Comments

1. Trash says

   June 13, 2012 at 8:47 am

   someone answer me this please
   if say 5 people have applied for .web for example
   what happens to money other 4 have paid when they lose? on either application or auction?

2. Tim Davids says

   June 13, 2012 at 8:50 am

   GEORGE Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

   lol

3. Jd says

   June 13, 2012 at 8:56 am

   Ouch, looks like the .com rush, I mean TLD rush, is ON!

   They obviously don’t care that “.com is ‘King’ forever and ever and ever”.

   No oldskool domainer can compete with corporations like those.

4. .com is toast says

   June 13, 2012 at 9:15 am

   Finally, I get it. Completely.

   .com & .net are both toast.

   .tv, .me, .org, and a multitude of gTLD’s are the future of the internet – each gTLD will have it’s own registration rules…some narrow, some broad.

   .com is too generic and has no place in the new internet. It will take 10-20 years, but eventually .com’s will be worth what .info is today.

   I get it now.

   My eyes have been opened.

5. Mr.T says

   June 13, 2012 at 9:18 am

   Jd, I hope that was sarcasm all the way.

   All I can say is, let the fun begin.

6. Mr.T says

   June 13, 2012 at 9:21 am

   .com is toast, better to be late than being lost in the .com spiral forever and always 🙂

7. .com is toast says

   June 13, 2012 at 9:29 am

   Prediction:

   2013 .com sales will fall off a cliff with aggregate prices reported to DNjournal dropping by over 30% from 2012.

   .com is toast. Glad I don’t have my net-worth tied up in worthless virtual real estate.

   The gTLD program is truly democratization of the internet on a grand scale. As I said before, it’ll take 10-20 years to totally play out, but there is no stopping this train now.

8. Anunt says

   June 13, 2012 at 10:06 am

   Looks like MHB is more busy than icann

9. Innocuous says

   June 13, 2012 at 10:35 am

   Those saying .COM is toast, likely just want to scare people into selling cheap. 🙂

   Anyway, all extensions are toast. Or at least will be within the next 5 years, as mobile devices change how people interact with the Internet.

10. I'll give you $100 for that domain!!! says

    June 13, 2012 at 10:37 am

    LOL. Perfect.

    They can all collide with each other now.

11. David J Castello says

    June 13, 2012 at 10:43 am

    Anyone who has the dotCOM version of any of these just hit the lottery.

12. Right says

    June 13, 2012 at 10:52 am

    @David Castello,

    You are as far from accurate as is possible with that last statement.

13. David J Castello says

    June 13, 2012 at 11:01 am

    @Right
    Don’t bet on it.

14. Domo Sapiens says

    June 13, 2012 at 11:16 am

    How many Millions lost on rejected applications, rather gained by the Sopranos..
    I meant ICANN? )

15. www.tl says

    June 13, 2012 at 11:44 am

    I agree with David Castello’s comment, and think that
    although it does look like an imposing list, with several
    big name players taking part, “.com” will ultimately
    prevail.

    Google and M$ buying may well just be defensive reg’s
    on their part, and I can’t see how ‘.anything’ will change
    the existing DN hierarchy or indeed the ‘consciousness’,
    of an Internet population who have been breast-fed on
    “.com” for the last 20 years.

    Many billions of dollars will need to be spent, and fairly
    quickly, on the gTLD idea for it to gain any ‘traction’ on
    the web.

    That said, I think the value of very good domain hacks,
    e.g. ba.by and ri.sk, and “www+.ccTLD” names, will go up
    as a result of the gTLD.

16. David J Castello says

    June 13, 2012 at 11:51 am

    @www.tl
    The new TLDs that are NOT dependent on the public buying them up and are private brands will succeed to a degree. The generic TLDs will have a very tough time selling the public (dotDUCK? Seriously?). DotCOM will always be the #1 worldwide TLD, but the pyramid it sits atop just rose 1,000 feet.

17. Mark A says

    June 13, 2012 at 12:00 pm

    The “com is toast guy” sees what I see. Maybe not toast, but as Franky said: “AM Radio”. I don’t like it because I have a lot invested in dot com, but that’s probably what will happen. Well, it won’t happen overnight. I’ll be in my late 60’s in 20 years.

18. www.tl says

    June 13, 2012 at 12:22 pm

    “DotCOM will always be the #1 worldwide TLD, but the pyramid it
    sits atop just rose 1,000 feet.”

    Hmm, well we will find out soon enough I think!

