Apps.
There everywhere.
Apple has recorded over 2 Billion App downloads.
Their are around 100K different Apps available on iTunes for download.
There are Apps for Blackberry.
There are Apps for the Android Google phone.
There are Apps for Twitter.
There are Apps for Facebook.
So here is the natural question, are Apps a threat to domains?
Before there were Apps, you needed a domain to have an internet presence.
Now you don’t.
You just need an App.
Of course some of the most popular Apps, like Yelp and Shazam own their corresponding domains.
Which is the flip site of Apps, for domainers unknowingly holding the domain of the next great App, there are huge opportunity for a nice sales down the line.
What are your thoughts?
Apps IMO are the biggest threat to domains as people will naturally gravitate toward this platform due to ease of use (thanks Apple). That said, the two problems that arise from this are:
1. The domain market will be hurt and eventually cease to exist.
2. The Internet as a whole will change to a walled (but pretty) garden where the platform owners strictly control what content is allowed. This is very scary IMO and I am sure the average internet user hasn’t even thought of this. Once the net has gravitated to this new form freedom of information will be a thing of the past. If anything is deemed objectionable the app is flagged and removed *poof*.
The other side effect is that this will be the end (almost) of the Internet entrepreneurial age for the little guy. Big business will have wrested this away with the app platform making it near impossible for the little guy to start up a site with the hopes of making it big.
If I may add to my own post, it if comes to this it will be the end of the wild west days of the Internet. There will a huge impact on the web designer/developer/programmer job market.
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it is/will be a threat for SOFTWARE sites but NOT for all domains
with LESS domains used, the price of each (good) domain or site could be higher than today
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the real risk with the iPhone-like Apps (and, soon, worse, with the Chrome OS’ apps) is/will be the (further) BIG POWER given in the hands of a few BIG companies like Apple and Google!
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Nothing is forever. Technology is changing at a lightning pace now. What is hot today, will eventually become a trend of the past, and gone tomorrow.
The solution is to always allocate a part of your strategic thinking and planning to what the future holds based on forward moving trends just now beginning to seed and bloom. Then you must either adapt your current businesses to the coming trends or create innovative businesses to surpass the trends.
However you do it, don’t stand still or you’ll be caught in the dust of technology. Venture and capital risk must be continuously engaged in if you want to keep up with the Internet pack.
I think you make an excellent point here and one that I got-into a pretty intense debate about over the holidays. Ever since I bought an iPhone I’m finding that more and more I’ll use an app to access what I would normally get through a Google-search or direct type-in within a browser on my previous phones.
If Apple extends the App model to standard computers (which of course they will do) it will absolutely change the way we access the Internet…of course there are always ways to profit from every change!
This question is quite simply, nonsense. And the responses I have read make me think /facepalm.
The biggest threat to domain names is the GOOGLE search bar (ask Shilling!) Not apps, you think the billion apps serve a REAL purpose?? They are entertainment and mostly games. Think about it.
Answer: No. Apps are not a threat to domains. If anything they are a supporting technology
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App developers still want the domain name that corresponds to their app. Say you create a fictional App called iDomains. App developers that are successful move to wanting the .com later on. If they can’t get that domain, the domain owner sees more traffic because someone created an app under the same name. And in the case of Apps, typically years after the .com owner bought the domain.
We also have Facebook URLs and Twitter URLs as well. But these lead to more people branding themselves under a pseudonym and later wanting to buy the .com variant of this as well. It typically goes from someone creating an app / twitter url and not thinking about the domain. They later realize they want “the domain” and need to have the .com as well.
Apps in no way seem to be a threat to domain names. Sure Apple now controls the market relating to names of apps. And I can see how app names are a market like domain names. Heck, I wonder if anyone reading TheDomains buys/sells app names which is a very similar correlation to domain names and 1-800 numbers.
But app names will never take a stronghold because they are not the definitive answer. Neither is having a facebook url. Or a twitter url. Nor the 1-800 number. Even having a .org or .net is not the total solution, but can “work” for some people at first. The only way to be truly recognized by a name means to have the .com of that name. While .net works for some companies at first, in 99% of situations it is not who they want to be known as. Until you can own the .com domain you will never be truly happy.
