Morning Folks,
The earliest pioneers, they got .net. They mined silver not gold. Put a metal name next to each current extension as I am about to do. Did you watch Klondike last night? 3 part series about the Alaskan Gold Rush. They are replaying it. I think on Discovery? Not sure. See what was going on in 1897 with a parallel called gold mining. You are such lucky bastards to be doing this no matter what path you choose or mine or dig.
Compare those metals that have been around for billions of years with the extensions coming out. 50x more new extensions than all the metals of the world. How do they stack up? Why will folks even know they exist? Name me 10 metals. Name 10 spices. Name 10 types of bread. Fine, now name 20. The mind ain't going there. Not for the masses and not even for anyone else.
Wonder what 200th place is worth in a car race? Most of the population could care less about most of these metals except maybe Platinum, gold, silver and titanium and they need aluminum foil. Lead is more of a liability than an asset in many cases. Useful in others. Good for Superman and kryptonite. Heavy and cumbersome if you are traveling with it. The average person, me included, never heard or are not familiar with many of these metals. We may use them, but they mean nothing to us. Do they?? Billions of years in the making. Parallel to the consumer and .mobi and 1400 more? Come on, use your common sense not your ruby-red shoes.
Aluminum
Antimony
Arsenic
Barium
Beryllium
Bismuth
Boron
Cadmium
Cesium
Chromium
Cobalt
Copper
Gallium
Germanium
Gold
Hafnium
Indium
Iron
Lead
Lithium
Manganese
Mercury
Molybdenum
Nickel
Platinum
Palladium
Rhodium
Iridium
Osmium
Ruthenium
Rhenium
Rubidium
Scandium
Selenium
Silver
Strontium
Tantalum
Tellurium
Thallium
Thorium
Tin
Titanium
Tungsten
Vanadium
Zinc
Zirconium
Which metals are important to people? There are many more. There are compounded metals and alloys.
Actinium
Aluminium
Americium
Barium
Berkelium
Beryllium
Bismuth
Bohrium
Cadmium
Calcium
Californium
Cerium
Cesium
Chromium
Cobalt
Copper
Curium
Darmstadtium
Dubnium
Dysprosium
Einsteinium
Erbium
Europium
Fermium
Francium
Gadolinium
Gallium
Gold
Hafnium
Hassium
Holmium
Indium
Iridium
Iron
Lanthanum
Lawrencium
Lead
Lithium
Lutetium
Magnesium
Manganese
Meitnerium
Mendelevium
Mercury
Molybdenum
Neodymium
Neptunium
Nickel
Niobium
Nobelium
Osmium
Palladium
Platinum
Plutonium
Polonium
Potassium
Praseodymium
Promethium
Protactinium
Radium
Rhenium
Rhodium
Roentgenium
Rubidium
Ruthenium
Rutherfordium
Samarium
Scandium
Seaborgium
Silver
Sodium
Strontium
Tantalum
Technetium
Terbium
Thallium
Thorium
Thulium
Tin
Titanium
Tungsten
Ununbium
Ununhexium
Ununpentium
Ununquadium
Ununtrium
Uranium
Vanadium
Ytterbium
Yttrium
Zinc
Zirconium
Rick Schwartz
Tony
The people that made the real riches during the gold rush were the ones selling the shovels and maps. The best example of one in this gTLD is Mike Berkens selling his advice and taking a cut of all the best domains. All hail your research department.
Pitbull
Great point Tony… And as always, great comparison Rick!
Robin
I am CEO of the family domain investment portfolio. My wife is the major shareholder. Making the case to invest in domain names came with fair amount of scepticism from the major share holder (are you f***ing nuts who would pay for one of those). I was able to make the case to the shareholder by showing her examples of sales, market places, and general theory in what makes a name valuable. This combined with the fact that she encounters the extensions that we invest in on a daily basis (.com and .ca) I would find it difficult to make a case for investing in anything else till there is compelling evidence to do so. I registered my first domain two years ago and we now have a small portfolio of names that we feel have meaning and value(there are a few pieces of pigeon shit in there strictly for fertilization purposes) In order to invest outside of these extensions I need hard evidence. We do not have an account in our investment portfolio labeled “MONEY WE CAN AFFORD TO LOSE” I expect a return or I will be fired.
Rick Schwartz
The voice of common sense. Nice way to show things in their proper perspective.
Rick Schwartz
And Part 1 and 2 of Klondike are on tonight.
