CNN.com is just one of the hundreds of new outlets that have already written about ICANN’s approval of the new gTLD program while you were sleeping.
In a story entitled “Forget .com, here comes .coke”, CNN.com covers what almost ever major new publication has already written about overnight in the US, that the domain industry has changed forever.
“The trusty old Internet addresses we know and love — the .coms, .nets, .orgs — are about to get some new competition.”
“Today’s decision will usher in a new Internet age,” said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of ICANN’s Board of Directors. “We have provided a platform for the next generation of creativity and inspiration.”
“With domains like .law and .sport, many suitors may be battling for the same coveted keyword. So if multiple applicants want a single domain, and ICANN deems them equally worthy, it goes to auction — which could end up costing millions.”
“And even if two keywords aren’t exactly the same, “confusingly similar” domain suffixes are verboten. That is, if an apple farmers’ union grabs .apples, then iPad maker Apple (APPL) would be blocked permanently from registering .apple.”
Certainly ICANN move today is the hot topic of the day and shines a huge light on the domain world.
Here are just a few stories you can check out:
“Make an informed decision about whether you want to apply to run a “.brand” extension; it is a ten-year commitment, will cost more than £1m and is a lot of work. However, if someone beats you to it, you may lose it forever.”
“Icann has opened the internet’s addressing system to the limitless possibilities of the human imagination,” said Rod Beckstrom, president and chief executive officer for Icann.
“No one can predict where this historic decision will take us.”
“Hundreds of new website suffixes should begin appearing by late next year after the organization that oversees the Internet address system voted Monday to greatly expand domain names.”
“brace yourself for 1,000 new extensions”
“Internet address names will be able to end with almost any word in any language, offering organizations around the world the opportunity to market their brand, products, community or cause in new and innovative ways, ICANN said.”
“This is an enormous change. We don’t know all the innovations this will produce but what we know is that it will produce a lot of it.”
“This is the start of a whole new phase for the internet,” said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of ICANN’s board of directors. “Unless there is a good reason to restrain it, innovation should be allowed to run free.””
“As a big brand, you ignore it at your peril,” says Theo Hnarakis, chief executive of Australian domain name-registration firm Melbourne IT DBS, which advises companies and other organizations worldwide about how to do business online.
“We’re advising people to buy their brands, park them and redirect visitors to their existing site, at the very least,” says Hnarakis, whose more than 3,500 customers include Volvo, Lego and GlaxoSmithKline.”
“”Move over .com, get ready for .anything .you .can .think .of.””
There are literally hundreds of other article already as the sun is just rising in the US, the Domain Name industry is awaking to a new age, new opportunities where fortunes will be made and lost.
Multi-billion dollar market just opened
Without a doubt over a billion dollars will be coming into the domain market so fasten your seat belts.
BoingBoing:
“ICANN votes to roll out 400-800 new generic top-level domains”
I just peed my pjs
TMI
One things for sure, these auctions for the new .whatevers are going to cream in a fortune for ICANN.
I heard through the grapevine that the Colombians are going to bid on .coke, I think they will win it, they have far more cash than cocacola or the US Banks do.
Boys and girls
hold on just a minute
these news are not that big of a news, and here is why
are you really going to name your site
glamourphotography.nike
or
glamourphotography.coke
or
glamourphotography.vegas
NO
you would want
glamourphotography.com or glamourphotography.co
to legitimize your site
The biggest winner is going to be .CO because now people will see this as a better version of .com in a short better mobile world.
so all in all slight negative for .com
big positive for .CO
put the other extensions in perspective folks. They are only going to be niche sites.
@MHB
do not delete above
I am not marketing
.CO
I provide a legit argument not necessarily for .CO but the state of domain affairs in general.
“The biggest winner is going to be .CO because now people will see this as a better version of .com in a short better mobile world.”
Robert, this is what the average person on the street or in the media thinks about domains.
——————————————-
“The issue of buying a relevant web address has become one of frustration for both individuals and companies alike, which, coming later to the web party than the early adopters, have found that they can not buy the web URL of choice. It has often already been taken by someone else – who they then have to pay high sums of money to in order to reclaim themselves online. Such ‘cyber squatters’ will regularly not give up their internet spot and cannot be easily contacted. ”
——————————————–
So with Registers, like .CO creaming off all the best terms and saying that a LL.co is a minimum of $1.5 million how are things going to change in they eyes of the general public?