That is the power of domains. And the power of .com specifically. So my answer is no. Apps are not a threat to domains in any way. They are a compliment to them!!!!!! Just as .net is. And just as facebook URLs are. Just as a username on flickr. And just as much as someone’s nickname. Just as much as 1-800 numbers. And just as much as someone’s email address. Once someone has used RemeberMyName @ gmail for a few years, they eventually want to own the .com of that name.
WTF
The Google Toolbar has been around for quite a while.
Besides the Toolbar only can effect direct navigation traffic not the need to have a website to have an internet presence.
Apps gives you an internet presence without a domain, which is the first technology that I’m aware of that dispenses with the absolute necessity of having a domain.
I have about 25 Apps on my iPhone and none are for entertainment or games.
@ steve wright: “1. The domain market will be hurt and eventually cease to exist.” …Really???
I am not worried about killer apps. More interested in whether social impulses move further toward a social/communal/open source/free-for-all or a work/riches/advancement hierarchy that is capitalism. I will refer to Machiavelli’s The Prince to answer further:
—And he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it, for in rebellion it has always the watch-word of liberty and its ancient privileges as a rallying point, which neither time nor benefits will ever cause it to forget.
The nature of the people is fickle, and whilst it is easy to persuade them, it is difficult to fix them in that persuasion—
Domain names offer power to the people. They are a freedom that allows interaction p2p and b2b. Are we really going to allow big business to once again be the sole disseminators of information? They had that power for the past 100 years and we are finally free from that yoke because of the internet and domain names.
Apps aren’t a threat. Coding applications for the web will always prevail over coding them specifically for proprietary device operating systems. IMO, the .mobi TLD is a strategic way for developers to bypass the OS and promote their mobile Apps directly to end users in ‘the cloud’. Apple is just a distribution point for these “Apps”. There will be many, many more App distros in the near future. Then again, I’m totally bias.. I own APP.mobi 🙂
Apps have been around awhile now…I have noticed no downward trend in type in traffic.
If they were a threat there should be at least some significant dip by now.
The biggest threat to domain owners will be something implicated by government.
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however, nearly all Apps’ sellers have their own websites… 🙂
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Hmmm… I think, based on a discussion with a very smart domainer friend of mine (D-Rose), that apps CAN have an affect on domain “typeins” because 50% of the populace is estimated by 2012 or so will be accessing the net from their cellphone. However, in my professional opinion, that only applies to sites that are popular/most used (like Yelp and Shazam, both of which I have on my iPhone).
People will continue to identify websites by their domain names, not by the apps, but the cellphone apps will definitely, and are DEFINITELY being created and presented to the cellphone apps websites by almost every ambitious company (including Fortune 1000) for consideration. What I didn’t know, as an iPhone user, is that there are several other websites that will sell you apps that iPhone turned down. (http://www.getjar.com, http://www.appmobilize.com).
By the way, considering that every cellphone service provider (Nokia, Verizon, Tmobile, Sprint, Cricket, USCellular,etc) is working hard and fast to establish a cellphone apps store equal to Appstore.com by Apple, I would like to ask a favor from your readers and find out the minimum value for this domain:
CELLPHONEAPPS.COM
Sorry Mikey for the intrusion, but the topic kind of allowed me this segue? yes? So, if you owned CELLPHONEAPPS.COM, what’s the minimum price you’d ask for it?
thx!
Big changes coming, true – but not the end of domain names. This is something I keep explaining to people when I have to address an audience on Internet-related topics: while we have seen the advent of Web 2.0, it didn’t mean the end of more ‘classical’ websites. Generally new developments will obviously affect previous ones, but won’t necessarily supersede them: I see the future as a growing number of different elements, different uses, living side by side.
There have been threats to type-in and search before, most notably the “web portal” which was going to take over our lives and everything we did. 10 years later many of us might use our web portal (yahoo, msn, google, etc) as our primary email/news/calendar directory but we still utilize the search functionality more than ever.
