along.

 

[accent]

Two words:

EPIC FAIL

Not sure that I agree .....

..... with the "Epic" part. Travel was supposed to consolidate the travel industry. It has been all but ignored. .Aero was for the Airlines (some overlap there), .Coop for the cooperatives, .Pro for professionals, .Museum for -- you can guess that one. All are going nowhere - indeed how many domainers even know about them?

ICANN will make some money from corporate vanity and a few speculators, there will be some use on the edges, but, overall this is not a major worry. Except that it diverts ICANN't attention from the things that it should be doing. A poster on another board mentioned that China is about to set up their own system using local language (and undoubtedly censorship). UDRPs are taking away legitimate generic domains.

ICANN is busy making mudpies.

 

[ride]

Domain market is offically open!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7475986.stm

Peter Dengate Thrush(Icann), said the decision was of "historic importance".

 

[onewordonly]

I'm quite happy with the domain industry now & how they drip feed a new one like .travel etc out every now & then in a controlled manner if you like. If they suddenly open the flood gates & make it a free-for-all circus then anything could happen, it could be positive or it could just be one big mess, most likely the latter.

 

[GoPC]

I don't like where this is going at all. The way I see it, being able to purchase and own a generic extension sucks the value right out of generic .com domains.

Now the cyber-Squatting or aftermarket would be fun... but I can't see anything but a monumental devaluation of virtually every domain name out there.

Don't think for a second that the general public isn't going to be bombarded by an education campaign explaining how the new system works... If you want anything Pepsi, just type anything.pepsi and you'll find it.

And keep in mind the BENEFICIARY of this move.... ICANN will experience windfall profits of a now UNLIMITED amount of domains. reg fees and other revenue sources from this move. They have EVERY reason to approve it.

as far as the landrush is concerned... I can't see that working smoothly at all. Lots of arguments and suits regarding use, rights and TMs are probably already being discussed.

This is BAD for our Industry. I hope ICANN see that and not just the Billions of repeat Dollars to be made.

GoPC