Updates from .rest and .bar Domains for Restaurants and Bars

[whatever.guru]

General information about .rest and .bar domain names:

.rest is the global domain extension for Restaurants. The term "REST" serves as an acronym for the word restaurant in more than 20 languages worldwide

.bar is intended for all kinds of bars, ranging from cocktail bars, to beauty bars and even candy bars!

Our main goal is to build a useful Registry; one that will help everyone find a restaurant or a bar online easier, faster and in a more reliable way

We are creating this thread to answer your questions, read your comments and receive feedback from you. Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Joseph Green]

Your website shows .cafe too. I really like .bar and .cafe; I like both of them more than .rest, but .rest is the largest industry of the three.

Without a doubt, I can see every bar and café wanting to own a .bar and .cafe one day, but I'm still on the fence about .rest.

I could see .bar being used by lawyers and legal services too.

 

[whatever.guru]

Your website shows .cafe too. I really like .bar and .cafe; I like both of them more than .rest, but .rest is the largest industry of the three.

Without a doubt, I can see every bar and café wanting to own a .bar and .cafe one day, but I'm still on the fence about .rest.

I could see .bar being used by lawyers and legal services too.

Actually, .cafe is still in contention and waiting to be resolved, hopefully in the near future! We will see that launching soon, either by Punto 2012 or by Donuts!

Thanks for the good wishes!

Regarding .rest, I know that english-speaking people find it harder to relate the term "rest" with restaurants, because it also implies "relaxation", but "rest" has many advantages over "restaurant"... for example:

- It is shorter and easier to write and to read
- Many people don't know how to spell properly the word "restuarant" (did I?)
- Online, we are actually used to using acronyms such as .com for commercial, .edu for education, .net for network... why not .rest for restaurants?
- More important than anything, is that the word "restaurant" is spelled in many ways in different languages, but all of those spellings share the first 4 letters "rest".
- And because it looks great as a domain name. Check out some of these real-user examples, and the gTLD makes a whole lot of sense:

www.alfredodiroma.rest

www.casaportuguesa.rest

You can visit www.register.rest/showcase to see some more examples of restaurants using a .rest domain name

 

[Joseph Green]

Regarding .rest, I know that english-speaking people find it harder to relate the term "rest" with restaurants, because it also implies "relaxation"

Yep, that's the main reason for me.

Online, we are actually used to using acronyms such as .com for commercial, .edu for education, .net for network... why not .rest for restaurants?

Great point about acronyms. I agree.

Many people don't know how to spell properly the word "restuarant" (did I?)

My fingers love to type it this way, even though I know it's spelled wrong. It's a typo, I swear.

 

[whatever.guru]

My fingers love to type it this way, even though I know it's spelled wrong. It's a typo, I swear.

I think that someone will apply for the .restuarant gTLD in round 2!
:D

 

[whatever.guru]

Here is a list of how the word RESTaurant is pronounced in more than 30 languages

Pronunciation Language
restaurace - Czech
reštaurácie - Slovak
restauracja - Polish
restaurang - Swedish
restaurant - Afrikaans, Catalan, Cebuano, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Norweigan, Javanese, Romanian
restaurante - Portuguese, Spanish
restavracija - Slovenian
restawran - Filipino
restoracio - Esperanto
restoran - Bosnian, Croatian, Estonian, Haitian, Indonesian, Malay, Azerbaijani, Turkish
restoranas - Lithuanian
restorāns - Latvian
restorant - Albanian

 

[JB Lions]

Looks like .rest got 307 first day. Never in my life have I heard that stand for restaurant, plus I think .restaurant is coming as well.

 

[Joseph Green]

Never in my life have I heard that stand for restaurant, plus I think .restaurant is coming as well.

Me neither, but then again, I had never heard someone refer to mobile as "mobi" before it launched.

Similarly, I never knew that "com" was an abbreviation for commercial, commerce, or company until I learned about the Internet. But that was when I was 10. :D

 

[DnEbook]

i rest after a hard day ….. i eat at a restaurant, not a rest
Gonna be hard enough for the new gtlds without clever abbreviations (.Qpon)

 

[Joseph Green]

i rest after a hard day ….. i eat at a restaurant, not a rest

You don't find restaurants relaxing? How about restaurants with a bar? Following that thought, restaurant.bar would be a good name.

 

[JB Lions]

Me neither, but then again, I had never heard someone refer to mobile as "mobi" before it launched.

Similarly, I never knew that "com" was an abbreviation for commercial, commerce, or company until I learned about the Internet. But that was when I was 10. :D

Rest is actually a real word tho. So is restaurant, where there would be no confusion. You're trying to take a known word, rest, and turn it into something it's not in order to try to sell it. Based on the early numbers and probably the future ones as well, just not going to work.

Bar didn't do that good either:

http://ntldstats.com/tld/bar

about 2900, but 1600 of that is registry reserved.