Apps are just another tool we use to access the “web” or at least some diminutive form of it. I have been adding Blackberry apps to my client’s servers for years so they could directly search and modify data without using a browser. Did the internet suddenly stop due to the increased use of business apps? If anything it’s the reverse. Clients started using their devices every hour instead of once a day. Those who refused to be stuck in front of an office computer gave up their right to work 9 – 5 and voted for non-stop email interruptions and searches using their new devices.
Domains can’t die so long as .com exists. Apps are just another fun thing to give us another way to access our lists and ideas – and then search for them.
Apps will only enhance the power of developed domain names, and also offer new opportunities for new domain names to become valuable. Imagine an app, we do not know which, that becomes so popular that domain names (particularly generics) related to the app, and its topic, increase in value.
Apps have been around a while, and the most natural question one should ask is not whether they will be a threat to domain names, but how can one capitalize on them to integrate their portability to the content feeds of developed sites. As these trends continue, there will be a threat to some domains that offer little but nonsensical parking menus and alleged heuristic menus leading visitors to nowhere.
As for the threat to domains with real content and real purpose, be that informational, fun, blogging, making fun of your neighbor, these will be the domains that succeed, and having a companion app for it makes the domain even more valuable.
That’s my opinion … and expectation.
@ Michael Castello – You’re spot on!
Aps are another competitive threat to the value of domains, but not the most significant one. I think changes in search (the drop down), changes in the way results are displayed (just try climbing past Google sponsored ads, Google maps, Wikipedia and eHow to get above the fold for moderately competitive terms), real-time search, and the new tlds will all erode the value of domains.
We have Bruce Marler running a major GEO on dot me, Mogan Linton talking up cc tlds (and even choosing a disappearing nation’s extension for his blog!), and Fusible hand registering hyphens. It seems that the value of a domain increasingly has less intrinsic value, and is more about what you do with it.
With domainers sitting on hundreds of thousands of generics users have got used to the hyphens, extra words and unusual extensions of developed sites to the point where they are increasingly blind to the power of the category killer. This blindness is also as a result of the fact that they use social media referrals to cast light on what is worthy of their attention.
I still believe in domains, but if you are not enhancing them with traffic, social media engagement and aps then you are leaving so much work for the next buyer that they may decide to put that work into a cheaper domain, since the work is what really makes the difference. Not the name. The most important point is that even if my opinion is incorrect it is one shared by a lot of buyers.
I don’t think apps will kill domains.
There was a post a while ago actually claiming the opposite, that apps were a whole new market of businesses that would need good domain names.
Webphone growth is big but there are still a lot of people who don’t even have one, and don’t use apps on a regular basis.
I you start up a new website, you need a way to let people know how to find it in advertising, and only a domain name will do it.
I am always looking out for some new trend or whatever that will end the need for domains, and though many new technologies over the years have claimed to take away the need for a domain name, none have.
If you are an online business, how do you reach the people that aren’t using apps?
If you had to start an online business without a domain (and I mean even a twitter or facebook account), how would you do it? Now that’s a scary thought.
The bigger threat to domainers is how aggressive Google decides to get in the lead gen space .. at least as I see it..
Hello
My intuition was right (unfortunately, it doesn`t happen so often:))
4GCellularApps.com
4GPhoneApps.com
Thanks everybody and have a nice day
I still use a big old Nokia phone from 2002 . 🙂
Guess who can get a reception when nobody else can. 🙂
Anyhow…..if Apps do take hold and lets just say it knocks out 15% of the direct navigation I think you can see almost every domain in almost every alternative extension to .com dropped. If .com takes a 15% hit then just imagine a 15% hit to the paltry traffic of alternative extensions. It will make the argument for using alternative extensions moot.
Everyone will need to stand out, thus a .com will be necessary……..AND as site owners get more savvy to direct navigation, domains with the remaining direct navigation will be worth a lot of money. This is IF apps take a chunk of the direct nav market.
This app thing has been a burr in my saddle for some time b/c I can’t make up my mind as to the outcome. There are so many variables…..virus penetrability on cell phones, will cell users complete sales as often as PC/MAC users, how many people will actually use a smart phones, rejection b/c of information overload, cell phone ads, privacy concerns, security of financial info, etc….. could all affect how much it is adopted or rejected. Maybe it will be adopted enough to cut out the bottom 25 percent of the lower-rung domains???
