discuss The new dot everything showcase and discussion

[Keith]

Well it appears as though it's happening. The launch of .land, .bike, .this, and .that is here and many more to come.

Show off your new .whatevers here and discuss why these are or are not good investments. Keep it cool, calm, and productive

I'll start with my new regs... absolutely none!

 

[mjnels]

Ha!

I just took a big dose of Tylenol and the fever is gone. My $40 is most likely gone too. I might ask for a grace delete as my brain temporarily shut down on that one.

its ok, i almost registered a single letter during the first several TLD releases but it failed.. that would have been a lot more than $40.

betcha single letter stuff will be available for about that in a year or two OR MAYBE THEY'LL BE WORTH MILLIONS! 8^X

 

[JB Lions]

So not only poor selling registrations but from Flippa:

Domains sold at Flippa
Investor.holdings – $80
SuperAffiliate.guru – $12
FantasyFootball.tips – $500
3DPrinter.guru – $255
CreditCard.guru – $11
Reseller.tips – $51
Vet.careers – $51
CMYK.photography – $35

Domains sold at Sedo
yoga.guru - $1,171 sedo
rent.clothing - $100 sedo
got those 2 from - http://dnpric.es/stats/stats-by-tld/?tld
there were some from January, didn't include those, looked like early purchases

Domains That Didn't Sell At Flippa
StockMarket.guru – $1,000
UnsecuredLoan.guru – $300
FantasyFootball.guru – $200
B.bike – $180
CollegeLoan.guru – $160
Life.singles – $100
Press.holdings – $100
Visual.graphics – $36
Curvy.singles – $25
Nudist.singles – $16
CCTV.gallery – $10
Texan.land – $9
Motors.guru – $6
Buying.bike – $6
Comp.technology – $1
Tyres.today – $1

http://www.accidentaldomainer.com/f...m-couponlink-com-kym-com-and-new-gtld-action/

Selling early and low, setting up the market to be low?

Should this be the Sales thread or another one just for sales?

Sales update.

Didn't see anything new reported on DNJournal for new gtlds.

These were added:
Reseller.tips – $51
Vet.careers – $51
CMYK.photography – $35

from - http://www.accidentaldomainer.com/f...info-bold-ly-new-gtld-action-or-lack-thereof/

Article says there were plenty of others up but no bids or didn't meet reserve.

 

[HeyNow]

Sales update.

Didn't see anything new reported on DNJournal foy new gtlds.

These were added:
Reseller.tips – $51
Vet.careers – $51
CMYK.photography – $35

from - http://www.accidentaldomainer.com/f...info-bold-ly-new-gtld-action-or-lack-thereof/

Article says there were plenty of others up but no bids or didn't meet reserve.

Doesn't bode well for the new gTLDs. Glad to see that. But perhaps the registries can still eek out a profit. Doesn't take much to administer a few thousand domains names.

 

[Jasonn]

Doesn't bode well for the new gTLDs. Glad to see that. But perhaps the registries can still eek out a profit. Doesn't take much to administer a few thousand domains names.

i think *some* domains will have value as much as i dislike them but it will take several years at least to gain any real value. and i'm not talking measly 1k sales, those are meaningless and who really cares about such small sales anyways?

 

[JB Lions]

i think *some* domains will have value as much as i dislike them but it will take several years at least to gain any real value. and i'm not talking measly 1k sales, those are meaningless and who really cares about such small sales anyways?

Well, look at history. When mobi first came out, there were some 6 figure sales, 11 reported at Namebio. And that was more at the beginning. The prices aren't going up after several years, they're going down.

Look what came later .co and .me. Think 1 6 figure .co sale, 2 .me 6 figure sales that I know of.

I think people might actually be smartening up. I can't picture any 6 figure sales with anything coming out, because with that kind of money, you can get a helluva .com. But there might be a random one here and there with some company that likes to spend.

Historically, with new extensions, it looks like the big sales came early. There's more hope and hype at the beginning, reality comes later. It's still early, so we'll see but right now, people are selling them cheap.

 

[Kate]

If you are looking to resell domains, I think you should avoid new TLDs. You are almost certain to lose.

Even for regfee, buyers are not rushing in to buy. Some fees are actually outrageous enough. Paying $200 or even $50/yr for an awkward domains is not an attractive proposition.

 

[acucentric]

I just joined NamePros, because I love to theorize about where domaining and the internet are going, and I came across this forum. I wanted to join in this specific conversation, so now I'm in...

