As we all surf around the net, in search of the next great domain to acquire, you come across those domains that you just shake your head at in disbelieve that someone would use a great domain in such a fashion.
So we are starting an award for the “Worst Use Of A Great Domain”
So here is our pick for this years award:
You will have to click on it to see what I mean.
Why is Justin.com a great domain?
Well for one, there is the hugely successful Justin.tv, maybe the most famous and most visited .tv site in the world.
Then you add the fact that one of the most popular and most search celebrities in the world is Justin Timberlake.
Finally the domain Justin.com is listed on the first page of Google under the keyword Justin.
I’m sure you have your own nominee for the “Worst Use Of A Great Domain”.
Parked domains are not eligible.
Why?
Although most parked page would be make better sites, at least they are making money.
Place your nominations below
Well at least UDRP could not say it has bad faith use…although with their notoriously bad decisions they could claim “the domain is not in practical use therfore it is bad faith”
Nice traffic on this domain … maybe that’s why he put the smile 🙂
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/justin.com/
Anthony
Anthony
So much more the reason that this domain has been nominated
alien.com
pro.com
card.com
Hot.com
Wasted
Hot is being used to send a political message, so that one is out. (its could have even been leased by the Obama campaign)
alien.com and pro.com do not resolve.
While no one can doubt this is wasteful there are many explanations of why a page does not resolve including abandoned use by the owner.
It’s one thing not to have a domain turned on quite another to turn it on and leave it on the way Justin.com is.
Card.com seems to forward to a greeting card site, so that one is out.
Purple.com
something.com
Here’s an example:
example.com
Wow – simply amazing that this is all that is being done with this domain. Did you ever contact the owner of this domain and ask them what they heck are doing?
Wasted
The domain example.com is now seconded and an official nominee.
I keep my surname domain also wasted – just a message that the domain is not for sale. Because I use it for email and do not want every week couple of idiots trying if is it for sale (mostly claiming they are poor students/non-profit organizaiton etc.), also do not want UDRP taking the domain away for non-use as they did in one recent decision
homeloans.com
Blue.com
Eco.com has been doing nothing for a very loooong time, the owner previously told me he’s not interested in selling but I’m sure some of you rich guys could offer him enough cold hard cash to tempt him 🙂 – good luck
Domaintools> Compete Rank: #907,410 with 1,311 U.S. visitors per month
Quote –
“you just shake your head at in disbelieve that someone would use a great domain in such a fashion.”
Here is what I don’t like about the theme of this story.
We all get those emails that say – “I see that you are not using the domain and we would like to use it.”
Who should be the judge what I do with my domain as long as I’m not infringing on a trademark?
I understand why Michael wrote the story. But, we should avoid judging and criticizing what someone does with their domain.
We might be starting a trend that might end up biting us in the ass in a couple years.
No domain is wasted, she is just not ripe for the pickin yet.
Maybe you should go after the owners of those domains.
How can you say that justin.com is poorly used and go as far as nominate it with the title of “Worst Use Of A Great Domain” ? You are jumping to judgement a little quickly!
Http (web) is only one of the many legitimate uses for a domain name. There are plenty of other uses such as email, ftp or even name servers… You obviously know this but I guess it got lost in the haste of writing this blog post 😉
If you take a quick look at the whois record for justin.com you’ll notice that Justin is the owner’s first name. He’s owned the name for at least nine years (probably much longer, but I don’t have whois history dating farther).
If you lookup the NS you’ll find valid MX records associated with the domain.
So this guy owns his first-name .com and uses it for email which is what I would call the perfect use for this domain name. I’m sure a lot of Justin’s wish they owned that domain and would use it in a similar fashion if they had the chance.
The fact he doesn’t have a full fledged website is irrelevant. For all we know he could easily have a website on a subdomain or run an FTP server to share some documents with his colleagues…
Domainers should stop being obsessed with wanting to have everything they see on the web be “monetized”. Saying that a parked page would be better because “at least they are making money” is plain ridiculous. It is quite refreshing to see people like Justin that can afford NOT to monetize, that can afford to pass on the many significant offers he must have received.
If you think about it, in the end this makes domains much more valuable which is good for everyone in the domain business.
@iridium
when the company is receiving billions from U.S. taxpayers as was the case with Wells Fargo and then allow a domain such as homeloans.com to not resolve, it becomes a perfect example of wasted opportunity, there is no legit excuse for not even forwarding this to their wellsfargo homepage other than poor mgt and poor marketing execution.
