3-Letter .US Names WIPED OUT!

[Duke]

Last week there were hundreds of 3-letter .US names still available. I don't know if it was the news about the Senate passing Kids.US or what, but today, they are almost ALL gone.

I had made a list of all remaining available 3-letter .US (excluding bad combos with q x y z etc) and have been revisiting it once a week or so to register 2 or 3 at a time. Today I was going to do it again, only to discover that virtually the entire list has been taken. Dozens and dozens went to one buyer on Tuesday (that probably accounted for that big spike we saw that day in .US regs when they were triple both .info and .biz).

This guy apparently ran a script to find all .US threes that were the last 3-letter combo available in any major extension. The only ones left from my list were ones that were also available in a second extension (.info or .biz).

When he was done, I only found 11 left on my list and I took 6 of those this morning (Fortunately I had started picking up some better combos a few months ago). The five I didn't reg are the last 5 I know of that have reasonably good letters. I may go back and get those next week, but I doubt if they'll be there.

So if you thought you had plenty of time to pick up a .US 3-letter combo - too late. They are soon to join .com .net and .org as an extension where every single 3-letter combo is registered. Looks like it will happen in .US before .info too, even though .info had a one year head start.

 

[bidawinner]

Well I missed it then..I got a hand ful of 3 letter .US...

Speaking of Kids.Us ..the Bill is suppose to reach the president today...

we should know later this afternoon..

 

[Duke]

Of course the actual signing will touch off a larger round of publicity than just the Senate passage did. Bush signing should put it on the CBS Evening News, etc. I don't think we have even begun to see the scramble that is coming for .US names.

 

[Glamorama]

I registered mine in April/May. Surprised good names were still available.

 

[Kid Kool]

just reg them next year when they drop

 

[Duke]

Originally posted by kidkool
just reg them next year when they drop

Yeah right! Just like you can go out and merrily snap up all of the dropping 3-letter .com .net and .orgs you want! :laugh:

Get a clue Kid. No one is going to drop 3-letter domains en masse in any major extension. Continue enjoying your nap. I'll have someone wake you up when the party is over.

 

[Kid Kool]

Originally posted by Duke of Earl


Yeah right! Just like you can go out and merrily snap up all of the dropping 3-letter .com .net and .orgs you want! :laugh:

Get a clue Kid. No one is going to drop 3-letter domains en masse in any major extension. Continue enjoying your nap. I'll have someone wake you up when the party is over.

3 letter .infos are already dropping every few days. the party was over for .us about 3 hours after they opened and all the best names were taken. and 3 letter .com .net and .org are getting easier and easier to get. i remember when you could not even find a solid four letter .com and all 3 character .coms were taken.

 

[Glamorama]

the party was over for .us about 3 hours after they opened and all the best names were taken
----------------------------------------
Of course they were.
But still there were very very good names available thereafter.

 

[David G]

Originally posted by kidkool ....the party was over for .us about 3 hours after they opened and all the best names were taken...

That's an accurate statement by kidkool.

Most all the good names I have checked (many thousands of them) were grabbed within the first couple hrs when US opened. I am talking about real words and multi-word terms too, not random letters like most of the 3 character ones, or little known names.

I am a big fan of .us but the problem is the same as net and org in that type-ins for these extensions are basically zero vs .com. Perhaps in a few yrs there may be .us type-ins, is has the best chance of any ext to get type-ins one day.

 

[Duke]

Originally posted by kidkool
3 letter .infos are already dropping every few days.

As usual you only know half the story Kid (actually a good bit less than half but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt). The few 3-letter .infos are not dropping because the owner didn't want them - they are dropping because the registrar stripped them from the owner for filing false registrations. And they are immediately grabbed the instant they are made available again. I just tried to get two like that last week with no luck. No .infos will be voluntarily dropped until two years after their initial registrations.

3-letter .coms are getting easier to get? Tell me where as I would like to make a few of these Easy pick-ups since the good combinations can sell for $5,000-$15,000. You can buy a bad combination q z x etc through a drop service - if you are lucky enough to have them catch it. The 3-letter .nets and .orgs that are easier to get are also bad letter combos. The good ones still sell for hundreds. Every single one remains registered to this day. Good 3-letters in any major extension are about as safe a bet as you'll ever make.


Since the success of the new extensions can be proved out only with the passage of time, I will only say that visionaries have always reaped the biggest rewards. Those who cannot see anything beyond today are left behind when time changes as they ALWAYS do. That is the one constant throughout human history.

 

[Duke]

Originally posted by RealNames
That's an accurate statement by kidkool.

I think it is not only inaccurate but completely absurd. 7 months after the .US launch I am still seeing people register solid names that I am confident they will make a sizeable profit on when .US gains traction.

I also think type-ins are vastly over-rated. I surf at least 12 hours a day and rarely type in a name with an extension. If I want to find something I go to Google and type in a couple of words then click on the hyperlink. The extension mean nothing to Google. Millions of others do that as well (Google is #4 in intermet traffic, ahead of even Ebay) on Google and other search engines.

