Hiawatha Bray of the Boston Globe wrote an article about the new gTLD domain names today, and I think it offers a very good overview of the new domain names that are coming to the market. In the article, Dot-specific domain names on way to the Web, Bray shared insight from a number of familiar names in the domain space, including Mason Cole, Braden Pollock, Kevin Murphy, and me.
I’ll let you read the article for yourself, but it covers everything from the opportunity new TLDs will create for business who want to use them to the opportunity for domain investors to purchase these new domain names.
To me, the most exciting thing about the new TLDs is the fact that at this moment nobody knows for sure what is going to happen. Many people think they know exactly how things will shape up, but we are at a very interesting point in time. As I’ve said many times, I think people may eventually adopt some of the new extensions, but I think it will cause lots of confusion, and .com domain names will continue to be the most widely used extension for the foreseeable future. I may be wrong, and I may be right, and it’s going to be exciting to see how things shape up.
Back when I was in elementary school, I was really excited to see my name in the newspaper for making the honor roll. As my parents can attest, this didn’t happen very often, so it was exciting when it did happen. I have to admit, seeing my name in the Boston Globe (for something other than the Playboy Mansion party) was pretty cool.
“I prefer to own great assets on .com. People know .com,” Silver said.
A toast to your honest thoughts and not falling for the “Old Big Boys” arse kissing hypocritical game some other bloggers/domainers have fall into… in the name of a dollar, a few more readers to their quasi-blogs or notoriety.
Congrats – that’s a real nice shout out for you!
Congrats on the mention. Very cool!
Also, I don’t get the argument that .BRAND gives the consumer more confidence.
I am pretty sure that the consumer feels 100% secure that Apple is found at Apple.com. There is no doubt. .Apple won’t make them feel any better, will it?
a .BRAND might help legitimize a smaller enterprise — but as far as the larger ones, I think we’re all just fine with BMW.com, Ford.com, Dell.com, PG.com, etc.
How will .BMW or .DELL or .Ford put the consumers’ minds at ease any more than they already are?
I can see Tablets.DELL being
A: confusing
but
B: a tiny bit of a short cut compared to Dell.com/Tablets
Anyways.
I am curious to see how it all pans out, for sure.
I DO THINK some gTLDs will be very successful. I just don’t see the .BRAND need just yet. I might be nearsighted though.
Aron
I feel sorry for all the users out there, that read these articles, and run to get a new name, and hit checkout, and come to a $13,000 price tag. Bad user experience.
I know you mentioned at least two small projects on .co domain names. Do you think you would do the same on any of the new gtlds, say for instance, on a premium keyword?
Not at this point in time.
I have enough .com names I could build out – like BreastLift.com (directory) and RER.com – to keep me busy.
I can’t say whether this will hold true in 3, 5, 10+ years of course.
My favorite part was that he pitted us against each other 🙂 (despite the fact that we both actually agree on the topic)
“I prefer to own great assets on .com. People know .com,” Silver said.
Well said, Elliot. Well said. A LOT of money is about to be lost by those who did not follow your straightforward advice.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks for sharing. There are so many articles about new gTLDs and it will be exiting to see which new gTLDs may get favorable backing. The question is why so many new extensions are going to be released in such a short period.
In last 20 years or so we had 22 generic extensions and all of a sudden in 1 or 2 years the generic pool of extensions may cross 1000 mark. In this scenario I think the jungle law ‘survival of the fittest new gTLD’ may prevail.
You are not alone on your “Asset Allocation” Point of view/recommendation.
as seen at thedomains.com in reference to an article from ComputerWorld.com by Sharon Gaudin
“Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Current Analysis, said he’s expecting more confusion than benefits. “I think users don’t pay any attention to [top-level domains], so anything without a .com is in a BACK ALLEY, HIDDEN from VIEW” he said. “If you want people to remember your site, you better use .COM. By using a new domain, you’re asking people to remember twice as much — the name plus the new domain.”
Any clearer?
It’s a good point.
The key thing, and something that the registries are banking on, is that consumer behavior will change. I can’t predict what will happen in 3, 5, 10, or 20 years, but I don’t see a foreseeable threat to .com investments in the nearterm.