    ” but that’s probably what will happen. Well, it won’t happen overnight.”

    Depends what time-frame you are according to the term “overnight”.
    I think that any serious challenge to “.com”, and it’s dominance, needs
    to happen fairly quickly otherwise the gTLD will exist permanently
    in the DN world’s equivalent of “no mans land”…

    I don’t think there is any notion of a peaceful co-existence, between
    the gTLD’s and .com, and if (within a year) the gTLD’s are not kicking
    .com’s butt then nothing EVER will.

    ..and ‘.com’ prices will sky-rocket.

    Hat’s off to Frank Schilling and others, who are investing in this. I don’t
    agree that the gTLD is a good idea, but you have to give them credit I
    guess for “walking the walk”…

19. Innocuous says

    June 13, 2012 at 12:54 pm

    I don’t think it’s ‘walking the walk’ so much as it’s just jumping on the bandwagon. Monkey see, monkey do. Having a lot of money doesn’t make one immune to believing in fantasies.

20. www.tl says

    June 13, 2012 at 1:16 pm

    @innocuous

    I think “jumping on the bandwagon” would be a great idiom
    to use IF people were already making $$$ out of this, and
    there was a tried-and-true template for others to follow.

    No such things exists here ‘though, and whether or not you
    like the fact that Frank and Co. are wealthy, and betting heavily
    on this, it’s separate to the fact that they really are blazing a
    trail here.

    No “bandwagons” here then… they haven’t been built yet, and
    may never be…

21. Innocuous says

    June 13, 2012 at 1:34 pm

    @www.tl

    You pick on my “jumping on the bandwagon” phrase, and then say they’re “blazing a trail?” 😉

    These are just domain extensions. None of this is going to change the world in some insanely great way. Phrases like “blazing a trail” are reserved for companies like SpaceX or Apple, who really are doing things that are shaking things up.

22. domain guy says

    June 13, 2012 at 1:48 pm

    so we can expect numerioue registraions on the new tlds..maybe in google case or other free extensions, then we will read about the success of the new tlds everwhere as spin will be added to this story.
    then after one year we will see how many of these so called new tlds renew their application.
    then we will move into the adopition period…if there is one…
    and see how many websites are actually built on to the new tlds.and not just a wasteland out there on the net..google will probably use the tlds in search,

    and somewhere along the line we will have benchmarking with the legacy tlds…com,net and .org
    and then domain appraisals..commets from sedo,and other relable 3rd parties.

    we will see if type in traffic goes up or down. and by the looks of this it seems corps have zero value for iconic .coms. and that is why there sales and adoption period has been close to nil. brands are only interested in utilizing and spreading their own brand.
    icann hit the jackpot their coffiers will rise.

    the future looks murkey and nebulous for domainers?

23. BREAKING NEWS! says

    June 13, 2012 at 1:57 pm

    Guys like David Costello have everything invested in .com, so expect him to keep talking his book.

    Bottom line, .com is dead, gone, finished. It will take at least a decade, maybe more before it goes the way of .info and .mobi. The “AM Radio” analagy is appropriate – .com indeed IS too generic compared to the new gTLD’s. Funny thing is, .tv, .info, and .org will be worth MORE than .com as they are DESCRIPTIVE. .com, .co, and .net are, going forward, the three least valuable extensions.

    Watch .com sales fall off a cliff the rest of this year, starting NOW.

24. Innocuous says

    June 13, 2012 at 2:08 pm

    @Breaking News

    The ‘AM Radio’ argument works for radio, because FM provided a superior, clearer sound. These gTLDs don’t do that… they just add a lot of noise and confusion. It would be like adding a hundred radio bands to radio. “Is that station on AM or FM? Or is it on SAPM, LM, QM, SHQ, TM, or …..????”

    The only people saying .com is dead are those who have everything invested in these gTLDs. Or those who are just dreaming. I don’t envy them their task of trying to topple .com, since every company and website that matters, uses it. Even given the amount of marketing put into .CO, the average everyday person has hardly heard of it, let alone gone to a .CO website.

25. David J Castello says

    June 13, 2012 at 2:11 pm

    @BREAKING NEWS
    What a ridiculous comment. I invest in anything I desire. My only allegiance to dotCOM is that I believe it is the #1 worldwide TLD and will continue to be so regardless if there are 100 or 10,000 TLDs. And for the record, I believe dotCOM will spike in prices as soon as these TLDs are released and reality hits the fan.