It may be that some domains are worth a whole bunch more and others are marginalized all depending on how it plays out.
It’s really a crazy question. What will happen?
Danny Pryor 100% on IMO, excellent analysis.
Stephen that is a great domain IMO. If the trend continues that name should have value. It can be the defining site, on app reviews and usage, generating a lot of traffic, and advertising opportunity from all the app developers out there. Best of luck.
Depending on who they are/what they do (work/industry type, personal preferences; including what they do and how they use their internet-accessible devices), apps will increase the use of searches by some … while decreasing searches by others.
The net effect, however, of the explosion of apps, pales (and will continue to do so for at least some 10+ years to come) in comparison to the continued explosion in both the raw numbers of people gaining access to the Internet for the first time … and the amount of time both these newbies and us all spend “on” the Internet.
Every business and entity will always need a home and address on the Internet; preferably one that’s easy to remember, advertise, and refer people to; and ideally one that’s also easy to “content assume” ; like visiting Candy.com to buy candy.
Domains are forever.
I don’t think apps is a threat for domain names. They still need a domain name for their website brochures, demo, howto and other information related to their products.
The internet browser is the biggest threat in domain names. They have control to your domain name, filter parking services and stop showing your website ads. I’m reading an article regarding Google allowing Ad blockers in their internet browser Chrome. This is the same Ad blockers in Firefox add-on. Here’s the article:
http://www.cityware.com/technology/3304-in-allowing-ad-blockers,-a-test-for-google—new-york-times.html
Though Google is making money on ads, I’m not sure how this will play in the near future.
Regards,
EM @ KING.NET
This is really an interesting debate. All of the comments and opinions are very well thought out and are very compelling.
I have 20 or so apps on my iPhone. Most ate productivity related but I only use a few. I like the gin game and I think I have carpal tunnel from the Madden game.
Until this debate it never occured to me that apps would userp domain names. Has anyone else used the Godaddy iPhone app? 🙂
I’m probably looking at this in the wrong way but I don’t think apps or any other technology are going to displace domain names anytime soon. Afterall, in their most simplistic terms domains are essentially the modern version of a telephone number. Unless you think we are getting smarter and will prefer to type in an ip address I think we are safe for now. But to follow on with the telephone number analogy might google be the one who is at risk of losing ad revenue in much the same way the telephone book publishers were prior to the Internet?
It seems to me that google understands that they need to be in telecomm asap to ensure that they will be relevant when technology changes. First the bought Grandcentral for goggle voice. Then they bought gizmo5 to tie up voip and finally they bought admob to tie it all into a nice package which they will (possibly) launch tomorrow in the form of a google-branded phone.
Last night I checked out the android app selection and frankly, it’s pitiful. I think if google thought apps were the future they would launch the google phone when there were tons of apps ready to go. But they didn’t. I don’t think it’s as important to them as having a killer mobile platform complete with ads and an end-to-end telephone solution so that they can own lead generation and switch from a ppc solution to a cpa/cpl.
Sorry for the long comment. I don’t get out much. 🙂
@Everything.TV – thx bro
@Jamie — asskicking domain, probably in the top ten .mobi “specific” winners. Good job. ‘APP.MOBI”
Apps are a threat to domains and misdirected type-ins to the search bar are an even bigger threat. But the level of threat depends on your business model. If your goal is to through up a ppc page or minisite simply to trap traffic with the goal that some will click on an ad, I’d say this business is over.
If you want to build a brand on a domain, like Bruce Marler is doing, complimented by advertising, marketing and feet ion the street it’s no longer about which extension or threat you need to care about. Eventually all brands will have apps and domain speculators would be well-served thinking about what apps, not sites, they can build on their idle domains. Find partners. Start at PitchFest or TestTrack.
throw up
Hopefully not off topic, but the B-Mar mention reminded me of what I saw at the movies tonight (saw 3D Avatar – interesting). There was a preview for a movie “Despicable Me”…. and I know you see this coming…
Their website address was: DESPICABLE.ME
Go B-Mar
Stephen
I wrote about this last August:
http://www.thedomains.com/2009/08/09/universal-goes-with-despicableme-instead-of-despicablemecom/
“Apps” are nothing more than another form of SEO – i.e. always playing the game with the google, yahoo, Bing, Ask, etc. monopolies to make your app more visible to the consumer than others – which goes for circle back to the .com brand of your Apps – i.e. circumventing the monopolies – I think it was mentioned earlier that having the .com brand for your app will be necessary – not a luxury.
