.US what do people think?

What do people think of the .US extension. Will it be big flop or with the corporates go for it?

Is anyone planning on getting any?

 

[uncle]

most likely another flop. the registrars will make some $$ off of "speculators" though as usual

 

We are seeing a roughly 50-50 split between domain speculators and actual domain holders registering domains.

The volume of pre-registrations is actually quite high.

I suspect this bodes well for the domain in the long run.

-t

 

[uncle]

I wonder how many active .us websites we're gonna see

 

There's an interesting problem.

How would one go about checking the actual number of registered .us names that have real websites associated with them - as opposed to those that direct you to an existing site via a redirect service (domain covering), or a "for sale" site selling the domain name, or a search engine holding site or whatever.

Would you take a random selection of 1000 names from the zone file and manually check them?

Would you rely on someone like Google to tell you?

Would you run the zone file through your own script and trap on redirects or other known domain placeholders?

-t

 

[uncle]

hard to check it either of those ways, I guess

however, it is easy to roughly estimate the "popularity" of a given tld at a given point in time.

e.g. the popularity of .info, and .biz extension is at this point close to ZERO. It might change in the future, it might not.
see: "exclusive" domains .tv and .cc (not to mention .nr and others lol)

I don't know about others, but it is not more than 5-6 .info or.biz web sites that I came across so far

.us is a bit different, since there is a patriotic factor involved but the concept is always the same: registrars make money on naive newbies and "speculators"

I want to be clear: I don't see anything wrong about that. It's simply creating demand

 

Originally posted by thewitt
We are seeing a roughly 50-50 split between domain speculators and actual domain holders registering domains.

The volume of pre-registrations is actually quite high.

I suspect this bodes well for the domain in the long run.

-t

Regarding the .us registrations...

Might sound like a dumb question to you.. but, I'm curious.

(and I don't know the answer because, I don't have much interest in Reg'ing .us)

But.. the .us is to be our country code for USA

Do the same restrictions for registering an .us apply.. such as like if an american citizen tried to reg an .ca?


are the .us reserved only for American citizen registrations?

I've wondered about that...

Thankyou

 

Yes, .us domains are restricted to people who have a bona-fide U.S. presence - passing the Nexus requirements laid down by the Registry. Very similar to .ca domains for Canadians. Many of the ccTLDs require a country presense in order to register a domain name with them.

.us really is the ccTLD for the United States, and not a domain name scam like some others. We also sell .tv, .cc and .vc and will soon be offering .dj, but these are very low volume compared to the rest. .com are our clear leaders, but .biz and .info are keeping up with .net and .org.

As for .biz and .info not being popular, you certainly cannot compare them to .com for popularity, but if you want a reasonably short, meaningful name on the Internet, you have to get beyond .com.

If you can get a domain like myflowers.biz, but you can only get myflowershopon5thavenueintheback.com, which makes more sense?

I'm not a domain speculator, and I don't believe that very many names have intrinsic value anyway since most people don't type names into their browser in order to locate a website - they use a search engine like MSN or Google and then bookmark the site if they find value in it.

What do I base this on? What's a Yahoo? How about an Amazon? A Google? Of the domains that you actually frequent, how many are named for anything really interesting, and how many are just successfully branded?

In my business, we have GoDaddy? Stargate? Network Solutions? Verisign? Nothing here that makes you believe they sell domain names.

Of course, I named by business after a large, flightless bird , so you can take my advise with a grain of salt.

-t

 

Thankyou.. for the explaination on the .us

okay next question.. if these added TLD's are not as valuable etc.. why is it that the registration fee for an .biz .us etc.. are priced higher then the .com?

on the .ws then, an amerian would not qualify to reg' this name? as it's a ccTLD? is that correct? i'm not sure

so, with the increase of your registrations of your customers.. with regards to the . biz and .info keepN up with the .com..

you would speculate that the .us should have heavy registrations as well?

i agree on the 'type in' issue.. most folks want to do a general search for their 'specific info needs' and they want 'choices'... they want to review several sites which can deliver the specific search words they have quested.. i'll always believe that.. i don't think the type - in is all that big of a hoopLa.. i really do not.

Right On about the Branding point... a 'good' sniglet name can be very valuable, in the hands of the right promoter.. 4sure..
No one heard of Yahoo... but we said 'yahoo' as a common 'fired up' emotional term/word..
but Google.. i never used that word in my life.. until Google Branded Google, in my mind.. and they did a fine job at branding.

MyOstrich... the flightless bird..

ie: grounded.. stable.. ain't going no where.. even with it's wings.. it's not gonna take you on a wild flight.. cause, it's grounded...

it's a cool name.

