According to a press release, a company called GJB Partners, LLC announced plans today to “secure, operate and market the top-level domain name “.Jewelers”
“We are thrilled the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) Board of Directors has approved the Applicant Guidebook and Application Window and are eager to move forward,” said Ann Glynn, GJB Partners LLC Managing Partner.
Managing Partner George T. Bundy said, “With over 14 years experience in running and managing a TLD domain registry, I expect the process to be rigorous and thorough, but we will be prepared for it.”
The soft launch of the “.Jewelers” initiative in June at the Continental Buying Group (CBG) Show in Las Vegas drew amazing results and showed a big demand and huge potential for the new extension. The Continental Buying Group is the most prestigious and largest independent jewelry buying organization in the country, with approximately 100 members whose 300 retail jewelry outlets produce a combined annual sales volume of one billion dollars.
“We choose the CBG Vegas show as the backdrop for the soft launch of the .Jewelers specifically because of the quality Retailers who belong to CBG and the type of feedback we knew we would get from them. We believed it was a good idea, and we felt these jewelers would either validate it for us quickly, or tell us we had it all wrong. Lucky for us, they loved the idea!” Glynn said.
“Joe Murphy, Chief Operating Officer of Continental Buying Group thinks the new extension will be an excellent marketing tool for Jewelers in the future. “There are so many other unique ways to market to the customer now. Using a .Jewelers extension for mobile applications or QR code advertising is an interesting way to differentiate your company from the competition.” Murphy also sees the branding opportunities available to the select group of Jewelers within the Continental Buying Group known currently as “Preferred Jewelers International.” “I told Ann I would be delighted if the first .Jewelers domain to go online could be ‘Preferred.Jewelers’ because I see the power in the branding of that name, and also the value it would bring to our Group.”
“Kirit Naran, Managing Director of BlueStar Applications, a leading provider of web applications and services exclusively for the jewelry industry, is excited by the announcement as well, “We have long felt there has been a need for distinction between standard .COM domain names and industry specific domain names. We are very excited at the prospect of a .Jewelers domain becoming available and see this as a tremendous opportunity for the jewelry industry. We feel the .Jewelers domain names will benefit all of our customers and are very excited to be working alongside GJB Partners.”
“The plan to launch “.Jewelers” follows ICANN’s decision to expand the domain space beyond the standard .com, .net, .org and country code extensions. Being called the “Biggest Domain Name Expansion” in the history of the Internet, the move is expected to open the top level domain space to an unlimited number of extensions. GJB Partners, LLC will apply for the .Jewelers top level domain through the ICANN gTLD application process, once the window for new gTLD opens. Applicants will be subject to approval by ICANN’s governing board.
For the most current information on dotJewelers, visit the website at http://DotJewelers.com
Now this is where it all gets messy with the American and English spelling differing, to be a truly Global TLD i believe you need a word universally spelt the same in English, no UK Jeweller is going to want a .Jewelers domain, thus automatically eliminating a market that could register one, granted America is huge and no doubt if the whole thing takes of they will make enough out of it anyway, but for me the whole point of a new GTLD means just that, GLOBAL!. .Jewelers is bascially a USA cctld, if you are going to enter this market at least have a truly global extension, not one restricted by the spelling.
Seems like a very niche extension.
There are too many other spellings and variations (.Jewellers, .Jewelry, .Jewellery etc.)
I don’t really see why this would be a preference over Company.com or CompanyJewelry.com among other variations.
Brad
There’s going to be so much fighting over some of these keywords its going to be hilarious to see it all play out.
How ICANN can pass this off as a positive step for anyone other than them I really don’t know, they have unleashed a monster and its going to get ugly.
monkey see monkey do …let the fun begin 😉
Nice address for them Dotjewellers dot com lol
This stupid move by ICANN is good for .CO
Eventually, everything will coalesce to a universally accepted acronym: .CO
“Eventually, everything will coalesce to a universally accepted”
It already has, it is called .COM
Brad
But without anyone really knowing how the next few years will pan out, it is a little scary and daunting isn’t it? Is there a lot of money to be made or a lot of investments to end up on the scrap heap? Will .net still have a place years from now? Will the world expect all their extensions to be self descriptive? If there are 500+ suffixes on the way won’t .com just become one of many?
Plus, if anything is ever going to burst the .com bubble, isn’t this it? I imagine there’ll be a lot of uncertainty over the next few months as to the actual and future worth of .coms. Might reflect in the auction results to come.
.com certainly has a fight on its hands!
If it becomes very messy, Icann can re-evaluate and put the program on hold. It has done so in the past. In addition IANA, and the GAC or US government can put pressure and have all this stopped.
Auctions can go way up high and if nothing comes out of some of those extensions, except sites for phishing attempts.. well..