It seems to me that the primary difference between .mobi and some of the new gtld's coming out is that some of these are are actual words with practical meaning, not just fuzzy abbreviations.

And with words, come phrases and semantics. Because of this, I predict a whole new game of domain naming with be created.

Recent domain naming (within the context of .com is king) has evolved into bizarre, silly, made up and ridiculous names that are definitely fun to say and are many are super-catchy.

For example, I love the name Qriously.com. Great name! Super clever.

Now with .tlds like .tips, .today, .land, .guru, .ninja and so on—we have to opportunity to name websites with catchy phrases. The ending .tld simply allows emphasis on content or gives the previous words/names context. Or some other cool thing we haven't even thought of yet... People will get very creative, I am sure.

The generation coming up is extremely net saavy and really like the bizarre and awkward. So I feel this trend will continue for some time.

Regardless, to make money off a website, you've got to develop it. And the lasting rule that remains the same, irregardless of .com or not is: Short and Catchy.

Short and Catchy = Memorable.

Add to that search friendly, and you've got a tasty internet cocktail, IMHO.

In the past, I have stuck with .com and poo-pooed the .net, .biz, .me, and .mobi. (Who say's .mobi in conversation, EVER?!) That's why these tlds have never had major lift off power.

The ONLY reason .com is powerful is it was first, and was the only game in town for SO LONG, as it ultimately represents the blank sheet of paper. .Com can be anything. And that is ALL .com stands for to your average person.

With that in mind, .XYZ could potentially be the much cooler .com to the new internet generation. Albums used to be cool, but now they are just cool retro. Most people keep their music as MP3s. Naming will likely have trends that reflect culture. That's just my anthropological 2¢.

So yes, even though in the past I have only ever purchased .coms, the new gtlds with their full word semantic opportunities were just too tempting. I have chosen to sample a few (with no intention of selling right away...I think that idea is kind of laughable...unless of course, someone actively seeks me out and it's worth ($$$) my while). I

too see the potential in developing these domains into active sites. And obviously, it's a several years long project. However, potentially a lot of fun.

Here are some of the names I snagged and am looking forward to developing (and if it matters, I am a health care professional by trade, but have been "internetting" since 1990. Sadly, I was just out of my teens and didn't have the common sense to buy Cars.com back then. We bought MindVox.com instead. It was the third BB system in the world. Anyone remember the Well? LOL!!

Here's a little peek at a few names in my domain experiment:


Malibu.land
Sonoma.land
WineCountry.land
WineCountry.estate

Snap.Land
Jump.Land
Insta.Land
Luxe.Land
Meme.Land
Wiki.Land

Imagine.Today
Meditate.Today
Relax.Today
Vitamins.Today
Create.Today
Thrive.Today
Send.Today
Tunes.Today
Monetize.Today
Happiness.Today

Boom.Guru (<-- music/audio expert)
Noms.Guru (<-- who wouldn't want to be an expert in tasty snacks? LOL!)

Healthy.Tips
Fertility.Tips
Trending.Tips
Kid.Tips
Relating.Tips
Tween.Tips
Mindful.Tips
Tasty.Tips
GlutenFree.Tips
Paleo.Tips

I would love to hear anyone's thoughts on the whole semantics/phrases aspect to domain naming. Domain names could now be slogans instead of company names. Kinda cool...

BTW, I am probably only going to keep this experiment list up for a week or so for the purpose of this discussion. I have no interest in keeping it up in perpetuity throughout the universe.

Cheers!

 

[DnEbook]

i like send.today, i dont like .xyz, i dont think Fonzie will be saying 'ayy.xyz' imo

 

[acucentric]

I agree to a certain extent. I am not super fond of .xyz either (except as perhaps a joke/parody site). But it has the potential to be that "could be anything" and "covers it all" sort of tld.

One of the observations that I am essentially making is that current upcoming generation of online fanatics really likes things clever and snarky. So I could see .xyz being very appealing to them.

There are adults on the internet, and then there are the millions and millions of teens...

For example, I find the drink Red Bull to be gross verging on toxic. But the kids love it! Go figure...

Certain tld's have the potential to become very popular when they are clever and snarky. Something that you would see in a text message or in a tweet.

You feel me?

And thanks, I like send.today for a floral or gift or ecard sort of thing... Still leaning into that one.

 

[JB Lions]

For example, I love the name Qriously.com. Great name! Super clever.

