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I need a time machine. Funny that Bill forecasts that type-in traffic will dwindle because of browser technology.
http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/columns/1998essay/2-25col.aspx
"Domania" rules the World Wide Web
(2/25/98)
By Bill Gates
A broker of Internet domain names lists "billgates.com" for sale for $1 million. I'm told the name, an Internet address, has been advertised for months but remains unsold.
Perhaps I should be flattered that somebody imagines the name is worth so much, especially since my parents gave me the same name 42 years ago for free.
Many domain names carrying outrageous price tags have been on the market for a long time and, like billgates.com, may never sell. Why would somebody pay $135,000 for the Internet address childsplay.com, $300,000 for treesco.com, or $1.5 million for digitalimagery.com?
On the other hand, a market has developed for domain names that sell for a few hundred or even thousands of dollars. A fellow I know recently paid a broker $225 for the name farside.com, which he then gave to a friend, the cartoonist Gary Larson, creator of the Far Side cartoons.
Asking prices for domain names are often between $500 and $2,000, and it's not uncommon for really good names to fetch $5,000 or more. A media company paid $7,000 for search.com and $15,000 for tv.com. Every once in a while, a name sells for much more; business.com reportedly sold for $150,000.
But the vast majority of the domain names that have been issued in the U.S. so far have cost their owners $100 each--the amount Network Solutions (rs.internic.net) charges to register an unused name.
To get a name for $100 you have to be the first person or company to register it, and you may have to defend against infringement claims if the name is similar to someone else's trademark. Courts have shown an understanding willingness to take domain names away from people who have registered somebody else's trademark.
Until you know the rules of Internet names, it's easy to be confused by them.
A domain name consists of a word or other collection of letters and numbers, followed by a period and an identifier known as a "top-level domain name," most often ".com." Additional words or letters tacked in front of a domain name may be part of a Web address, but they aren't part of the actual domain name. Words or characters that follow a slash after the top-level domain name aren't part of the domain name either.
For example, my company's domain name is microsoft.com. It is part of the email address at which I receive questions from readers of this column: [email protected].
You can reach my company's Web site by typing into a browser either microsoft.com or www.microsoft.com--but the "www." is not part of the domain name. You can reach my personal Web page by typing microsoft.com/billgates, but "billgates" is not part of the domain name.
The most popular domain names use the top-level domain of .com. The letters are an abbreviation for "commercial." Other top-level domains include ".net" for network, ".org" for organization and ".edu" for education. In addition, there are scores of two-letter domains names intended for Web sites in specific countries. For example, ".jp" is reserved for Japan, ".it" for Italy, ".fr" for France and ".us" for the United States--although the .us domain is seldom used. Each country has its own way of handling registrations.
The non-geographic domains such as .com are administered under the supervision of the United States government because much of the Internet's initial funding has come through the National Science Foundation. The U.S. government is proposing to hand supervision over to a U.S.-based non-profit organization--a prudent and very positive step. In the long run it will be important to internationalize governance because the Internet is a worldwide medium.
The growth in domain-name registrations is staggering.
Up through March of 1995, a total of only 52,500 domain names were registered in the U.S. But now more than 125,000 new names are registered each month in the U.S.--a total of about 2 million registrations. Perhaps as many as 1 million additional names have been registered outside the U.S.
With so many names already registered, the available .com names can seem pretty picked over. A lot of the obvious names are gone, and so are many that aren't obvious.
I just picked a letter at random--B--and discovered that all of the following domain names have been registered: b.com, bb.com, bbb.com, bbbb.com, bbbbb.com, bbbbbb.com, bbbbbbb.com and bbbbbbbb.com.
Sometimes numerous domain names point to a single site. For example, to browse Babynamer.com, a site that gives deep information on first names, you can type namer.com, www.namer.com, babynamer.com, baby-namer.com, babyname.com, namegame.com, nickname.com, or several other addresses. They all forward you to the same place--a good strategy for the publisher, but one that consumes many domain names.
There are controversial plans afoot to expand the number of domain names, but I believe in a cautious approach. We should take it slowly when it comes to opening vast new name spaces. It's important from both technical and business standpoints that the Internet continues to work well.
If scads of new top-level domains are opened up abruptly, trademark holders will have to defend their names on numerous new fronts--a huge investment that many smaller companies can ill afford, and that no company should have to afford.
It will also confuse Web users, who may not be sure whether the real Walt Disney site is at disney.com, which it is, or at disney.web, disney.fun, disney.kids, disney.info, disney.family, or whatever.
Should you buy a domain name?
If you have an actual use for a name that is available inexpensively, then yes.
On the other hand, if you're buying a name as a speculative investment, you're on tricky ground. If you buy somebody else's trademark, don't count on getting anything for it. Keep in mind that there are often dozens of names that potentially work for a particular Web site, a reality that limits the value of any specific name.
Also keep in mind that in the long run, most if not all addresses will be devalued as browsers and other software get smarter about delivering people to the Web sites they want. Web users in France may be delivered to .fr domains by default, for example.
Today if you type "yellowcab.com" into a browser, it takes you to the pages of a taxi company in the Los Angeles area. But the Web is becoming more personalized, and it's only a matter of time before typing "Yellow Cab" will take you to the pages of the Yellow Cab company nearest you or that you've previously used.
