Quite concerned about potential impact of unlmited new tld's

[David G]

Little doubt the new unlimited numbers of tld's coming soon will have a huge influence on the old extensions such as com net and org. The way I see it within several yrs (faster as the costs decline) many large and midsize sites will buy their name or brand as an extension. Then you will simply type in sears instead of sears.com google but not google.com, apple instead of apple.com, scottsdale not scottsdale.com, hotels not needing hotels.com, chicago but not chicago.com, godaddy but no godaddy.com, etc etc etc. That can seriously damage the dot-com typein numbers and probably be a big negative as time goes by to all right of the dot traditional direct navigation traffic.

The servers can be configured so all traffic going to the extension can be wild-carded and captured even if no name is in front of the tld. A lot of big players will likely have no plan to sell domains using their extension (a possible use which I believe is way over-stated) but will mainly use the extension themselves so visitors simply typein to their browser the site or brand name and forego the extension. This could eventually mean the party may be over especially when combined with other new issues.

Anyone else have opinions on this subject?

 

[Stian]

What about when you type in "cars" or "poker"? Which of the 1 gazillion car dealers or poker sites will your browser be pointed to?

What about when a company registers the .games extension, where will all the game companies' websites be hosted?

I couldn't care less if all the major brands got their own extension. I don't squat on TM domains anyways. Actually in most browsers, typing "Apple" in your address bar will take you to Apple.com.

The new extensions are no threat at all. I'd be more worried about the day when some government decides they want to "own" the internet. Or when someone decides that a company or entity can only own 1, 5 or 10 domain names. Or when someone decides that a domain name must be applied for and that it can only be dropped, not sold or change owners without a new application for it.

In other words, there are lots of threats, as with most other businesses where you can make money, but I don't think the new extensions is one of them.

 

[Seraphim]

When DNForum, OregonLive, my bank, my car insurance company, my dentist, my real estate agent, my local grocery store, my plumber, my mechanic, the local print shop, the local jeweler, etc., etc., are all forced to adopt their own gTLD due to pressure from "new" domain extension based internet trends, THEN I'll worry.

Even if a gradual migration away from traditional extensions happened (I strongly doubt it will), it would take decades to fully complete the total rebrand and infrastructural changes. Large corporations tend to embrace change at a relatively slow pace.

Didn't I read an article here recently stating that Overstock actually hurt itself with it's .co rebrand (created a ton of confusion over o.co vs. o.com)? Not surprising if that's the case (it's sounded stupid from the get go).

I think this issue is HUGE right now because it's news, but as with the other experimental extensions (.mobi, .tel, .travel) it's likely that they'll end up badly floundering (with perhaps an extremely limited number of rare exceptions).

Twitter at one time was the new "Google Killer". Now that the dust has settled that idea sounds ridiculous. I think the same sort of thing will come into focus with these new gTLDs (and it's been argued well here at DNForum over the years).

 

[DomainsInc]

if a company wants a generic that gets actual people going to it, they'll still want .com. I don't really understand how these new tld's will work..you can't just type in .apple and forcing people to type www.apple seems like going back in time. the only that makes any sense is if you could just type 'apple' and get there. otherwise the whole thing seems totally unnecessary and stupid. regardless it will never be anything small to mid size businesses go for, especially when the public will have to be re-educated after 15 years of type in .com, .net, etc.

 

[katherine]

David, departing from an established extension is not easy.
Very few businesses have been as daring as Overstock. That's why the Internet is already littered with failed TLDs.

I could see a few large companies owning their own extensions but not that many.
Anyway, the companies that are already branded on .com or their ccTLD have no real incentive to change.

I don't think that the public will really become more accepting of new extensions just because the floodgates are suddenly open.
As always, people will stick to what they know and trust.