At first it will be observed carefully, but its impossible without making Icann as big as FB.
There might be endless legal battles over extensions which will make the .xxx fiasco look like it was nothing compared to the upcoming battles. Some countries will object certain extensions.. If it becomes such a mess then the ITU might also take control. Bottom line this is a way for Icann to make more money and to force companies to buy their .brand etc…
Maybe one should start .suckerborneveryminute
@HG
Has 1800 become one of many or does it remain as the most desirable and sought after toll free prefix? The same will hold true for dot com
What will be more valuable?
Bostonjewelers.com
Boston.jewelers
Jewelers.Boston
America is under attack. We have no one to look out for us. Many countries have been trying to unseat .COM, and America’s lead in virtually every aspect of pop culture, business, and innovation; what these guys are doing is basically selling out America for a pot of porridge. No one is defending Americans from these foreign ‘army’ of corporate invaders.
“What will be more valuable?
Bostonjewelers.com
Boston.jewelers
Jewelers.Boston”
Let’s go with a better niche. What is more valuable
DenverHomes.com
Denver.Homes
Homes.Denver
I would take DenverHomes.com by a wide margin. It is by far the most credible option.
Brad
You could say they would be as valuable as eachother….
“You could say they would be as valuable as eachother….”
Even if that was true, which I don’t think will be the case, there are still only a handful of names like that and far more potential users.
There is no reason for an average user to move to one of these extensions unless they can get premium terms and clearly a .Homes registry is not going to hand out Denver.Homes for cheap, as they need to recoup their investment.
Brad
” DenverHomes.com
Denver.Homes
Homes.Denver ”
Agree. DenverHomes.com is the best
Also the company may protect business name to buy:
DenverHomes.homes
DenverHomes.denver
DenverHomes.apartmemts
and forward to DenverHomes.com
As I said in a previous post, it will cost $185,000 to apply for a new extension, with an annual $25,000 fee per year to keep it going after that. The process to approve a new extension can take up to 8 months.
I’ve never seen so much hype about the Internet’s “next big thing” in my life. (Except maybe, .CO) After all the noise about this dies down, .COM will remain the most coveted domain extension, if only because it was #1 from the start. We could have a hundred Colas on the market, (and we likely do, with all the off-brands), but Coca-Cola will still be #1.
@Alex A
If you recall .COM’s used to be close to $100 to register at some point, now it’s only $7.
Sooner or later, these floodgate of gTLDs can be had $100
There will be confusion.
It may NOT be a bad thing, perhaps it’s good to shake up the entire corrupt industry. Maybe an opportunity to create something after all. Bring it on.
This is an interesting post, they’re essentially creating a “blank TLD” (from an ISP+customer perspective). Hadn’t quite thought of it that way but it makes sense:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2256402&cid=36513042
“America is under attack. ”
“No one is defending Americans from these foreign ‘army’ of corporate invaders.”
——————–
@1-800
America is under attack but the invaders are mostly enemies from within, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Investment Bankers, Wallstreet, Bernanke, Geitner, TheFed and all the other kleptocrats are screwing Mr & Mrs Average out of their lifesavings, pensions and their childrens future for the next 20 years or more.
They’re all financial terrorists.
But don’t feel bad, they’re screwing everyone else they can so its nothing personal…just business for a few greedy assholes out of millions of nice people in America and around the world but their day is coming soon, there is NO WAY they can avoid it now.
——————————————————————————
Just watch this one quick video and you’ll get some indication of who the corporate invaders are.
rt.com/programs/keiser-report/budget-revolution-military-welfare/
Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert talk about the Fed’s reign of terror and an economist’s warning of revolution in America as Obama’s budget robs from the poor to give to the rich.
Or Pick any one, they’re all the same – Reality based on Facts.
rt.com/programs/keiser-report/page-4/
@1-800AUCTION.COM
Thinking that the price will drop from $185,000 to $100 is laughable, since ICANN has said that only “established public or private organizations” need apply. This isn’t for Joe Public with little money in his wallet. It’s for early big-name adopters like Canon and Hitachi, not my neighbor who thinks it would be cool to have his last name as an extension.
Huge start up costs
Huge maintenance costs
Relatively limited number of buyers considering the large number of .crap
=
Very expensive names. Even worse for those that go into auction.
gTLD consultants, service providers and lawyers will be the ones making money from this deal. There is nothing wrong with that fact. Like we’ve seen for many years in this industry, the ones always making oodles of money are those selling the picks and shovels to the endless line of gold miners with a dream.
Any gTLD operator who thinks they’ll be able to launch a successful gTLD without tens of millions of dollars of capital for advertising and marketing is in la la land. And even with that kind of investment, most will still have an immense challenge to get the public aware of a brand new extension and then they’ll need one heck of a good site network on there to get enough regular users to sustain it.
