IBM Chief Innovation Officer Bernard Meyerson wrote a blog post discussing “inventions that will change the world within five years.” The article covers the “IBM 5 in 5” list that the company unveils annually.
Not only do I think Meyerson’s article is well worth a read from a consumer point of view, but as a domain investor, you might be able to use the 5 in 5 list to speculate on domain name acquisitions. I won’t get into a discussion of the actual technologies that are discussed because that’s probably something Stephen Douglas could more knowledgeably cover, but it’s interesting to review.
Personally, I tend to stay away from hand registrations in general, especially when it comes to speculative technology. However, if you can grab meaningful keyword .com domain names for emerging technology, then it could be a decent opportunity. I don’t think it’s wise to buy longer tail speculative tech names, especially if those are in alternative extensions.
The long story short is that if you can get great keyword .com domain names early enough, these types of speculative purchases may be rewarding. You probably don’t want to waste your money registering names where the keywords have already been picked over by other domain investors (like 3d, cloud…etc).
You should also be aware that some of the technology that is proprietary will likely have trademarks associated with them, so use caution.
Whatever your domain interests are, the article is interesting to read.
Thanks to Francois for sharing.
Thanks Elliot.
It’s funny because like you I immediately thought about Stephen Douglas and predictive domaining.
There is really incredible stuff that may come from these new and amazing technologies.
Good regging!
And regarding trademarks, most on are still not deposited so if you grab names now you should not worry a lot about UDRPs.
That’s great timing because along with checking what you are blogging about, Elliot I was also opening something from my inbox about IBM tech predictions. Maybe other readers might enjoy it also? It may cover some of the same ground but here there are more predictions.
http://read.bi/VOYtYu
TIME magazine releases its picks for inventions of the year annually. I use it for possible handreg domains like you mention in this post. Years ago, I registered a domain for a product (that didn’t take off) but that turned into the name of an unrelated software program that is quite popular today. It’s probably generated over $20,000 in parking and adsense since then. Sometimes you get lucky.
Great article, thanks Elliot.
I checked to see who registered CognitiveComputing. com and it was registered in 1999 by the lead researcher on the project, Dharmendra Modha himself!