I use my BullS domain for ….investment purposes.
@don
I agree regarding homeloans.com, this is typical mismanagement. The department that could best make use of the domain probably doesn’t even know WF owns it 😉
Iridium
I think if all your doing with a domain which is arguable worth six figures, is using it for your personal e-mail, I do consider it a waste of assets.
If I owned Michael.com and used it just for my personal e-mail I think that would be a waste as well.
As always that is just my opinion.
MHB
I don’t know the specifics of Justin, but for a lot of self-employed / freelance /entrepreneur type people, email is critical so I’m thinking more than just personal e-mail.
If you owned michael.com, you could probably get away with putting a parking page as this connects to your core business and it would actually be pretty neat even if you don’t need the money. But imagine you were not in the domain industry and doing just as well financially; if you can afford not to place ads on your name, why would you?
As a domainer I understand you want to maximize revenue on your domain assets, but for people outside the domain industry (the end users) I can understand this is not part of their thought process and I don’t think one can blame them for that. To make a parallel with real estate this is like refusing to put a billboard on your home even-though people are offering you good money for that.
homeloans.com – 100%
As a sidenote – big thumbs up to Marriot !!!
after owning LuxuryHotels.com for years and never doing a damn thing yet – finally, someone got a little brain and forwarded the domain to marriot.com
Hey – Wells Fargo … hello ??????
MHB – maybe he is worried with all these UDRP cases. If someone really wants to buy the name and is serious they can contact him via whois search. Looks like an emoticon in this case is not grounds for bad faith. But who knows these days….
If the guy who owns it is not as smart as us, why are we all going to his site and talking about it?
That “idiot” will probably sell it to one of us “know-it-alls” for a ridiculous price.
Sometimes less is more.
Pure genius.
I agree with gg
.
I don’t agree… Justin.com is the BEST used domain I’ve seen so far… 🙂
.
I just found a possibility:
hip.com
It’s trying to be something, but I can’t figure out what.
And it doesn’t work (whatever it is trying to be), at least in Spain.
– Paul
Paul
Its just a parked page owned by anything.com
Comes up for me in the states
justin.com is wasted. Too bad…
Mike here’s a good nominee for you.
Boston.com is making tens of millions per year while
HongKong.com does not resolve. (same owners of China.com)
Anthony
Okay I know some industry heavyweights were involved with the purchase of this domain, but for the life of me I don’t understand why Cowboys.com continues to be just a search box. I would think the team who purchased it could have monetized/developed it into something more substantial assuming that was their reason to purchase.
Are they just waiting to sell it for a astronomical price in the future and therefore don’t see the need to develop the domain? Does leaving it as a search box really pay more than I think it does? Are they hoping the Dallas Cowboys “see the light”? Some of you insiders please enlighten me.
Cowboys.com is a great name and yes, with almost 30,000 people a month there’s a possibilty of getting a decent return – depending on what the searches amount for.
The $200k paid for this name had to be a bet on traffic since no fool would pay six figures for a domain betting on only one client to buy the name down the road.
Would cowboys.com benefit Dallas Cowboys sure – but they dont need the name and quite frankly will NEVER need the name. Want it – maybe – but its a gamble.
Names like Candy.com in comparison are category defining names where the main elements of a super premium name are attached
(1) something people order online
(2) existing traffic
(3) prior usage (although ppc ads – still candy related)
(4) .com
more elements of course but cowboys is a brandable name – nothing more.
The value is the traffic. the bet is the Dallas Cowboys.
I would rather play roulette at this price level.
Ozie
If I had to guess, and that’s all this is a guess, I would say the number of people involved in this domain is the biggest reason it remains undeveloped.
I was invited into the deal at the time but passed.
Not because I did not believe in the domain or the potential to develop it into a great western/wear/boots retail site but because I didn’t want to be partners with 15 people some of which I knew well but some of which I didn’t know.
It very hard to get so many people in agreement and then you would still need one of the partners to take the lead, do the work when they owned a small share of the domain.
I thought at the time, there was a very small chance of the football team circling back around and buy the domain under the facts and circumstances as they laid out in the original auction.
MHB,
Fifteen people? No wonder nothing has happened, I don’t blame you I would have passed too. I figured 4 partners at the most. I would build in a nice profit and make a push to the Cowboys, even if I needed to recruit sales help.