About That...
There was a time when nobody knew what a .com was. March 15, 1985 - symbolics.com becomes the first registered domain. 1994 - loans.com is registered. When did you first learn what a .com was?
It takes time and publicity to make a TLD a household word. No one knows for sure how much time it will take, or what publicity will be the catalyst for any non-.com to become a household word, if at all.
VolvoCars.us is on a big billboard at the Oakland Airport. I think anyone who has seen this sign on a regular basis knows what a .us is now. It will take a lot more than one billboard to compete with the publicity the .com got in the late 1990s.
I remember watching "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" on T.V. last decade. One of the questions was, "What do the letters in .com stand for?" Two of the choices were company and commercial. I believe the contestant got it wrong, but the host of the show said later that the station had received a lot of calls about it, with most saying that they had heard both meanings.
The .com eventually became a household word, but the biggest event that solidified it as a household word was the .com bust. Who could forget webvan.com. Perhaps another TLD will rise in popularity, but it would take a lot of publicity, many historic events, and plenty of time for it to rival the .com. No one has a crystal ball. It could happen.
When I was five years old in the 1960s I was sitting on my hallway stairs watching my mom do the dishes while we listened to the radio. A newsperson was reporting that an actor had said that he wanted to one day run for President of the U.S. My mom laughed and said, "An actor as President?" The actor's name was Ronald Reagan.
I went to my high school guidance counselor in the early 1970s to ask him if I should continue with my data processing studies. I had just learned to wire a punch card machine. I still remember A-I, J-R, S-Z. He turned to me and said: "Bob, computers are just a fad. Take chemistry classes instead."
Listen, "The Future Isn't What It Used to Be." If it were, then the following statements would have become true: "Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote," attributed to President Cleveland, and "There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom," attributed to physicist Robert Millikan. There is also a prediction that was supposedly made by Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office Charles H. Duell. "Everything that can be invented has been invented." The date given was 1899.
So where does that leave the future of the .us, or any other TLD? Who knows?