I hate that one, for the obvious misspelling issues it would have. I never found confusion clever.

we have to opportunity to name websites with catchy phrases

You can already do that. Except with a .com or other extension already available, the phrase isn't split up by a dot.

With that in mind, .XYZ could potentially be the much cooler .com to the new internet generation

And the other stuff you said about .xyz. Time will tell, but I think that is one of the worst ones coming out. You said it could be about anything, so can the upcoming .web (and existing) and it's not 3 syllables like .xyz. Say a domain out loud with that extension, doesn't sound really good.

What you said about text and tweets, that's what the ones you posted above look like, not a url or site. Even looking at them and saying them out loud like Imagine.Today. I read it as Imagine Today but it's Imagine Dot Today.

Certain tld's have the potential to become very popular when they are clever and snarky

It's going to take a lot more than some teens liking clever and snarky for a tld to become popular. They're going to have to build a popular site on the tld and get it out there. That is when they're not hanging out on Instagram, Vine, Snapchat or (insert new online hangout) That kind of thing is cool to them. Or doing other normal everyday teen stuff. Domain extensions, pretty boring to most people. Don't think you'll ever walk up on a group of teens talking about all the new domain extensions that are coming out.

 

[Kate]

You can certainly be "creative" and pick a zany domain for a personal blog or something like that.

But for a serious business, a minimum of common sense applies, because you don't want to look like a fool when you hand out your business card to people.
"Hi, bigventures.xyz here". Hello ????

 

[acucentric]

The 20-somethings I know are all fairly comfortable with new tlds. They rarely say "dot" when recommending a site. They just say the full name and pronounce the tld with a little bit of emphasis. Then which tld is applicable seems obvious.

So they are all comfortable with .io, .me, .co, etc.

In fact, if you think about it, it's like they are just telling you search terms. .com is a moot point.

Of course, this is fairly specific to this generation, but this is who is growing the next market.

And a lot of people more and more speak like they are texting, so there is something to this as well.

Imagine.Today isn't so much bizarre as it is generic and open for interpretation. So it could have broad appeal depending on the service/product. Regardless. It's memorable as well as being a "call to action."

We can hate a new tld all we want, but that doesn't matter. What matters is whether the kids love it or hate it. The kids grow trends. Period.

 

[Keith]

The 20-somethings I know are all fairly comfortable with new tlds. They rarely say "dot" when recommending a site. They just say the full name and pronounce the tld with a little bit of emphasis.

Can you give a few examples of sites they recommend?

Sites like Facebook and Twitter are obvious without attaching the extension. Beyond the big brands, it would only seem natural to mention a sitename.whatever. Although, I struggle to think of any valuable sites outside of .com :?

 

[scandiman]

I just joined NamePros, because I love to theorize about where domaining and the internet are going, and I came across this forum. I wanted to join in this specific conversation, so now I'm in...

It seems to me that the primary difference between .mobi and some of the new gtld's coming out is that some of these are are actual words with practical meaning, not just fuzzy abbreviations.

And with words, come phrases and semantics. Because of this, I predict a whole new game of domain naming with be created.

Recent domain naming (within the context of .com is king) has evolved into bizarre, silly, made up and ridiculous names that are definitely fun to say and are many are super-catchy.

For example, I love the name Qriously.com. Great name! Super clever.

Now with .tlds like .tips, .today, .land, .guru, .ninja and so on—we have to opportunity to name websites with catchy phrases. The ending .tld simply allows emphasis on content or gives the previous words/names context. Or some other cool thing we haven't even thought of yet... People will get very creative, I am sure.

The generation coming up is extremely net saavy and really like the bizarre and awkward. So I feel this trend will continue for some time.

Regardless, to make money off a website, you've got to develop it. And the lasting rule that remains the same, irregardless of .com or not is: Short and Catchy.

Short and Catchy = Memorable.

Add to that search friendly, and you've got a tasty internet cocktail, IMHO.

In the past, I have stuck with .com and poo-pooed the .net, .biz, .me, and .mobi. (Who say's .mobi in conversation, EVER?!) That's why these tlds have never had major lift off power.

The ONLY reason .com is powerful is it was first, and was the only game in town for SO LONG, as it ultimately represents the blank sheet of paper. .Com can be anything. And that is ALL .com stands for to your average person.