High prices plus the good ones reserved, low numbers.

 

[Joseph Green]

Registration numbers today have zero significance or implications on the future of a gTLD. In 5 years, when the general public knows about them and understands them, that is when we'll be able to determine whether a new gTLD will be successful. Today, these numbers indicate nothing more than speculation. It's a bad idea to base an investment strategy off of them. If you did, you'd end up buying a bunch of junk in the ".XY-blah-blah generation" gTLD.

 

[DnEbook]

I am starting to think all these people telling us how good the new gtld's are from the registrars and have gone into 'undercover spin doctor mode'

 

[JB Lions]

If you did, you'd end up buying a bunch of junk in the ".XY-blah-blah generation" gTLD.

Actually you wouldn't, because those numbers are bad as well, the real regs. Anybody who actually invests in domains, knows the story behind .xyz and why the numbers are inflated. The 5 year idea is one being pushed by the sellers. Of course they want you to think that, because that means 5 years of renewals based on hope on the public. In 5 years, they're going to be so many, that the one with low regs will pretty much be forgotten. Not good to invest in, since they will have low reg numbers, that also means low development and that means low chance of anybody ever actually seeing them.

Next year, a lot of them will get straight battered when renewal time comes up. If you look at other new extensions, even with first year drops, they still move forward. With most of these, the drops next year will out pace new regs. Already, just a few weeks out, most are just single or double digit new regs a day. It will be a big story on the blogs.

 

[whatever.guru]

Rest is actually a real word tho. So is restaurant, where there would be no confusion. You're trying to take a known word, rest, and turn it into something it's not in order to try to sell it. Based on the early numbers and probably the future ones as well, just not going to work.

Bar didn't do that good either:

http://ntldstats.com/tld/bar

about 2900, but 1600 of that is registry reserved.

High prices plus the good ones reserved, low numbers.

I agree that, at this stage, it's difficult to measure success.

In our view, if we get 1,000 REAL Restaurants using .rest domain names by the end of the year, this can create a good traction that others may follow.
The whole idea behind the new gTLDs is to enable these businesses to have better domain names, more options,
So if your restaurant is called "Wolf", and you have two locations, one in San Francisco and the other one in LA, what is your best choice for a domain name?
www.wolflosangeles.com and www.wolfsanfrancisco.com
www.wolfrestaurant.com
(of course, wolf.com is unavailable, and the above examples don't look that good either)
or simply

www.wolf.rest

In my opinion, this looks preety neat!

I understand that many people can be skeptical about the use of .rest for restaurants, but it makes sense, since the word restaurant is spelled in many different languages in many different ways, and they all share these first four letters... rest

And finally, I google searched "japanese rest in Melbourne", and Google gave me results of ONLY restaurants, so it's nice to see that browsers are the first ones to recognize the term "rest" as for "Restaurants"

 

[Joseph Green]

I google searched "japanese rest in Melbourne", and Google gave me results of ONLY restaurants, so it's nice to see that browsers are the first ones to recognize the term "rest" as for "Restaurants"

This is interesting. The same goes for "Chinese Rest" as the search keyword. I wouldn't have expected Google to interpret it that way.

Looking at Google's Keyword Planner (Google Keyword Tool), "rest" has just as many or more U.S.-based searches than the equivalent, common misspellings:

------------------------------------------------
| Search keyword       | Avg. monthly searches |
|----------------------------------------------|
| Chinese Rest         |  390                  |
| Chinese Restuarant   |  260                  |
| Chinese Restuarants  |  140                  |
|----------------------------------------------|
| Italian Rest         |  210                  |
| Italian Restuarant   |  140                  |
| Italian Restuarants  |  140                  |
|----------------------------------------------|
| Japanese Rest        |   70                  |
| Japanese Restuarant  |   70                  |
| Japanese Restuarants |   30                  |
------------------------------------------------

As an investor, these are good selling points for end users. That being said, I'll continue to invest in .bar but not .rest just yet.

@whatever.guru, you might consider adding "rest" as an abbreviation for "restaurant" to UrbanDictionary.com.

 

[JB Lions]

This is interesting. The same goes for "Chinese Rest" as the search keyword. I wouldn't have expected Google to interpret it that way.

Looking at Google's Keyword Planner (Google Keyword Tool), "rest" has just as many or more U.S.-based searches than the equivalent, common misspellings:

------------------------------------------------
| Search keyword       | Avg. monthly searches |
|----------------------------------------------|
| Chinese Rest         |  390                  |
| Chinese Restuarant   |  260                  |
| Chinese Restuarants  |  140                  |
|----------------------------------------------|
| Italian Rest         |  210                  |
| Italian Restuarant   |  140                  |
| Italian Restuarants  |  140                  |
|----------------------------------------------|
| Japanese Rest        |   70                  |
| Japanese Restuarant  |   70                  |
| Japanese Restuarants |   30                  |
------------------------------------------------

As an investor, these are good selling points for end users. That being said, I'll continue to invest in .bar but not .rest just yet.