So if you want to make money from gTLD’s think of innovative picks and shovels services to sell. That’s where the real gold is.
Why would a Jeweler want to be associated with other Jewelers?
If anything, I think the gTLD should be .Jeweler and not the plural.
Living in Green Bay, WI for an example and I’m a jeweler, why in the world would I want to own GreenBay.Jewelers? I wouldn’t! I am a Jeweler!
If I sell diamonds, why in the world would I want to own Diamond.Jewelers? I wouldn’t! I am a jeweler, not a network of jewelers that sells diamonds!
Now on the other hand, if I sell diamonds.. I would want Diamond.Jeweler! Not a plural, because the domain would come across as a directory and not a single diamond jeweler.
one thing about this icann stunt is it is going to make people think in new ways about domain names. we cannot predict where that will lead. (which is why kevin is spot on. capitalise on the hype and uncertainty, the fear and the disputes.)
denver.homes.com
buy.homes.in.denver.com
apartments.in.denver.colorado.com
if search engines are still big in 2013, what will search results look like?
what if there’s an application for .jewelers, and another for .jeweler and yet another for .jewels?
do they all get approved? how does icann resolve this? need to read the gtld guidebook.
fear is the motivator that will bring in registrations.
if 123 Main St Jewelers competes with 321 Main St Jewelers. and 123 pays for a name under dotjewelers (123MainSt.Jewelers or even 123.Main.St.Jewelers), what is 321 going to do? sit by and watch?
who wins >>>no matter what happens?<<>>will<<< register names. everyone in the above categories knows that. icann can't lose.
companies will register out of fear, as they always have. the names may never be marketed to users. they'll just redirect to com. it is a protective measure, nothing more.
this is what their advisors will tell them to do.
that's why people call this extortion.
there may also be registrants who will try to profit from the new names. web entrepreneurs. who knows what will happen to them?
many who have followed the internet for many years are anxious to see what happens. but it doesn't really matter to the domain business.
it is corporations with cash that are going to make this stunt a successful one for those in the domain business. after all success is usually defined by profits- the focus of the web is primarily business now (ads), not education (research). that is, if this plan makes it through to launch.
the dotco maneuver was aimed at domainers and dreamers. and then many domainers are targeting large corporations anyway. in effect, middlemen.
this one is aimed directly at large corporations and other organisations with cash on hand.
new gtlds have been an issue for decades. why now? hype level is high. strike the hammer while the iron is hot.
seems part of my post got chopped.
who wins no matter what happens:
icann
registries
registrars
consultants
lawyers
ISP’s
developers
hardware mfrs
others associated with the domain business
The only thing that is going to matter, the only thing you people talking about .com and .co etc etc should be concerned about is how Google will treat the right of the dot.
Google is your daddy, its treatment of the right of the dot will kill or king your current portfolios and also the market for .egos
In six years time thats the only thing that will matter.
@jc
Great post(s)
Except I disagree with your last line “others associated with the domain business”.
May win. May lose (big).
imagine purposely searching only sites within a specific registry (e.g., dotnyc), instead of only the most backlinked sites on the entire web. these registries are probably not going to be as large as a com or net. they have the potential to be very specialised, targeted and possibly coordinated in a way today’s registeries are not.
maybe results won’t be a mixture of all sites from all registries. maybe they will.
jewelers.denver.colorado
jewelers.denver.co (colombian version)
jewelers.denver.co.us
jewelersdenvercolorado.com
denver.colorado.jewelers
jewelers.denver.color (urs?)
i’m confused when people say right of the dot. which dot? the last one? in actuality there is nothing right of the last dot.
put a trailing dot after com and see what your browser does. e.g. example.com. if it doesn’t work, then the software developers don’t understand dns. it will work in mozilla, opera and chrome, you can be sure. browsers allow you to skip the trailing dot. but dns requires it.
when you run a registry, if you get this wrong (you ignore trailing dots) your entire registry or portions thereof can go offline instantly, as has happened to some in recent memory. the trailing dot is the root of the dns tree. your domain is left of that dot, whether you choose to include it or not.
so i guess when people say right of “the dot” they mean right of the penultimate dot.
@fail – was just trying to capture anyone i might have left out. i think i understand what you’re getting at though. hang tough.
The real winner of the whole .Keyword TLD confusion will be of course .COM and even dotKeyword.com domains will rise in value, not to say there will likely be a trend for this kind of domains.
This is great! These entire hula balloons will only increase the status of .com suffix; they thought to create diversions, but .com is far too great beyond one million extensions at a time.
I see no any threat for .com owners.
So I noticed there was no .Jewelers application on the final list.
It looks like the company realized how worthless this extension was and decided to save the money. Good call.
Brad