With that in mind, .XYZ could potentially be the much cooler .com to the new internet generation. Albums used to be cool, but now they are just cool retro. Most people keep their music as MP3s. Naming will likely have trends that reflect culture. That's just my anthropological 2¢.

So yes, even though in the past I have only ever purchased .coms, the new gtlds with their full word semantic opportunities were just too tempting. I have chosen to sample a few (with no intention of selling right away...I think that idea is kind of laughable...unless of course, someone actively seeks me out and it's worth ($$$) my while). I

too see the potential in developing these domains into active sites. And obviously, it's a several years long project. However, potentially a lot of fun.

Here are some of the names I snagged and am looking forward to developing (and if it matters, I am a health care professional by trade, but have been "internetting" since 1990. Sadly, I was just out of my teens and didn't have the common sense to buy Cars.com back then. We bought MindVox.com instead. It was the third BB system in the world. Anyone remember the Well? LOL!!

Here's a little peek at a few names in my domain experiment:


Malibu.land
Sonoma.land
WineCountry.land
WineCountry.estate

Snap.Land
Jump.Land
Insta.Land
Luxe.Land
Meme.Land
Wiki.Land

Imagine.Today
Meditate.Today
Relax.Today
Vitamins.Today
Create.Today
Thrive.Today
Send.Today
Tunes.Today
Monetize.Today
Happiness.Today

Boom.Guru (<-- music/audio expert)
Noms.Guru (<-- who wouldn't want to be an expert in tasty snacks? LOL!)

Healthy.Tips
Fertility.Tips
Trending.Tips
Kid.Tips
Relating.Tips
Tween.Tips
Mindful.Tips
Tasty.Tips
GlutenFree.Tips
Paleo.Tips

I would love to hear anyone's thoughts on the whole semantics/phrases aspect to domain naming. Domain names could now be slogans instead of company names. Kinda cool...

BTW, I am probably only going to keep this experiment list up for a week or so for the purpose of this discussion. I have no interest in keeping it up in perpetuity throughout the universe.

Cheers!

A few factors you're not including, it's easy to assume all TLDs will continue to be used as they mostly have up to this point, that is a registrant buys a domain and hosting and builds a site. .tel introduced a standardized dev platform, and I suspect a facebook-type tld will emerge where you get a 2nd level domain that acts as your page address. I forget, did .facebook get applied for? Maybe they may start it themselves.

Which leads me to the 2nd factor, there are the many dotbrands that were apllied for, it would be surprising if none of them do something with their tlds. Reasonable to imagine customers having a .apple account, that or .facebook would be a naming landrush of epic proportions. As mentioned before the dotbrands can do more to drive public awareness (especially in the US) of the new landscape of tlds, but equating that to speculative success in .today, .guru etc is a far stretch. A better bet might be the stock of an online trust assurance company, their services are going to be in ever growing demand. More money was made in the California gold rush selling stuff to the miners than from the gold.

 

[JB Lions]

The 20-somethings I know are all fairly comfortable with new tlds. They rarely say "dot" when recommending a site. They just say the full name and pronounce the tld with a little bit of emphasis. Then which tld is applicable seems obvious.

So they are all comfortable with .io, .me, .co, etc.

In fact, if you think about it, it's like they are just telling you search terms. .com is a moot point.

Of course, this is fairly specific to this generation, but this is who is growing the next market.

And a lot of people more and more speak like they are texting, so there is something to this as well.

Imagine.Today isn't so much bizarre as it is generic and open for interpretation. So it could have broad appeal depending on the service/product. Regardless. It's memorable as well as being a "call to action."

We can hate a new tld all we want, but that doesn't matter. What matters is whether the kids love it or hate it. The kids grow trends. Period.

What Keith was getting at. You were using plurals, so somehow you've had conversations with now 20-somethings, and they were recommending sites to you, that happened to be on extensions .me, .co and............. .io? Can you give details.

speak like they are texting

Still not following, what does that have to do with new extensions? We've had lots of conversations on this, nobody has brought that up. I text, but see no connection between texting and domain extensions.

We can hate a new tld all we want, but that doesn't matter. What matters is whether the kids love it or hate it. The kids grow trends. Period.

It's not a matter of hate, it's trying to look ahead and opinions. Everybody grows trends. Adults also tend to have money. How does a teen grow a tld? Again, the only way is if they build some site that gets out there and used by the public on a daily basis. Is there another way you were thinking of?

 

[Ms Domainer]

ICANN Jumps the Shark

*

I like JumpingThe.Shark

Apologies to The Fonz.