@whatever.guru, you might consider adding "rest" as an abbreviation for "restaurant" to UrbanDictionary.com.

C'mon now, using misspellings. .rest is supposed to mean restaurant, not misspelling of that word. Here are the real numbers

Italian restaurants - 90,500
Italian restaurant - 12,100
Italian rest - 210

And that one is registry reserved anyway. Probably reserved the obvious ones most people would be looking for.

Only picked up 48 regs since my last post on it, now at 355 - http://ntldstats.com/tld/rest

.bar doing better but just 3,058 - http://ntldstats.com/tld/bar
It was 2900 last post, so in 4 days picked up 158, about 40 a day and it just came out. Those should be a lot higher.

The problem with names like that, is that most businesses have original names. If I look at top 10 bars in my city:

Cask & Larder
Redlight Redlight Beer Parlour
La Cava del Tequila
Wally's Mills Ave.
Bosendorfer Lounge
Oblivion Taproom
The Velvet Bar
etc

So if your restaurant is called "Wolf", and you have two locations, one in San Francisco and the other one in LA, what is your best choice for a domain name?
www.wolflosangeles.com and www.wolfsanfrancisco.com
www.wolfrestaurant.com
(of course, wolf.com is unavailable, and the above examples don't look that good either)
or simply

2/3 of those are actually available right now for reg fee. Most people would get those.

The problem is there are not that many businesses/bars that call themselves - (generic name) bar. It's usually a more original name and when it's original, it's usually available in .com already. I mean, just look at the names I posted above.

 

[Joseph Green]

The problem is there are not that many businesses/bars that call themselves - (generic name) bar. It's usually a more original name and when it's original, it's usually available in .com already.

I prefer the generics (Tiki.Bar) and geo's (NYC.Bar).

If I had the largest bar in NYC and it was called The Velvet Bar, I'd want to own nyc.bar and bar.nyc to secure my position in the market, long-term. Maybe even velvet.bar (currently available). There are many uses for these domains to supplement an existing business.

 

[mad409]

I added a couple to my portfolio tonight but I agree with what was said above, many of the good ones are taken or unavailable.

The only one I could find that works for multiple locations with bar and rest were;

BYOB * REST
BYOB * BAR

There's thousands of "bring your own bottle" bars and restaurants.

 

[whatever.guru]

@whatever.guru, you might consider adding "rest" as an abbreviation for "restaurant" to UrbanDictionary.com.

Thanks for the tip... I Just did! Hope it goes through!

Only picked up 48 regs since my last post on it, now at 355 - http://ntldstats.com/tld/rest

.bar doing better but just 3,058 - http://ntldstats.com/tld/bar

The problem with names like that, is that most businesses have original names.

The problem is there are not that many businesses/bars that call themselves - (generic name) bar. It's usually a more original name and when it's original, it's usually available in .com already. I mean, just look at the names I posted above.

I wonder how many businesses in general have to come up with a difficult brand/name, just because the .com shows as unavailable!

Again, in our opinion, the main focus should be real end users and not registrations. Yes... this business relies on volume, but no real success can be achieved without real use.

Maybe it's not much, but we have at least 15 restaurants already using their .rest domain names and they appear great on search results and have really good branding offline.
You can see some examples here:
www.register.rest/showcase

And around 100 restaurants (including ones like Joel Robuchon, Rick Bayless and Smith and Wollensky) signed up to become VIPs or "pioneers". We reserved their restaurant names and are waiting for them to migrate their content from their old .com to their new .rest

We have also been investing in trade press, hoping to educate restaurant owners about this opportunity.
www.register.rest/press

Many of them now have the opportunity to register a bunch of many different and meaningful names and have a better communication strategy throughout the web.
At least The Velvet has the opportunity to get thevelvet.bar instead (or aside from) thevelvet.com (if it would be available!)

I added a couple to my portfolio tonight but I agree with what was said above, many of the good ones are taken or unavailable.

The only one I could find that works for multiple locations with bar and rest were;

BYOB * REST
BYOB * BAR

There's thousands of "bring your own bottle" bars and restaurants.

We created a couple of websites with thousands of examples of meaningful names for both .bar and .rest. You can look at them at:
www.landrush.rest
www.landrush.bar
These were examples of available names that we offered at Landrush, trying to give some feedback to the investors in our space.
After Landrush, we left all the names there. We didn't "pick-up" the ones that didn't sell. They are still there, available, for sale, with almost every Registrar there is.

Regarding the most valuable names, it's no secret that the names considered to be the most valuable ones have been reserved by the Registry, because they have a higher sale price and will be offered in the next couple of months. Renewal fees will be kept at registration price, in order to avoid confusion.

And finally, many names have been blocked by ICANN and we are all still waiting to hear about how we are able to release them.