    Note: The AM radio analogy is equally dopey. AM is #1 in revenue is most markets including NYC.

26. BREAKING NEWS! says

    June 13, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    .com will be fine for email servers…that’s about it.

    If I’m in San Diego and want some pizza, I’ll just type in “pizza.sandiego” for a directory of pizza shops with reviews.

    If I’m in San Diego and want to see a movie, I’ll type in “movies.sandiego” for all movie listings.

    Heck, after gTLD’s launch in earnest, people won’t even need search engines. (Bye, bye google).

    The hardest hit domains will be geo-.com’s – their values will fall by as much as 95% in some cases.

27. BREAKING NEWS! says

    June 13, 2012 at 2:18 pm

    One of the wealthiest domainers in the world told me yesterday that he estimates geo-.com’s have on average, fallen in value by 20% in just the last two weeks.

28. David J Castello says

    June 13, 2012 at 2:19 pm

    @BREAKING NEWS
    Keep drinking that Kool-Aid 🙂

29. BREAKING NEWS! says

    June 13, 2012 at 2:27 pm

    Said the pot to the kettle.

30. Mr.T says

    June 13, 2012 at 2:37 pm

    Innocuous – here is as little food for thought.

    You think just because all big brands / corps use .com today, .com will be king forever? That statement is ridiculous and you know it. Let me explain why –

    1) If you have any grasp on web development you know what a 301 redirect is. Going from a .com to the gTLD is childsplay. Put up the correct redirects and not only your visitors will follow, but so will the serps.

    Nike.com -> http://www.nike
    MeetMe.com -> Meet.Me
    etc etc..

    Expect a lot of this to happen in the future as some of the large corps migrate to their new gTLD’s.

    It’s all about branding, controlling the end user and leading them where you want them to be. The right side of the dot will matter from today on, and .com doesn’t cut it anymore. Why? I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

    Last but not least – Why do you think .ME, .IT, .TV and a few other ccTLD’s are gaining traction? End users are starting to see opportunities outside the .com space.

    It’s not a dream, it’s a fact. Numbers don’t lie!

31. ¢.com says

    June 13, 2012 at 2:38 pm

    @breaking news

    Stop it now, you’re embarrassing yourself.. big time.

    You obviously don’t have much to talk about, re: your own
    credibility, or knowledge of IP, so are engaging in that familiar
    ‘domainer’ activity of talking s%&t about things you have no
    clue about.

32. Michael H. Berkens says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:07 pm

    David

    Of course .com is going to be the most used extension for a long, long time.

    That’s not the issue.

    The issue what will happen to the value of .com’s once consumers have more choice and other options.

    Now lets face it, your portfolio of domains is better than 99.999% of all the domainers who read and/or comment on the blog.

    The issue is for the other domainers, the guys who make a living off of selling all those domains you see on Sedo report every week and Afternic.com report.

    The domains that sell for $1K-$5K

    The domains that sell for $5K-$10K these represent the vast percentage of sales in both numbers of domains sold and total volume at Sedo and Afternic.

    So these are either multiple word domains, long tails, Geo targeted domains like AtlantaAccountant.com for example so what will happen to the value of those?

    Are people still going to pay $5K or $10K for a .com when they can register an alternative like Atlanta.cpa for $50?

33. David J Castello says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:16 pm

    @MHB
    Most people don’t know that I’m also a history writer and the one thing I’ve learned is that the masses always prefer what’s first over what others believe is best. The bottom line is that the public really couldn’t care less about these new TLDs and that will become obvious when these names are offered to the public. Some may promote hard enough to gain a beachhead, but those believing this is the beginning of the end of dotCOM are out of touch with reality.

34. TeddyK says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:22 pm

    MHB speaks the truth.

    .com, in the aggregate, is dead.

    Change has been thrust upon you “.com domainers”. What are you going to do about it? You will either evolve or go broke. It’s your choice.

    What’s that I hear? It’s .com sales screeching to an utter, complete, and forevermore halt (as compared to the recent past).

35. David J Castello says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:22 pm

    PS: Look at the letters on your keypad. They were put in that order in the 19th century because the old typewriters would jam if people hit them too quickly. In the 20th century, they experimented with promoting a keypad that had the alphabet in the correct order. It failed because the masses had already become accustomed to the original version.

36. TeddyK says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:23 pm

    @David,

    Again, we’re not talking about “the public”. You’re failing to see the forest for the trees.

    Take off the blinders – use your brain.