Keep in mind we PPC are the unwanted guest at the google, yahoo thanksgiving table every year – simply beacuse the other does not want us sitting at a competitor’s table.
Bottom line you you rather rely on a app “serach engine” (no different than an SEO) or a compementing .com that can be advertised in all media sources, billboards, TV, Radio, Newpaper, Magazine.
Brian
Are apps a threat to domains? I don’t see it. If they are, it won’t be a significant enough threat to worry too much about it in our lifetime.
In the early 20th century television was supposed to be the end of radio-Didn’t happen. I remember as kid, more than one teacher predicted that credit/debit cards would completely eliminate the use of cash money by the year 2000-Didn’t happen.
I see apps the same way. You can’t even use apps across different platforms; iPhone apps can’t be used on the “Google” phone, Google phone apps can’t be used on Blackberry etc.
Imagine if NewYork.com only worked with IE, or if Candy.com only worked on Apple computers. Apps will remain exactly what they are, useful tools. And domains will remain the place (iTunes.com) where you buy them.
Ozie
“”it won’t be a significant enough threat to worry too much about it in our lifetime””
Not sure about that.
Apple annoucend the other day after I published this post that they had reach 3 BILLION downloads of Apps in less than a couple of years.
I don’t think you should summarily dismiss anything that sells or generates BILLIONS of downloads.
Ozie
“You can’t even use apps across different platforms; iPhone apps can’t be used on the “Google” phone, Google phone apps can’t be used on Blackberry etc.”
You should see it in a different way. The browser is also only an application and it has been ported to fit apple, windows and linux operated system. Same can be done applications.
Mike brings up a good point in all this -however my understanding remains -“apps” are just another media source – not a replacement. Personally I simply draw a line between non.com’s and “apps” – it is just another way to distort the fact that .com will not go way for 5-7+ years – and at that time we have already put our dough somewhere else – that is the beauty of free market capitalism.
And not to upset the non-.com’ers , that is all the “app” really is – a non-.com for those who failed to follow the path set forth by UDRP and ACPA.
An “App” is only as brandable and saleble (as a business) as the .com that supports it – like Stuff.com, FreeStuff.com, Orders.com – others like – otherwise it is just folks desparate to convince ourselves to sell .com in a ill concieved fire sale.
Brian
Capitolhill.com
Hi Em-Bee,
Like I said, “I know you see this coming….” lol
You already saw it coming. Sorry I missed it broey. I read your blog almost everyday. Sorry for the skip on the “despicable.me” article. Amazing tho, huh! I know B-Marl loves it.
good job!
SD
Good domains will always have value like good spots in Manhattan. Good domains names combined with good apps will be even better.
Name.ly is going this path. Watch it rising.
I think apps can only enhance more interest in computers. People will still go to domains for their needs such as shopping, searching out knowledge, etc. Think of this for example. Does video game usage make domains obsolete? Nope. Doesn’t effect anything. Meanwhile you would think video games are so addicting people will all just flock to them and forget going to domains all together.
APPS are nothing more (at all) than an icon on your desktop with a URL associated with it – none of the advertising, promotion and marketing fundamentals change at all – except what comes from frustraated folks who failed to realize the opportunity 10-15 years back.
Brian
CapitolHill
@ Brianwick
Your logical assessment of the “threat” of Apps eliminating domain names is the best analysis I’ve seen. Clearly, your “to the point” statement trumps any on this thread.
To confirm your statement for those who don’t get it:
An APP is just an icon. It can’t be branded. It can’t be used to promote a website or company, unlesss the domain name for the APP is used. You can’t display an APP on a TV commercial and say “go look for this icon”. You have to name the APP. Most likely, the best name possible for it will be a dotcom domain.
Excellent.