 

[Kid Kool]

Originally posted by Duke of Earl


I think it is not only inaccurate but completely absurd. 7 months after the .US launch I am still seeing people register solid names that I am confident they will make a sizeable profit on when .US gains traction.

I also think type-ins are vastly over-rated. I surf at least 12 hours a day and rarely type in a name with an extension. If I want to find something I go to Google and type in a couple of words then click on the hyperlink. The extension mean nothing to Google. Millions of others do that as well (Google is #4 in intermet traffic, ahead of even Ebay) on Google and other search engines.

then perhaps you and i just simply have a difference of opinion in what is a solid name, and what is not. let's just leave it at that

 

[Glamorama]

Kid and Duke!
Please give examples of a few solid .us names.

 

[David G]

Originally posted by Duke of Earl I think it is not only inaccurate but completely absurd. 7 months after the .US launch I am still seeing people register solid names that I am confident they will make a sizeable profit on when .US gains traction. I also think type-ins are vastly over-rated. I surf at least 12 hours a day and rarely type in a name with an extension. If I want to find something I go to Google and type in a couple of words then click on the hyperlink. The extension mean nothing to Google. Millions of others do that as well (Google is #4 in intermet traffic, ahead of even Ebay) on Google and other search engines.

This is odd, perhaps the specific names and keyword industry terms I was looking at were more much popular or in demand than the names Duke is referring to. Also, most of the names I checked were within niche markets, such as financial trading names and real estate names. Maybe those areas were more competitive than the areas Duke is familair with?

I have a few hundred dot-us names but many were grabbed using pre-register orders before the launch. Since then most every name or term I checked was taken, mostly during the first few hrs as kidkool also said.

Also, Duke, I know most experienced websurfers do NOT use type-ins but use Google search mostly. However, you may be overlooking the fact zillions of newer or less experienced people use the browser window to type-in names. Plus also some more experienced ones, such as my Daughter, who has been using a PC for many yrs and still types-in url's often. I have seen her doing it many times.

With all due respect, you seem to understate the value of true type-in names.

 

[Kid Kool]

Originally posted by Glamorama
Kid and Duke!
Please give examples of a few solid .us names.

these are names i would consider to be solid .us names

cellphones.us
creditcards.us
checks.us
banks.us
necklaces.us
jobs.us
callingcards.us
cigars.us
apartments.us
posters.us
artwork.us
textbooks.us
jackets.us
motorbikes.us
pills.us

 

[Duke]

I am not taking away from their value Real. When I say they are vastly over-rated I mean that what is vastly over-rated is the notion that type-ins are the only way to go and are the only names worth having. There is more than one way to skin an internet cat.

I put my music collectible site online in 1997 to help promote my retail store. The name is not a type-in name by any stretch of the imagination but it is a nice descriptive name fitting the business that people can remember. With search engine placement, being in the Yahoo directory, hyperlinks on other sites etc..the domain has been extremely profitable with gross sales just into six figures year in and year out.

Certainly newbies will use type-ins more until they build up a set of bookmarks and they constitute one market. But there is also a vast and profitable (and I would say larger) market of experienced internet users who virtually never type in a name and extension. There is value in type-in names for sure...but you don't have to have one of the very few names that really attract type-ins to have a lot of success on the internet.

You do want a really solid memorable name that fits your business and it helps to know how to promote a business, build a website and build a clientele. If you don't know how to do that you can always hire someone who does.

Glamorama I have posted a number of names in recent days that have received nice appraisals here - even though .US isn't even ready for resale yet, things like PhotoCenter.us. Just use the search function and you can look all of this up.

Real with that many .US regged so early on I truly envy your position. With the new kids.us law requiring the government to spend millions to promote .us to both kids and their parents (that is the exact language of the bill) you are sitting on a Goldmine.

 

[Glamorama]

Thanks Kid!

 

[Duke]

Originally posted by kidkool



these are names i would consider to be solid .us names

cellphones.us
creditcards.us
checks.us
banks.us
necklaces.us
jobs.us
callingcards.us
cigars.us
apartments.us
posters.us
artwork.us
textbooks.us
jackets.us
motorbikes.us
pills.us

All great names to be sure. I don't think those were registered recently which I think is what Glamorama wanted to know. However there are examples throughout the board of solid names that people are still finding.

P.S. - Kid you accidently left amulets.us off

 

[Glamorama]

I have names that I find very solid.
So i wanted to know others opinion about "solid".

 

[Duke]

Originally posted by Glamorama
I have names that I find very solid.
So i wanted to know others opinion about "solid".

Well as Kidkool noted that is something you could ask ten people and get ten different answers. Beauty in domain names is very much in the eye of the beholder.

He and I are usually don't differ that much on the words and terms that are left of the dot. We tend to go around and around more on the value of extensions and that is an argument no one can win until several more years have passed. It's an interesting issue to debate though