Just because Ebay operates ebay.ebay (?) or corporate.ebay doesn't mean I will want a .ebay (supposing I can even get one).
It also doesn't mean that the problem of cybersquatting is eliminated, that defensive registrations in other extensions are no longer needed.
Quite the opposite, the proliferation of extensions has the potential to make things worse.

As a business owner I would say running one's own extension is the ultimate branding experience. But to be honest does it make sense economically when a .com has an annual fee of $10/year. It's an ego thing.

Let's imagine for a second that gTLDs get devalued as result of the changing landscape. The ccTLDs will continue to thrive.

I think there are more serious threats looming such as law enforcement demands, Internet censorship and regulatory changes.

I also think that many cities and corporations are approaching this like a giant exercise of defensive registration.
They want to secure their territory or lay ground for the future, just in case.

 

[Ulysses]

I think there are more serious threats looming such as law enforcement demands, Internet censorship and regulatory changes.

This has been my gut feeling about .xxx , I believe that pressure will be applied by governments to clean up gtlds and cctlds.

 

[David G]

What about when you type in "cars" or "poker"? Which of the 1 gazillion car dealers or poker sites will your browser be pointed to? What about when a company registers the .games extension, where will all the game companies' websites be hosted?.

Thanks for the feedback. In answer to that I am certain games poker and cars will all be taken in the early going. I believe it means if you typein cars poker or games to your browser you will land on that extensions website even without typing in a dot, www or http assuming browsers and servers are configured for it which is likely and may be possible using today's technology without major upgrading.

 

[M.U.]

Thanks for the feedback. In answer to that I am certain games poker and cars will all be taken in the early going. I believe it means if you typein cars poker or games to your browser you will land on that extensions website even without typing in the www or http assuming the browsers and servers are configured for it which is real likely and may even be possible using today's methods without upgrade.

I rather think that if you only type the "poker" "games" and "cars" in your browser without anything else, it will probably go to the search-site the browser has as the standard search-site, like bing or google.

So you have to type in something before the ".LookatMeIamaNewExtension" before the browser figures out that it is an url. f.ex. web.poker or blackjack.poker.

The only thing the new extensions will do is to make the .com stronger and more in value, but the other extensions like .co .mobi (does it still exist?) .net and so on will probable decrease in value.

I think that .org will remain as it is and not decrease, maybe if someone gets a new extension .ngo it might be affected, but or else I don't think so.

 

[David G]

I rather think that if you only type the "poker" "games" and "cars" in your browser without anything else, it will probably go to the search-site the browser has as the standard search-site, like bing or google.......

That is correct at this time however, I believe for example when a potential cars tld extension is resolving and is listed in the search engines (plus server/browser setup or update) the visitor will arrive at the cars website without a search being done first. Of course, I may be wrong in saying that but based on my general information it may be accurate.

 

[DomainsInc]

That is correct at this time however, I believe for example when a potential cars tld extension is resolving and is listed in the search engines (plus server/browser setup or update) the visitor will arrive at the cars website without a search being done first. Of course, I may be wrong in saying that but based on my general information it may be accurate.

do you have any sources that say this will be the case or is this just your assumption because I'm not sure how that would work unless everyone conformed to this standard which I don't see why everyone would.

 

[airmax]

From experience it is very hard to change the way consumers do things, as people in the industry we have a hard time understanding this new tld process, and application, imagine the poor consumer, who barely knows what a domain is. This is no overnight success, big dollars, in branding, and consumer education. TM names are already off limits so let them do what they must, new products, ideas, they still need to start somewhere, hard enough getting someone to pay $10K for a domain, let alone $200K plus... Every great extension has needed the domainer to get it off the ground, and put the money in, and get the ball rolling, many domainers are not falling for this. The big billion dollar corps can try, worst case scenario they can built in into their internal networks, but that small to mid size business, just does not have the know how to deal with this. Lots of consultants have jumped in with open arms, but they are taking their money upfront, that should tell you something.

 

[sashas]

Personally, I feel that these new gTLDs will be a massive failure. They're just too confusing for the average guy.

