Morning Folks!!
Want answers? Always look at both sides and do it often. We talk about new gTLD's like this is something new. It ain't. Nobody is putting any fingers in a dyke. I love what is coming. I am looking forward to it. But one must know the difference between getting on a winning horse and getting run over by a stampede. We are witnessing what will be a stampede. A stampede is uncontrolled and comes in a fury and can destroy anything in its path including other horses in the stampede that get trampled to death.
I look for answers not pronouncements but the conditions indicate certain things that are completely inevitable. So 1000 horses don't mean anything but danger until things thin out. That is why so many are in a wait and see mode. Caution is key unless you have unlimited funds to put at risk and tie up indefinitely. I certainly don't.
It's not like there won't be plenty of inventory. And it will all come to strings and adaptation. Google and Search are the least important parts of the equation the way I see the universe. It means nothing if you are not a destination with content going forward.
In a stampede, the last horse is also the safest horse.
You at least have to answer the question of how many will survive the stampede? If you say all will, then I just don't think that is being realistic. How many and which ones will be woven into the fabric of the internet and how many will get trampled and have no meaning? I just don't know how an extension with maybe 1000 or less meaningful combination strings survives or gets any oxygen or traction in the scheme of things. So I look to those that could have wide adaptation.
Arguably auction.xyz is one of the very best of that extension. It sold for $310. So can it be sold for $500?Maybe. Probably. But I would first have to put the keyword "Auction" in front of all the other gtld's and at least ask myself is that the strongest and best match? I don't know the answer. Auction.Horses is actually a better choice. Auction.cars. I mean IF we go down this road. But if you correctly brand yourself as the "lands end" in xyz, it is possible. But the odds are against it because of the dollars that would have to spend to brand.
And still, when I re-read the paragraph and look at all the dots it is a bit confusing. End of sentence missing a space? May be years before the common folks even realize it is a url. But this is just in a controlled classroom discussion. It all changes when it hits the air of masses. The stampede is coming and I remember talking of other stampedes back in 1997 and 1998 when folks were deciding whether to go online or not. That was an easy stampede to predict and we are living the outcome as the world is now online. But this stampede has nothing in common other than the stampede itself.
Rick Schwartz
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