[VIDEO]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4ZGKI8vpcg[/VIDEO]

Fonzie Jumps the Shark​

*

 

[decades80]

Just a quick question. Ive bought today keyword .systems which matches the extension perfectly. I just parked it and there are no Google ads showing. Is this normal, or my gTLD domain is Google Blocked??!!

 

[DnEbook]

*

I like JumpingThe.Shark

Apologies to The Fonz.

FonziesShorts,Xyz ,,, ayy

 

[acucentric]

It's not a matter of hate, it's trying to look ahead and opinions. Everybody grows trends. Adults also tend to have money. How does a teen grow a tld? Again, the only way is if they build some site that gets out there and used by the public on a daily basis. Is there another way you were thinking of?

Well, you mentioned that you "hate" .xyz. That was all I was referring to...your initial mention of full-on hatred.


As for everybody else's question about what tld's besides .com...

Here are a few:

no_url_shorteners
owl.ly
join.me
pomodoro.me (just recently became moosti.com d/t TM name infringement perhaps...not sure, but was popularized as pomodoro.me)
earthlink.net
cox.net
att.net
soup.io
rad.io
pen.io
hide.io
postach.io
vine.co
angel.co

Still not following, what does that have to do with new extensions? We've had lots of conversations on this, nobody has brought that up. I text, but see no connection between texting and domain extensions.

What I mean, is that they drop the "." It's like having a silent "e." They just say "Vine CO," for example.

When people speak in "text," they literally say "LOL" or "IMHO" or "TTYS" or "BTW." They speak in abbreviations. Anyway, young net saavy folks I've met don't seem to be bothered with the angst of "but it doesn't end in .com!!" In fact, they seem a little delighted by it. They like the novelty.

Here's the thing, as a domainer, if you are thinking that I am saying we can just buy "whatev.gtld" and make a return, that is not at all what I am promoting here in discussion.

What I am saying is that the new gtld's offer some out-of-the box naming possibilities, that could be fun and profitable. But definitely, the "splash" of the name will matter. Is it catchy? Will it market well? Does it have fun curb appeal?

The emotion of "delight" is super important in marketing. Read a little Seth Godin for more on that. And to market these new gtld's, the names need to delight the end-use buyer. Both the ultimate owner of the .gtld domain/website, and also its patrons.

And again, what I meant by the "we can hate .xyz all day long, but it doesn't matter" comment, is that domains and website names don't have to appeal to us (the real estate agents), it just has to appeal to the consumer (the home buyers).

As a domaining community, we need to think about what our customers want, not what we want. Selling is never about the owner, it's about the customer.

There is a new breed of customer out there is what I am wanting to discuss...

So if your customer is different than mine...that's cool. But it doesn't mean my choices are necessarily wrong. Not if they work. Not if they sell or draw traffic.

Which is why I am willing to experiment in this new market and see what happens.

On a lark, I got LeftRight.Center today.

My main beef with the new gtld's is will they become twitter and FB friendly? I have heard there are challenges with this currently. So again, I am not buying names willy-nilly in the thousands. This issue needs to be resolved.

 

[JB Lions]

What I mean, is that they drop the "." It's like having a silent "e." They just say "Vine CO," for example.

So for one of your domains - Healthy.Tips, if you drop the ".", they would text Healthy Tips and somehow the person on the other end would know that is supposed to be a site? If you said it like that, most would assume it's a .com. With the Healthy Tips, wouldn't you have to put the "." in there or dot?

There is a new breed of customer out there is what I am wanting to discuss...

We'll have to see. Fun, splash, catchy, delight etc, could be used for a lot of domain hacks, but I think those are pretty horrible for actual business. We could be thinking of different customers like you said (and that's ok) but the ones I'm thinking of tend to go with what they know works, is serious about business, don't like confusion, novelty, etc. As demonstrated by even some people here, some are just happy with being somewhere in Google. I don't think with those kinds of limitations for myself when buying domains for use or for selling to end users.

It's going to be really hard for domainers to make money, take one you mentioned: "Vine CO,"

you have:
.co
.company

other general company/business type extensions
.holdings
.ventures
.business
.ltd
.inc
etc

then specific ones that actually defines their business
.I was going to start listing some, but there are so many

So companies have all types of options with these second tier extensions.