 

[uncle]

so far, everything seems the same to me:

1. .tv and .cc are ccTLD's too
2. for .biz, you must to have a "bona fide business" lol

.us was in use before. why wasn't it available for everybody to register up until now? because now, the DEMAND can be easily created, which means there's money to be made

if you are right, and .us will be used as a ccTLD for the United States, I will only be glad that the Internet is beginning to mature

My guess is though it will be mostly used for redirections (just like .info and .biz), except for maybe a handful of web sites


myflowers.biz is registered and redirects to eflowers.com

 

The reason that most Registrars charge more for .biz and .info than they do for .com, is that the heavy pricing competition is in .com, so if you want to play the pricing game, you have to be agressive with .com.

Many Registrars are losing money on .com registrations, and making it up on their other TLDs, or other services they sell. We do regular pricing comparisons, and it's fascinating to see a Registrar who beats us on .com by half, but charges twice or three times as much for .biz, .us, or .info and obviously tries to make up for their lack of profit on the more obscure domains.

It's an interesting business model, but not one that we care to follow. Our objective is to provide a solid service at reasonable prices for all our domains. We will never be the cheapest, but we'll never rip anyone off either.

As for who can register a .ws domain, the country of Western Samoa owns the rights to this ccTLD and they don't require you to be a resident in order to register a domain. Each country gets to make their own rules for their ccTLD.

As for .biz and .info keeping up with .com - no, not even close. I have not looked at the statistics in a while, but at one point .com outsold everything else on our site by a combined 100 to 1. The rest of the TLDs are picking up, but .com is still the leader by a long shot.

It's hard to tell how .us registrations will do after the pre-registration period is over, but pre-registrations have been very heavy, and this generally bodes well for follow-on registrations. The .us Registry is not even advertising yet. They are planning a very large campaign starting next week when the Registry goes live for real time registrations. It will be interesting to see if that kick starts the real time registrations.

Thanks for the kudos on "myOstrich." I have had a passion for the bird for many years . I hope to retire to an ostrich farm someday, as crazy as that may sound.

-t

 

Originally posted by uncle
.us was in use before. why wasn't it available for everybody to register up until now? because now, the DEMAND can be easily created, which means there's money to be made

The old .us Registry was using "delegated" regional Registrars - but this system was not well managed and relied on a host of volunteers who really did not do the job well. You would be able to register a domain like flowers.sutter.wv.us, if you were located in Sutter, West Virginia, but you would not be able to register flowers.us.

The TLD was not being used well at all.

Turning it over to a realtime, though paid, Registry, makes it a competative domain name again.

The regional domains will be available again - it appears - once the Registry gets through the process of starting itself up. All the tools that go with an automated Registry will be applied to the regional registrations as well. This is also a good thing. The Registry is waiting to hear back from the Department of Commerce, which controls the .us TLD, on the actions they have recommended for delegated domains.

As for flowers.biz, that was probably not a terrific example - however it was caught up in the initial Sunrise, trademarked domain mess. The .biz launch, and then re-launch, was a nightmare of corruption and mismanaged business practices - but that's more appropriate in another thread .

-t

 

Originally posted by thewitt
The reason that most Registrars charge more for .biz and .info than they do for .com, is that the heavy pricing competition is in .com, so if you want to play the pricing game, you have to be agressive with .com.

_________________________________________________

good info. thankyou..

now, when someone does a pre-registration.. they do pay for that .us at that time right? how does the pre-reg customer know if they will get that name?

and if they do not land the name... is their upfront fee's refunded to them?


Get that ostrich farm..

ya know.. there is the unique case now, with the lamb registrations... lambs are being registered with names/domain anmes.. and kids can adopt a lamb online.. as their pet lamb..

it's a N.Zealand deal.. have you heard about that??



maybe you can set up the AdoptAnOstrich....

 

I have actually thought about an adopt an ostrich program. It's an interesting thought - and should be at least as popular as adopt a lamb .

As for how .us pre-registrations work, every Registrar or Reseller has their own rules and prices.

We charge $14.99 a year, but you pay when you apply for the domain. That is because we have to cover the costs when the registrations are actually processed - when the Registry opens up on the 24th. If we did't have our account at OpenSRS fully funded on the 24th, and your name was the one that came up - we would not get it for you.

If you are not awarded your domain name, we automatically refund your credit card. We expect a high rate of return, however we are prepared to process refunds all night if needed on the 24th to return fees to applicants who do not get their domain names.

There are also Registrars who are charging fees just to apply for the domain. They cannot legally do this according to the Registry rules for .us, so they call them consulting fees for application review and other nonsense.

We know that some speculators are not using us to pre-register domains because we are forcing them to pay in advance, but that's OK. We are not in a position to cover $100k in domain speculation costs for other people - and we have committed to funding our account at the 100% level during the registration processing so we don't lose anyone's domain because we only guessed that 30% of the domains would be registered successfully. We have heard one other reseller who is not requiring his customers to pay in advance, but he is only funding his account at the 20% level based on prior pre-registration success levels.

Everyone plays the game differently, and that's good for competition.