There is NO shortage of .com or .cctld domains, there are just loads of people who do not agree with the value the current owners place on them.
Some sell…most don’t 😉
.CO , .Suck, .whatever will end up the same way when it comes to the best, most wanted right of the dot terms.
could be allowed also the single/two letter(s) TLDs? .F .FB .M .A etc.
The only real meaningful domains on the internet are:
company
corporation
commercial
commerce
these are the true 95% of true internet commerce sites that really truly matter. And
.COM and .CO are the only true players in these.
All other extensions will only be niche sites only that is it.
I love it.
More confusion which means everyone will eventually see they MUST have the .com.
More confusion means more engagement by the public and companies to find the right answer, which is mostly .com.
You got to give .CO some credit for having been smart enough to cash in on this rebranded ccTLD before the new TLDs arrived, but that’s only for the registry, as far as the people are concerned soon .Com , .CO and all the other old and new TLDs will be judged based on availability and price. I predict that no single second level domain in any given TLD is going to sell for more than 50k in the future unless it’s already built into a business.
–
I think they tried this with .mobi and it tanked, Who cares all I know is .com
for all of you .co supporters … how the hell is that going to help .co ? seriously now , its nice you are trying to push it and all but if anything , its going to hurt its value.
@Adam
I dare to say there will not be another rollout like .co. It would be very surprising if someone else could achieve what they have done in such an elegant way. It’s great. 999 other tlds come out and stink out the place. Makes .co look even better.
I feel that,
as people become more comfortable using different extensions…
people and companies will choose an extension that best fits their needs…or is more preferred.
If the .com cannot be obtained, the next best alternative will become desirable, etc.
Where “the next best alternative” is subjective and dependent on how a buyer views an extension.
Some may really desire .xyz while others hate .xyz
If you have .xyz and someone really wants .xyz…..then you have chosen wisely…regardless of
the people who hate .xyz
@Gazzip
“One things for sure, these auctions for the new .whatevers are going to cream in a fortune for ICANN.”
Well said – Like a car mechanic selling someone an additional alternator installed somewhere under the hood but not wiring it up – the car still works perfect either way.
@Domain Candy-
“More confusion which means everyone will eventually see they MUST have the .com.”
Agreed – with values of decent .com’s going up even more – especially with this garbage costing $300K up front
@ .co nation – whatever
So, let me get this straight. ICANN, a organization that was granted its powers by the US government to act in the best interest of the global Internet community, intends to pocket $185,000 per application and foresees auctioning off the most sought after new strings to the highest bidder potentially for millions and pocketing all this money. Cost recovery, right. These strings are not the exclusive property of icann, they did not create them, why should they reap the financial reward of the their demand in the marketplace. These are the public’s resources, not icann’s to auction off to the highest bidder.
Then, once the most sought after strings are in the hands of the winning bidder, more issues emerge, like the ability for one organization or group to lock out whoever they choose from obtaining a name in a particular extension or making it cost prohibitive for the smaller players. Say for example, the extension represents a particular industry, the company or group of companies that control extension will in essence be able to use the domain system to shut out competition should the public begin to see that extension as exclusively representing its industry. How can this be good for competition? The domain name system was never intended to be used in this way.
Has someone actually thought about how all this might play out in the real world or is ICANN just dreaming of dollar signs.
look down at your keyboard. it was created in 1871 as a technical advance over the original typewriter created in 1869 because the most used keys kept knocking into each other and getting stuck. 90 years later in 1961 ibm introduced the selectric… no keys at all… just a ball with letters on it. since that time there have been untold new and truly better keyboards created with serious financial backing. none have achieved even 1% market penetration. now everything is computerized but here’s a hint… things tend to stay the way they are… at least until they change. you’re not buying space on the internet… you’re buying space in people’s heads. there’s a great post on domainconsultant.com today about icaan being a bunch of racketeers only existing for the purpose of increasing their own salaries. it’s a much better article than i could have written because every other word i would have used about icaan would of had to be deleted.
DM
“I think they tried this with .mobi and it tanked, ”
.mobi was one extension launched at one time and was killed off by the iPhone
“Has someone actually thought about how all this might play out in the real world or is ICANN just dreaming of dollar signs.”
Does anyone even care ?
Its like Goldman Sachs selling shit in a box to most their “investors” while keeping the diamonds for their prefered insider clients, who cares what happens when they open the box up to find a big steamy shit with no value, the insiders and the Banksters have made their ton of money by then and everyone else is left to clean up the mess.