37. TeddyK says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:24 pm

    Typewriter comparison is apples/oranges…strawman like.

    You can do better than that.

38. Michael H. Berkens says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:26 pm

    David

    I don’t think its an either or situation.

    I don’t think for TLD to be profitable the .Com era needs to end.

    I think it will be a blend, meaning that .com is still king, the preferred extension but that some of the TLD’s will become attractive alternatives to end users that are unwilling to spend what their desired .com would cost, if available.

39. ¢.com says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:31 pm

    “Are people still going to pay $5K or $10K for a .com when they can register an alternative like Atlanta.cpa for $50?”

    Realistically, the gTLD’s could have an effect on the resale value
    of .com domains that feature two words or terms…

    One word .com’s, however, will be relatively safe because the only
    way to replicate their perceived identity (through the gTLD model)
    is via a, less desirable, ‘hacked’ name, e.g. atlan.ta.

    Dotcom will always be seen as the better choice ‘though, and there
    will always be people and businesses who go for quality that they
    understand.

    Another consideration, to do with the gTLD’s, is “are sub domains
    going to be subject to onerous restrictions or requirements”. If so,
    that will also have a bearing on their perceived value.

    Basically ‘though, EVERY gTLD sub domain, e.g. atlanta.cpa, is a
    domain ‘hack’ of sorts, and while I do think that hacks can be very
    valuable there are many who will always steer clear of them.

40. David J Castello says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:32 pm

    @MHB
    Agree 100%.

41. Michael H. Berkens says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:33 pm

    One of the very few benefits of having some age on you is you have experienced and seen things in your life that younger people haven’t

    I can remember the pay telephone business was BOOMING and people were buying up areas and putting pay phones on every corner.

    That business is gone.

    When I practiced law people were spending thousands of dollars a month putting ads in yellow pages and if you couldn’t pay for the ad they would shut your phone off.

    Pretty much gone.

    Remember when over 50% of the population smoked cigarettes and the tobacco companies were some of the most profitable?

    OK so stuff changes.

    For most people the interest started in the late 90’s or later and more and more traffic is heading to mobile.

    What does it all mean

    Change is consistent especially when the rules are completely revamped overnight

42. TeddyK says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:35 pm

    MHB is right.

    .com is dead.

43. Michael H. Berkens says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:36 pm

    How about this

    Regardless of the business, commodity or product, if the availability of the product increases by a factor of 100X or in this case 1,000x you cannot expect everything to remain the same.

44. Brad Mugford says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:38 pm

    @ MHB

    “So these are either multiple word domains, long tails, Geo targeted domains like AtlantaAccountant.com for example so what will happen to the value of those?

    Are people still going to pay $5K or $10K for a .com when they can register an alternative like Atlanta.cpa for $50?”

    1.) Any quality domain in an extension is not just going to be handed away. Registries exist to make money and squeeze every dime out of their best assets.

    2.) There is only (1) AtlantaAccountant.com, just like there is only (1) Atlanta.cpa.

    Only one person can own each. Then what?
    There are still limited options for quality domains.

    Not to mention speculators will take a lot of the quality words off the market like with every extension release in the past.

    I know you own quality GeoWord.com domains.
    Since there will be less demand please let me know when you would like to sell them for peanuts.

    Brad

45. 3D is my life says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:39 pm

    Agree with MHB. Was once a non-believer or maybe just in denial. But sh#t’s bout to change in a big big way.

46. Michael H. Berkens says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:41 pm

    Teddy

    Hello out there

    MHB didn’t say .com was dead.

    I said .com will be the preferred and dominate extension for a long long time.

    However this is not a zero sum game where for a TLD to succeed something else has to fail.

    I do think as I have said here and on the other 30 posts from today that I do see a risk to domain holders on those type of domains that typically sell for $1K-$10K.

47. ¢.com says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:46 pm

    “I do see a risk to domain holders on those type of domains that typically sell for $1K-$10K.”

    Can we see a couple of good examples?..

48. Mr.T says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:47 pm

    3D is my life – welcome to “the other side” 🙂 I’m happy to see more and more people finally open their eyes!

49. ¢.com says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:52 pm

    Anything with two words in it is, potentially, at risk of taking
    a hit on price. But, apart from GEO and trade classification-type
    names, how many other two word name types are there out
    there??

50. Michael H. Berkens says

    June 13, 2012 at 3:57 pm

    Your asking how many of the 120 Million or so .com have two words or more in them?