You have some .lands, maybe they wait and get .realestates

 

[acucentric]

So for one of your domains - Healthy.Tips, if you drop the ".", they would text Healthy Tips and somehow the person on the other end would know that is supposed to be a site? If you said it like that, most would assume it's a .com. With the Healthy Tips, wouldn't you have to put the "." in there or dot?

Oh, now I see the misunderstanding...

No, what I mean is that these people speak like they text.

So when speaking, they say "Healthy (pause) TIPS."

Except that so far, it's been something like "Pomodoro ME."

Tips is too new yet.

As it regards naming and the "seriousness" of business. Many extremely popular websites have utterly ridiculous and made-up names these days.

When I search for something (service/product), I could give two hoots about the web name. I'm attracted to the listing/ad first.

Then, if the name is catchy and not too generic, I go there. Because catchy seems more like a real business to me. Someone who is committed to that particular business, and not just a landing page with obvious key words.

I go to websites based on search term results and word of mouth.

A catchy memorable name helps with both.

But I can totally appreciate your point of view and counter statements.

 

[Kate]

Here are a few:

no_url_shorteners
owl.ly
join.me
...

It's always the same flawed assessment: just because there is a very tiny group of prominent dotwhatever that are currently fashionable, you assume that alternate naming strategies can scale well.
All those sites running on exotic extensions are not representative at all, using a non-dotcom is part of a differentiation strategy precisely. If using an alt extension was something prevalent, then they would stop being different if you catch my drift.
The TLD of Libya for instance is not a good TLD for domaining purposes, just because there are a few websites on .ly. Have you sold any lately ? I'm not talking about something new, but something that has been around for a while.

As a domaining community, we need to think about what our customers want, not what we want. Selling is never about the owner, it's about the customer.

Where are the customers ? Domainers always put the cart before the horse. They buy domains then they figure out how to sell them, and then they are stuck
It's 100% speculation and wishful thinking.
If any extensions take off, there will always be time for domainers to adjust to the market accordingly.
The first mover advantage will seldom materialize, second mover advantage is more likely but still very remote. Lots of losers and few winners in this game.

 

[scandiman]

Lots of losers and few winners in this game.

Looking at com drops the same is true there as well but at least there are more buyers. But back to the new tlds it will be even more true there, so much so that I'm sitting it out completely, even names for dev purposes. The extra it will cost to acquire later if/when things take shape will be more than offset by the money saved by not making bets in this fuster cluck. I'm more than happy to wait and see.:gl::zzz:

 

[McDuke]

The extra it will cost to acquire later if/when things take shape will be more than offset by the money saved by not making bets in this fuster cluck. I'm more than happy to wait and see.:gl::zzz:

good point

 

[alien51]

It seems to me that the primary difference between .mobi and some of the new gtld's coming out is that some of these are are actual words with practical meaning, not just fuzzy abbreviations.

And with words, come phrases and semantics. Because of this, I predict a whole new game of domain naming with be created.

Exactly what i had in mind.

MOBI doesn't mean anything. So it's hard for that to catch on. But .SOLUTIONS is not. And so are many other new gTLDs.

For example, if you are an android game software company and you want the domain name BigRock, but all the regular extensions are taken. You can go for BigRock.Solutions.

bigrock,solutions is much better than bigrock.mobi

Somebody already got that name? You can try bigrock.games.
Somebody already got that name? You can try bigrock.apps.
Somebody already got that name? You can try bigrock.software.
Somebody already got that name? You can try bigrock.systems.
Somebody already got that name? You can try bigrock.company.

Domainers will lose a lot of money trying to guess and reg all the possible combinations, because end-users now have more options to choose from.

Not to mention that if domainers were able to occupy all the possible bigrock gTLDs that will ever launch, an end-user can be happy to use a twisted version like "thebigrock.solutions" or "mybigrock.games". They have done it in the coms, i don't know why they won't do it for all the other new gTLDs.

People have argued putting "the" in a domain kills it. Not really. It's not perfect, but if the word "the" is the only one that is standing in the way between me getting the domain i want, versus paying a domainer $18,000 for the com version, i will reg the "the" version for just 1.99 and i will be happy. I am currently running 3 websites with "the" infront and the sites are doing fine. The root word versions are actually parked by someone else, but i have been contemplating on securing a TM so that if ever the root word coms got sold to someone, they won't be able to use it to invade my niche space.

I think TMs will be more important now for end-users given that new gTLDs are opening more doors for competitors, and it will be impossible to do defensive regs on all of them.