OMG NO! — new TLDs?
It’s happening again. New top-level domains. I read "New Internet Domains in the Works" with amazement. History truly does repeat itself.
I remember the rush for the .biz domains, the crazy auctions, the ridiculous anticipation wondering if the domains we’d applied for would be secured. We had many clients who had domains and we, being as responsible as we could, advised many to secure .biz domains, all of which have now lapsed or have never been used, making us look pretty stupid. Why did we offer such advice?
Every single thing you’d read said that the new .biz domains were one of the "most anticipated and important announcements for the internet". We believed the hype, and that’s just what it was. Oh, it was very good hype, but mostly propgated by two groups: wishful idealistic thinkers who believed consumers all think the way they did, and opportunistic domain registrars who knew that regardless of their success, the new domains would line their pockets.
So, it’s no surprise that you can read similar hype from people like DomainMart about the new upcoming domains. It’s all so much tripe. The claims that new domains will yield "new geographically sensitive functionality" is like saying that buying garlic will make you a great chef.
Until further notice, consumers recognized dot-com as the preferred real-estate. Issuing even more TLDs makes this worse, since it adds to the confusion. When there are too many choices, people tend to rely upon what they know. So, the more ridiculous TLDs ICANN issues, the more strength and value dot-com addresses will have.
For what it’s worth, uncle Tim agrees with me.
In Australia (where I live), domains are more highly regulated. It is more difficult to be a domain squatter and if you have a trademark, product or brand, it is almost assured that you can get the appropriate domain. While at first I was annoyed with this, being very used to the openess of dot-com, I eventually began to appreciate the value of a more predictable namespace. After the tech crash, ICANN missed a valuable opportunity to introduce sensible regulations into the dot-com space. Squatters were losing their ROI, and many domains were expiring every week. By introducing sensible regulations regarding what you can call your domain, and why, dot-com could have fewer problems.
Dot-com will remain the prime real-estate. Why not do some urban renewal instead of creating tacky suburbs?