"Do I type in Google.com like I've done about 1,000,000 times before, or do I type in Google.google? Isn't the latter stupid? Why am I typing Google twice into my browser? What is this gTLD business? Why this BS? What was wrong with .com?"

Our business isn't going anywhere. We are the cogs that run the entire internet engine. Relax, grab a beer, and watch the newbies as they race to register .web and .cool domain names.

 

[katherine]

.sucker is already sold out

 

[David G]

do you have any sources that say this will be the case or is this just your assumption because I'm not sure how that would work unless everyone conformed to this standard which I don't see why everyone would.

No insider information at all. I am mostly making an educated guess or assumption based on it making sense that the new extensions will be able to resolve if for little more reason (as someoone else mentioned) than it would be dumb to typein google.google so I believe a browser/server upgrade will make than unnecessary in the future but I could be wrong.

 

[AMERICAR]

I am inclined to agree with DavidG on his view of the new tlds .. even though that is somewhere in the future ... future tlds will depend on google and whats in it for google .. billion dollar companies with their own tld will be a force to be reckoned with .. google will want as much of that pie as they can get .. like it or not google control search even though with nearly every new PC that is sold Bing is the default search .. almost before the PC is a few hours old users have switched the home page to google .. google then loads the user up with igoogle and chrome immediately google has control of the users search results .. the future of the new tlds is in the hands of google and whats in it for google ..

 

[Seraphim]

It's important to remember that TLDs tend to live or die based on how Google's algorithm treats them. For years Google has repeatedly stated that .info, .biz, and .us are not treated differently than .com, .net, and .org, however, the majority consensus is that they're fibbing on that (even many of the non-SEO savvy end users seem to be fully aware of this TLD specific ranking "issue"). .travel, .co, and .me also seem to start off way further down the Google ranking ladder, requiring what seems like substantially more marketing energy to get ranked than is the case with .com, .net, and .org.

Based on the SEO consensus out there, one could conclude that Google is not in favor of new TLDs (obviously they would never admit that). Combine this with the brand confusion aspects that new TLDs will bring to the table, and I'm inclined to think that the future looks pretty grim for any small to medium size start-up expecting to get ranked and noticed on ".whatever".

 

[urlurl]

i think the only benefit for these extensions are for the facebooks, twitters, etc. instead of having a link to your facebook account like; facebook.com/bobjones233 - they could assign them better; as bobjones233.facebook. or bobjones233.FB

my 2 cents

 

[DN BROKER]

APPS will have a more damaging effect on top level domain names then new tlds. As Senior Members we have witnessed new tlds rise to only fall into darkness! My personal opinion is that this will have no impact on real premium generic domain names. I would be more worried about APPS taking over!

 

[dcristo]

I think .com will have too much muscle but what do I know.

 

[M.U.]

I dont think apps will be so damaging. By saying apps is more damaging for the tld's, you are also saying apps vs websites. I don't think apps will "kill" websites. They are two different "products".

Apps are more inside-a-box and can be useful for some things, websites are open and can be used for everything.

And even apps need a website to promote themselves. If you are an apps-developer you have to make an Apple-app, Android-app and Microsoft-app and be in their marketplaces. So if you don't have your own website to promote it with, then you are depended on these three app-markets to promote your app with and in these marketplaces there are millions of other apps.

So .com is not in danger, the websites just must be developed so they can also be accessed with smartphones and tablets and this is where html5-programming is very usuful.

Recently I read in another forum for entrepeneurs, where the forum-owner had made an app-version of the website, and there is always problems with the app, so another forum-user asked him, why they had the app when it didn't add anything extra than the website and he said "I don't know, it's just the in-thing at the moment". He acknowledge that a website optimized for smartphones and tablets would have been better and also much cheaper to develope. Instead of one optimized website, three apps must be developed for Apple, Android and Microsoft and that is very expensive.