When that day comes, it won't matter so much if there are dozens of companies with "yellowcab" in their domain names--as long as none violate a trademark. Until then, "domania" rules the Web.
http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/columns/1998essay/2-25col.aspx
"Domania" rules the World Wide Web
(2/25/98)
By Bill Gates
A broker of Internet domain names lists "billgates.com" for sale for $1 million. I'm told the name, an Internet address, has been advertised for months but remains unsold.
Perhaps I should be flattered that somebody imagines the name is worth so much, especially since my parents gave me the same name 42 years ago for free.
Many domain names carrying outrageous price tags have been on the market for a long time and, like billgates.com, may never sell. Why would somebody pay $135,000 for the Internet address childsplay.com, $300,000 for treesco.com, or $1.5 million for digitalimagery.com?
On the other hand, a market has developed for domain names that sell for a few hundred or even thousands of dollars. A fellow I know recently paid a broker $225 for the name farside.com, which he then gave to a friend, the cartoonist Gary Larson, creator of the Far Side cartoons.
Asking prices for domain names are often between $500 and $2,000, and it's not uncommon for really good names to fetch $5,000 or more. A media company paid $7,000 for search.com and $15,000 for tv.com. Every once in a while, a name sells for much more; business.com reportedly sold for $150,000.
But the vast majority of the domain names that have been issued in the U.S. so far have cost their owners $100 each--the amount Network Solutions (rs.internic.net) charges to register an unused name.
To get a name for $100 you have to be the first person or company to register it, and you may have to defend against infringement claims if the name is similar to someone else's trademark. Courts have shown an understanding willingness to take domain names away from people who have registered somebody else's trademark.
Until you know the rules of Internet names, it's easy to be confused by them.
A domain name consists of a word or other collection of letters and numbers, followed by a period and an identifier known as a "top-level domain name," most often ".com." Additional words or letters tacked in front of a domain name may be part of a Web address, but they aren't part of the actual domain name. Words or characters that follow a slash after the top-level domain name aren't part of the domain name either.
For example, my company's domain name is microsoft.com. It is part of the email address at which I receive questions from readers of this column: [email protected].
You can reach my company's Web site by typing into a browser either microsoft.com or www.microsoft.com--but the "www." is not part of the domain name. You can reach my personal Web page by typing microsoft.com/billgates, but "billgates" is not part of the domain name.
The most popular domain names use the top-level domain of .com. The letters are an abbreviation for "commercial." Other top-level domains include ".net" for network, ".org" for organization and ".edu" for education. In addition, there are scores of two-letter domains names intended for Web sites in specific countries. For example, ".jp" is reserved for Japan, ".it" for Italy, ".fr" for France and ".us" for the United States--although the .us domain is seldom used. Each country has its own way of handling registrations.
The non-geographic domains such as .com are administered under the supervision of the United States government because much of the Internet's initial funding has come through the National Science Foundation. The U.S. government is proposing to hand supervision over to a U.S.-based non-profit organization--a prudent and very positive step. In the long run it will be important to internationalize governance because the Internet is a worldwide medium.
The growth in domain-name registrations is staggering.
Up through March of 1995, a total of only 52,500 domain names were registered in the U.S. But now more than 125,000 new names are registered each month in the U.S.--a total of about 2 million registrations. Perhaps as many as 1 million additional names have been registered outside the U.S.
With so many names already registered, the available .com names can seem pretty picked over. A lot of the obvious names are gone, and so are many that aren't obvious.
I just picked a letter at random--B--and discovered that all of the following domain names have been registered: b.com, bb.com, bbb.com, bbbb.com, bbbbb.com, bbbbbb.com, bbbbbbb.com and bbbbbbbb.com.
Sometimes numerous domain names point to a single site. For example, to browse Babynamer.com, a site that gives deep information on first names, you can type namer.com, www.namer.com, babynamer.com, baby-namer.com, babyname.com, namegame.com, nickname.com, or several other addresses. They all forward you to the same place--a good strategy for the publisher, but one that consumes many domain names.
There are controversial plans afoot to expand the number of domain names, but I believe in a cautious approach. We should take it slowly when it comes to opening vast new name spaces. It's important from both technical and business standpoints that the Internet continues to work well.
If scads of new top-level domains are opened up abruptly, trademark holders will have to defend their names on numerous new fronts--a huge investment that many smaller companies can ill afford, and that no company should have to afford.
It will also confuse Web users, who may not be sure whether the real Walt Disney site is at disney.com, which it is, or at disney.web, disney.fun, disney.kids, disney.info, disney.family, or whatever.
Should you buy a domain name?
If you have an actual use for a name that is available inexpensively, then yes.
On the other hand, if you're buying a name as a speculative investment, you're on tricky ground. If you buy somebody else's trademark, don't count on getting anything for it. Keep in mind that there are often dozens of names that potentially work for a particular Web site, a reality that limits the value of any specific name.
Also keep in mind that in the long run, most if not all addresses will be devalued as browsers and other software get smarter about delivering people to the Web sites they want. Web users in France may be delivered to .fr domains by default, for example.
Today if you type "yellowcab.com" into a browser, it takes you to the pages of a taxi company in the Los Angeles area. But the Web is becoming more personalized, and it's only a matter of time before typing "Yellow Cab" will take you to the pages of the Yellow Cab company nearest you or that you've previously used.
When that day comes, it won't matter so much if there are dozens of companies with "yellowcab" in their domain names--as long as none violate a trademark. Until then, "domania" rules the Web.
i think he wants the domain, just not at the 1M pricetag!