    More than 100 million

51. TeddyK says

    June 13, 2012 at 4:00 pm

    “I do see a risk to domain holders on those type of domains that typically sell for $1K-$10K.”

    Can we see a couple of good examples?..

    ——————————————————————————————–

    dogwalkers.com

52. ¢.com says

    June 13, 2012 at 4:07 pm

    Some of the above gTLD’s would lend themselves well to
    creating desirable derivative names (2nd level), but as the
    applications show, buying them just to sell 2nd level names
    isn’t the only reason for acquiring a gTLD…

    Technically, I guess that names like atlanta.cpa ARE 2nd level
    registrations, but the perception of them may be more akin to
    sub domains… although it’s too early to say on that one.

    🙂

53. foolonthehill says

    June 13, 2012 at 4:12 pm

    the foolishness on this thread in trying to predict the future is exactly why people so easily profit from running lame registries and selling garbage domains on the secondary market to other domainers.
    it’s also the reason, in part, why icann just collected $185K 1,930 times and needs to deliver *nothing*. they can reject any application as they please. thank you for your $185K. foolishness = profit.

    there is a future beyond icann and the way they run the dns. there is a better way to organise content than google does. you don’t have to be very smart to see that. and yes, the “dot” is arbitrary. but this new gtld scheme is not that future. it’s a money grab. SF said it in another thread: icann has made bank. it does not matter what happens in 10 year from now, or even what happens next month. this whole program could be scrapped tomorrow. no refunds. icann just made bank. whoosh.

    the biggest mistake domainers make is believing there are “rules”. there are no rules. you cannot control how a user looks up ip addresses. you can only set defaults and hope the user does not change them. that is not control. that is relying on ignorance- in a time when information and know-how can spread worldwide in seconds. there are no “rules”. there is only public (lack of) awareness of how the internet works. no one knows what icann does. but should people ever take an interest (and icann knows that day is coming), it’s game over for icann.

    dns and domain names are not a requirement they are a convenience. the ultimate battle for control of the internet, if there is one, will be over ip numbers, not domain names.

    keep believing in myths and foolish dreams of the future (even when you have zero understanding of what existing technology can and cannot do)… and certain parties will just keep taking your money.

    domainers gaming for type-ins (left of the dot, right of the dot, it’s all the same). trademarks under threat. icann quietly collecting payment above and below the board. users getting duped. nothing new here.

54. 3D is my life says

    June 13, 2012 at 4:19 pm

    There was a time when parking revenue was good. Direct navigation type-ins were high. Also, keyword stuffed domains ranked well. Google switched things up a bit. But, exact match domains still held top spots. Well, that changed too and it now seems to mean very little in terms of seo. Now, we have a crapload of new TLDs hitting the market. Game over, fellow domainers. We’ve been beat. I’m throwing in the towel.

55. ¢.com says

    June 13, 2012 at 4:23 pm

    @3Dismylife

    Something tells me that you would “throw in the towel” in
    many areas of life…

56. 3D is my life says

    June 13, 2012 at 4:28 pm

    Ole stock market saying “don’t fight the tape” applies here. The tape is looking pretty bleak for domainers.

57. TeddyK says

    June 13, 2012 at 4:55 pm

    @3D,

    I agree.

    To use poker parlance, “You can’t lose what you don’t push to the middle of the table.”

58. Louise says

    June 13, 2012 at 6:01 pm

    Congrats to Mike Berkens and Right of the Dot. It is a triumph so many reputable investors came on board with the new gTLDs, as well as Fortune 500.

59. 3D is my life says

    June 13, 2012 at 7:52 pm

    Sadly, fellow domainers, it seems, this is the end, my only friend, the end.

    But, on a positive note, the rollout of all these new extensions is something to which we can all look forward. Exciting times ahead.

    Then, a new beginning, next year. That’s when domaining will start anew, until then, may as well pack things up.

    By the way, Facebook and comScore released a report yesterday that showed the Skittles saw 320,000 visits to its Facebook brand page versus 23,000 to the corporate web site in March.

    Things are certainly changing, so it’s time to adapt. Out with the old, in with the new.

60. Sulaiman Ali says

    August 20, 2012 at 2:06 am

    Great. Aga Khan Foundation is in the list. We hope whole intranet and global internet sites will be shifted to .agakhan gTLD. Main importance will be an ease to remember the online websites of the respective health departments. i.e laboratory.agakhan or onlinelabreports.agakhan for checking the reports online as their free service