These new .whatevers will be no different
The American Dream for the odd few and The American Nightmare for most.
You have to laugh really there is an element of money making genius about it all and what better way to bleed the biggest and richest corporations out of millions not with a new extension, ohh no that’s old school but with a suffix. And the thing is if the big corporations buy into this it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy as they all spend more millions advertising their new brand on mainstream media and legitimising the .branding sucker trap. What if Lord Google doesn’t like it i wonder.
“I think they tried this with .mobi and it tanked, ”
However .mobi dick was stroked – .mobi dick “tanked” in the middle of the non.com bermuda triangle, along with all the rest – getting pretty crowded there.
@Todaro – “you’re buying space in people’s heads” – I cant stop laughing – yes this empty vacuous space between the ears reminds me of Sid Vicious & Johnny Rotten in the Sex Pistols song – “Pretty Vacant” !!
@Gazzip – “find a big steamy shit” – yes some folks just need to be sold a bill-of-goods
“You have to laugh really there is an element of money making genius about it all and what better way to bleed the biggest and richest corporations out of millions not with a new extension”
Exactly Stan, just what the worlds economy needs right now to get it back on its feet eh 😉
They have gamed the stock markets with pie in the sky valuations, they’ve decimated the real estate industry by selling bundled up shit, food and fuel prices are soaring to new levels often because some twat in a suit is manipulating the market, unemployment is skyrocketing world wide, riots are breaking out on streets all over the world and currencies and countries are collapsing.
Bye Ireland, Bye Greece, Bye UK, Bye Spain, Bye USA, Bye Euro, Bye $US, Bye Pensions, Bye Jobs, Bye Healthcare, Bye your childrens future.
but hey….we all need a ton of new .whatevers eh 😉
IMO .com, .net, .org and strong ccTLDs like .de won’t be affected at all because of what they represent to their respective users AND because you couldn’t give them a shorter (and faster) TLD. Let’s not forget that shortness is what the whole DNS was meant for. Berlin.de is shorter and looks much better than something.berlin , not to mention german people identify completely themselves with .de
“.com, .net, .org and strong ccTLDs like .de won’t be affected at all”
absolutely true
the cnn article title “forget .com” is only the nth GALACTIC journalistic exaggeration
Just shows all good .com, are taken demand for more strong keywords, only way is to create more extensions, .com goes higher from here
Holy smoke, this is taking dot com to a whole new level as number one – their value will soar –
“We have provided a platform for the next generation of creativity and inspiration.”
What a load of BS.
“their value will soar”
true, but nearly all .com are already taken, so, only a few lucky guys will make (much more) money, selling .com 😐
post edit: … nearly all GOOD .com …
Lovin this every minute…more extensions more members to the “BullS’ club
The whole world will know one day they will say WTF is the internet and so much BS sites
Despite some of the misgivings on the implementation issues I expressed above, I think the expansion of the domain namespace will be a positive thing.
After reading a summary of the applicant guidebook, it appears ICANN has set up what appears to be a thorough process to conduct a complete review of applications for strings and permits comments and objections to be submitted. Handling each string application on a case-by-case basis and thoroughly assessing its implications before allowing it to be put out in the wild hopefully will bring to light any negative effects which it might bring.
Approval of the program in general is just one step and doesn’t mean that a whole bunch of new extensions will be thrown up haphazardly. Let’s see how ICANN handles the application review process, this is where they need to make certain to give careful consideration to each proposed string.
todaro +1
it seems some domainers have more sense and empathy for end users than the people in charge of keyboards (hello IT industry) or domain names (hello ICANN). “in charge of” = “controlling demand for”.
The Mayans were right.
The end is near.
Get out while you still can.
I cannot understand any advantage by any big trademark for having .coke or .nike, etc. None. They already have their .com, can use subdomains or subfolders. Unless you want to make websites like france.coke , etc, and even so I think it’s a waste of money. If you have too much $ give it to charities.
@Webmaster7,
“I cannot understand any advantage by any big trademark for having .coke or .nike, etc. ”
Status and marketing -what they feel might look good online or print:
Nike.Nike
Pepsi.Pepsi
Coke.Coke
If users do not just type in the (brand).com, they will key in:
Nike.Nike.com
Pepsi.Pepsi.com
Coke.Coke.com
Comical – I just do not see it transforming the brand of the Internet “.com”.
