The Future of Domain Names

[Phronesis]

If you look back over the past century, technology changes so quickly and part of me wonders how long the internet will continue to exist in its current form. I think one of the biggest long-term risks to domain name investors is the potential that the web, as it is, and how we get information (by searching specific sites - domains) could change dramatically thus making domain names obsolete and if that happened, the value of domain names obviously worthless. I realize this may be a touchy subject as many of us have a lot of cash (credit?) invested here. But I'm curious what people think about it.

 

[peaches017]

I think 25 years is a good benchmark. In the realm of future technology, typing in a website and having to remember the name may very well be, well, tedious.

They (we) will most likely have more efficient methods of getting to websites, or virtual portals by then.

 

[Jo]

Words and numbers are humankind's forte, the way we communicate. Letters...numbers...that has never changed. I cannot see it changing that much. It would have to be radically different. Sounds and colours would not work. Maybe the way we access the domains could change...speech instead of typing. But you are speaking of the whole domain extension concept? Yes, that could change but I agree with others it would take some time. How about a future where we are all hooked up to computers 24 hours a day? Installed at birth. Sort of cyborg-humans. They talked about bar-coding people, how about installing personal mini-micros into our bodies? Ok, I am way off and out into outerspace

 

[.X.]

i went with 25 years,,,although i think they will be here alot longer...25 was my comfort zone-LOL...I feel certain there will be changes in the way the net is used...I don't think it will be domain names in general...i think it will have more to do with how country extensions are used....I think .net will fade to null in due time... .info will become a pure form of information only... .us willl become an american house hold typin,,The same with .co.uk and .in ,House hold typins for the respective countries to access thier own countries sites...very small cctlds such as .im will have no significant use,I think many of these cctlds will be dropped in due time...they are very profitable for registers...but small country-island codes will carry no value.Just my thoughts and opinion.

 

[Keral_Patel]

Humm... I would also vote for 50 years.

But even if it goes down. We can dream of selling it as rare collections of the past. :D

Old coins and stamps are selling for BIG $$$'s so maybe even if this is past thing. Someone will buy it for collection.

 

[DomainBuyerBroker]

First we had postal mail addresses. They are still here.

Then came phone numbers. They are still here.

Then came domain names. They will be here at least as long as the phone and postal addresses. When postal addresses and phone numbers are obsolete then we can talk about domain names going away.

 

[Phronesis]

Humm... I would also vote for 50 years.

But even if it goes down. We can dream of selling it as rare collections of the past. :D

Old coins and stamps are selling for BIG $$$'s so maybe even if this is past thing. Someone will buy it for collection.

If DN's went away, there'd be nothing to sell. You name(s) would expire with no way to renew them.

Personally, I have a hard time envisioning how something like this might happen but with threats like click fraud and dozens of tlds and cctlds, it just seems logical that a simplification will come at some point. Who knows what the ramifications of that would be. No one in power would care about domainers though. We're all lowly hoarders and cybersquatters to them.

 

[fleshas]

I think less than 25 years..

 

[rokoroko]

DNs future

In my point of view it is a question of time and processors performance as it reach to 10Ghz it will be more powerfull to recognise human voice realtime and we will se in our TV pluged in net we will command our TVs(asPC) by voice (no typing) and all the time AI will assist us to navigate.

On this stage it will be the "breakpiont" of existance of domain names in the form as we know them now.As it will develop I consider it will be compatibile retroactively .It could be again just numbers as it was and in fact it is still numbers,but the need of words behind will fade as no typing access to net will prevail.


The TV will be preprogrammed by thousand of channel by topics -so the pupolation will be using mainly from these channels ,just the fragment of techno guys will reprogramm it using some supergoogle.