-t

 

[uncle]

The .biz launch, and then re-launch, was a nightmare of corruption and mismanaged business practices

The process of launching the new TLD's was also conflict-based from the beginning, everybody getting their share of cash, including WIPO, not to mention the famous dotbizlottery lol

An Afternic user ComKong, whom I haven't had the pleasure to meet has put it this way in his member profile ( I hope he doesn't mind me citing):

"ICANN, the registrars and their families would like to express their eternal gratitude for your continued support. Please continue to buy many names in all insane sub-level domains our devious, greedy minds concoct. Thank you. - ComKong "

I couldn't agree more or care less

 

I've only pre-registered using the Sunrise option for a trademark. Not interested in the .US extension otherwise.

 

Originally posted by thewitt
I have actually thought about an adopt an ostrich program. It's an interesting thought - and should be at least as popular as adopt a lamb .


Your plan is by far better than the 'risk' of only rec' 20% back... To me, I would have to wonder.. if that Registar really cared if I got the name... cause if I didn't... then they gain 10% of the PreReg customers funds.. hmmm

I believe most folks would rather pay full PreReg upfront, with the security of knowing if the name can't be landed... then they would be refunded. No Risk.

Pre-Registrations... there should be a means for inquiring .us NameBuyers... would be able to know at the time they Pre-Reg.. whether others have also Pre-Reg'd for that name.
Cause if i Pre-Reg a name, that I knew had 10 others who Pre-Reg that name.. knowing only one will win..
I"de prob. select a different name, which was not Pre-Reg.. and this too benif's the Registar.. cause, better chances of landing the name and keeping/gaining a new customer.


Who determines which indivudual will win the Pre-Reg race, if say.. 10 folks Pre-Reg the same name.?? How is that determined, who will win ?

Would a Registar... which knew one other customer Pre-Reg a name through that Registar.... and now.. someone else is wanting to Pre-Reg that name through you... would that Registar, collect anyways? or would they alert this 2nd Pre-REg
customer.. that the name already is Pre-Reg?

if your price for $14.99 one year, is right for .us
that's decent/fair pricing..

like with anything..
you get what you pay for.

free hosting... give's ya freeBugs/downtime
no support

paid hosting... treats you like a customer... and your troubles
are usually quickly handled..

$8 domain reg's..
well.. higher transfer.. more BS.. paperwork.. timely on final change's being made..
and the cost to do so.. is higher then the cost you paid to buy the domain...
I have not trouble with a Registar charging a fee to transfer ownership or to transfer the name to a new Registar..
But it shouldn't cost 4-7 times more then it cost to initially register the name..
say $10 max.. that's fair..
and SWIFT turn around time..


I'll send you that article on the AdoptALamb registrations.
thing is.. the concept.. if it hits kids.. and kids love it..
the parents can't do nothing to slow it down..

Parents.. try to make their children happy.. and if it means 275 BeanieBabies... then we just plain DO IT~!~ :laugh:

 

The way the pre-registration process for non-trademarked names will work is sort of interesting.

There was no official "Landrush" process defined by the Registry for .us names. The "Sunrise" or trademarked names had a formal process, but there's nothing for Landrush.

A number of Registrars started to collect names with the plan to submit them to the Registry as soon as the Registry begins accepting real-time registrations on the 24th. OpenSRS is one of these. There are actually not many doing so - most seem to be waiting until the Registry opens on the 24th.

What OpenSRS has decided to do this time - as opposed to prior pre-registrations - is to accept duplicate submissions from their Resellers.

Why? Well remember I told you that my OpenSRS account needs to be fully funded for me to "cover" the domain registrations? Well let's say you pre-register a domain with someone who is not going to fund their account at the 100% level. What happens when he runs out of money in the middle of the registration submission process? All the domains he has left in his queue will be lost. So, if you have a pre-registration in at another OpenSRS reseller who is fully funded, then the name the first reseller did NOT get, will be won by you - even though you registered it later than the other person, who unfortunately chose a reseller who is not funding at the 100% level.

OpenSRS has not offered up all the details on how they are processing orders - as this lets the competition in on their secrets and that's probably not a good thing. They do believe they will have a high rate of success however.

This one will be interesting, since at this time, there is no round-robin process at the Registry, it will be first come, first served when the Registry opens up it's processing queue for it's Registrars. Should be fun .

-t

 

[beatz]

Will i try to register a few .us names?
Hmm..i don't know.On one hand i have a feeling .us could be stronger than .biz and .info(as it makes sense as a country extension),Then again,if it comes to speculation one thing if not the most important thing is if the general public is aware of the new extension,and if they demand it.If the enduser is not interested in the new extension,no sense in reggin it for resale.And as i'm not aware of any big publicity stunts for .us on tv or print,i guess .us won't be big - but i might be wrong and wish i had regged sex.us

 

My understanding is the Registry is kicking off a large media campaign when they start accepting live registrations on the 24th.

We'll see...

-t