I think it will lead to a lot of confusion… most people cannot memorize a few tlds, and most end up going to the .com … with brands owning a few tlds as well it will only be worse.
Nike.Nike doesn’t look better than Nike.com, at all.
.com IS the worlds biggest brand – thats why people want to use and be associated with it
Type this into Google
“.com”
= 25 Billion
then try Nike, Pepsi etc
Corporations with Brands will HATE this decision.
They already have their internet presence – mostly underpinned with the .com identity.
They already have (and will contininue to) an expense/frustration with people registering and using their brands in domains in bad faith.
This decision will increase that problem.
If they opt to apply for there own brand trademark as an extension it will cost them an estimated $1m plus over the first ten year term.
If they dont they risk another party obtaining it and causing confusion and/or dilution to their brand.
@ Ian Andrew
“Corporations with Brands will HATE this decision.”
Not to mention the countless extensions that famous brands are going to be forced to protect their TM in.
This really opens up the floodgates for potential squatting.
It is unreasonable for an extension, like .XXX, to legally extort brand owners for hundreds of dollars to block people from using obvious famous TMs.
Just think how many defensive regs a .sucks extension would have.
Brad
“Just think how many defensive regs a .sucks extension would have.”
I’m applying for that one Brad …everyone on the entire planet really needs to protect themselves for a small one time fee of a gazzillion dollars 😉
Roll up Roll up, get your backorders in TODAY !
.SUCKS
“If you don’t buy it somebody else will ™”
Don’t forget to secure .suck as well, or you’ll loose some business.
Sounds a bit like a “shake-down” for big corporations.
…Buy .YourBrand, before we deem some other deep pocket company eligible to use it, making you potentially, their junior.
Small companies will love it since their big competitors will spend $$$,$$$ for .companyname while they spend $10 or so for the .com .net or whatever gtld. I want you to increase your expenses so I have the low cost advantage and can make a profit.
What happens a couple of years from now when a company has money problems? Will they continue to want to pay $185,000 a year for that vanity .company domain name or would they rather be paying $10/year?
Along with .SUCKS, how about spending another $200K each on:
.FREESPEECH
.CONSTITUTIONALSPEECH
.FIRSTAMENDMENT
Boy your voice will really be heard then by no one !!!
If anything – all this BS might finally “demonstrate” to some Court (what they already know) – the .com is the only one on the shelf.
It looks like a fund raising effort on ICANNs part. If you have one million to keep it afloat for 10 years you might break even if you are lucky. However big brands might go for it just for promotional reasons and include the purchase in their marketing budget.
The stories how it is the “next generation” and you better get one before someone gets yours” are simply designed to make you rush to the bank.
The press releases were well distributed. All media made ICANN PR points without kinowing anything about the subject. Notice none of them went in depth about past failures.
If the exsisting Internet could get this much coverage once a year it would be doing good.
Sam
Its not $185K a year.
Hi,
Computer Weekly .com
“Make an informed decision about whether you want to apply to run a “.brand” extension; it is a ten-year commitment, will cost more than £1m and is a lot of work. However, if someone beats you to it, you may lose it forever.”
___
The last part of this statement is ridiculous…. How is someone going to “Beat’ …say “Nike” to .Nike?
No one other than “Nike” would get approved for this extension first of all, because of all of Nike’s TM and Intellectual property rights…any use of this extension, other than by Nike itself would be…a TM violation’s on all levels.
But, that is really a ‘mute’ point as, like I said ICANN could never approve an application for .Nike to anyone other than Nike itself.
So,
In this case, the best “branding and marketing” protection, would be not to apply for the extension at all.
As not having the extension in the market place… Is “branding and marketing protection” in its self, as it would never see the light of day, and save ‘Nike” muti- millions in the long run.
Now,
Coke (the soda drink) is in a different boat, as the word “coke” is generic and has other meanings, such as:
Coke (fuel), a solid carbonaceous residue derived from destructive distillation of coal
Petroleum coke, a solid, carbon-rich residue derived from distillation of crude oil
Cocaine, a drug extracted from the leaf of the coca plant
So, The Coca-Cola Company… is almost “Forced” to secure this ‘so called’ TL domain extension, for ‘brand & marketing protection’, even if they never use the .coke extension for anything.
Just a couple thoughts….
Best,
‘D’