Just the mental exercise as I see the future of internet and domain names with it.

and I vote less than 25 "-)

 

[iamcanadian]

i think we will always use domain names thay obviously will have to add more types of domains (ex..com.org.info) but i dont think we will stop useing them

 

[Ben]

i think we will always use domain names thay obviously will have to add more types of domains (ex..com.org.info) but i dont think we will stop useing them

I think it's going to go the opposite way. Instead of adding more and more TLDs, they will get rid of the TLD altogether. So, for example if you wanted to visit the IKEA website you'd simpily type "ikea" or even "宜家" into your browser, and that would be their whole URL. The website would be able to detect your language and location, so if you went to their website from within the UK it would show you their UK version.

I voted "At least 25 years."

 

[Grilled]

 

[forge]

 

[Kyle Tully]

I think less than 25 years..

the end is near then...

 

[yaamgont]

If you look back over the past century, technology changes so quickly and part of me wonders how long the internet will continue to exist in its current form. I think one of the biggest long-term risks to domain name investors is the potential that the web, as it is, and how we get information (by searching specific sites - domains) could change dramatically thus making domain names obsolete and if that happened, the value of domain names obviously worthless. I realize this may be a touchy subject as many of us have a lot of cash (credit?) invested here. But I'm curious what people think about it.

According to my crystal ball, domain names will exist forever so long as businesses seek to assert their independence and value as unique operable online entities. Their value though will certainly depreciate if assessed independent of the goodwill attached to the business, as the internet community and its digital assets cluster around and increasingly depend on artificial intelligence (AI) engines for their everyday online needs. In other words, as AI advances as an online technology, the less likely companies are to rely on their own mechanisms, thereby indirectly transferring value to the AI engines. It may seem a radical idea, but that's basically what happens in outsourcing, and I see no reason why the trend should be any different. The secondary point here is that, in order for a business to make profits, it may have to share those profits by outsourcing some of its intelligence-based functions. Its own core mechanisms do not go away. It is arguable that the company can invest in its in-house AI engines. That's certainly its prerogative, but the independent AI engines and related companies have the advantage of specialization; consider the IBMs, Microsofts, AWSs, Googles, etc... Domain names therefore eventually but in the long term become an indistinguishable component of the organizational brand.

 

[Grilled]

Decent discussion that touches on the future of domians in Ish Millys last twitter space...

 

[eyedomainous]

As some of the key players that built the web are working on growing cyberspace into outer space, with an Interplanetary Internet, as well as evolving cyberspace to accommodate interspecies communications, I think its safe to say webs of addressable namespaces have a bright future.

However, I do think the nature of domain names will change dramatically.

Not just in the long run -with obvious non-profit interplanetary and interspecies naming models, but also in the next 5 years or so.

When addressable broadcast (smart / connected) NextGen TV sets take over everyone with a set will not only have a universal (broadcast and web) TV address, but will also have an (intranet TV) data channel / "webpage".

 

[Kyle Tully]

As some of the key players that built the web are working on growing cyberspace into outer space, with an Interplanetary Internet, as well as evolving cyberspace to accommodate interspecies communications, I think its safe to say webs of addressable namespaces have a bright future.

However, I do think the nature of domain names will change dramatically.

Not just in the long run -with obvious non-profit interplanetary and interspecies naming models, but also in the next 5 years or so.

When addressable broadcast (smart / connected) NextGen TV sets take over everyone with a set will not only have a universal (broadcast and web) TV address, but will also have an (intranet TV) data channel / "webpage".

In English this means?

 

[eyedomainous]

In English this means?

Explaining things to an ass is a waste... as it just spews crap.
Making sense of things requires a brain.

 

[Kyle Tully]

Explaining things to an ass is a waste... as it just spews crap.
Making sense of things requires a brain.

Or perhaps you don’t even understand what any of that means

 

[Altetra]

Or perhaps you don’t even understand what any of that means

Your brain is working good, because he can't understand those fairy tales.
Anything space related is the biggest lie of whole humanity, what NASA, X and others are doing is worse than crypto and NFT.