And they have a show on before it about mining for gold TODAY. Right now in fact. All day today.
Name Order
My brother is a metallurgist. Some if not all of those metals are very valuable, Titanium derived from the word Titan or strong for example. Just that most people do not know the value. Most people use these metals everyday in phones and other tech devices,even in medicines. They just don’t know it.
Just like Meet.me and Date.me the value is in it making sense.
Rick Schwartz
They may be important and valuable but it is invisible to the consumer or end user so he could care less.
Name Order
My take from this is that the marketeers of these new extensions think the general public will drift away from meaningless extensions to meaning-FULL extensions. They may be right. Even though dot com, net and org have meanings nobody knows what they are or gives a crap. They are just something we are all used to in a URL string. Dot Whatever really is dot keyword and that is great branding. My.horse my.car my.bank. Let’s face it those are great domains.
These guys have done the math and most of these extensions will float better than most domainers care to think about right now. Right now they need domainers to float their ships while they try to sink ours.
Rick Schwartz
“Right now they need domainers to float their ships while they try to sink ours.”
BINGO
Name Order
Bingo in Vegas with an open bar and free cheese at the mouse trap lounge.
Robbie
I think what hurts most gtld’s most is their limited use, where as the valuable precious metals you talk about have multiple uses in many different industries.
Gold for instance can be use in dental work, circuit boards, household fixtures, jewelry, artwork, gold leaf on food, plating etc…
I see .com in the same light
Whereas GTLD’s are very limited, I may see a speculators market for Keyword.Extension, but when you add TwoKeyword.Extension the term and meaning becomes very clouded. Along with that, a limited about of meaningful phrases that can come out of these GTLD’s, you got a half ass product, that can’t deliver a full scope of the spectrum. There is also an end to one word domains, such as Rings.com, how can this translate into a new GTLD Buy.Rings, you have limited the scope of the site now to just BUY, instead of selling, resizing, trade in, melt down, add new stones etc…
AlanR
The metal comparison is a great! Just another example of why people won’t remember or care to remember any of the new extensions. Besides investors destroying any possibility that these extensions ever survive, competition will also be a deciding factor. They will be ripping each other apart. Besides bashing each other, whenever one comes up with new bells and whistles, the others will follow and the cycle will keep repeating itself until they destroy themselves. In the end, dotcom will win! It will also benefit from this war and be stronger than ever!
Robin Jilderda
Beware of the high talking, supposedly well educated, published author and so called marketing and branding expert consultants, that speak to us in a condescending tone. I will stop at that before I name someone that really irritates me.
Even the sleaziest high school dropout internet marketer knows that you don’t make the customer out to be an idiot if you want to make a sale.
You will present them with a proposition that will give them the secret information and opportunity that they have not had access to but can now purchase for $9.99 if they call right now.
Steve
I don’t see any of the new extensions showing up on a phone button in our lifetime. You may be able to program your phone to have an “extra” hotkey like .whatever but who will do that. My samsung has a .com button installed from the factory and I ALWAYS use it.
I mean do you really think anyone is going to type whatever.whatever into a phone. There will be many more accidents on the road as drivers eyes will be fumbling with their keyboards. The only possible solution is to “say” the extension and hope the phone understands what you are saying…. just saying :)
Personally the easiest and fastest extension is .cc. The Chinese like it and it is the “greenest” extension on the planet as it saves keystrokes. You can type .cc in without looking down.
John
I’m going to disagree about .com, .net, and .org having meaning, but that “nobody knows what they are or gives a crap.” .com, for example, is not hard to figure out as meaning “commerce/commercial.” Moreover, how many $billions or possibly even $trillions have already been spent directly or indirectly branding it so that it is synonymous with the Internet and World Wide Web? That makes any question of technical, “literal” meaning moot and almost even meaningless, as the “meaning” is already branded in and figuratively speaking onto people’s minds. It reminds me of a time when I was watching a televised Peter Frampton concert not long ago, a recent one, not from his younger days. He started talking about how his young drummer was already rich from something else because, as Frampton put it, he had started one of those “.com’s,” as if the term “.com’s” simply said it all, and in fact that is all he said about what his rich successful younger music loving drummer had done, just one of those “.com’s.”
.net is very clearly a reference to “Internet”; and .org is fairly clearly about “organization[s]”; it is not essential or necessary that the now quasi out-of-date connotation of “non-profit” be immediately obvious from the “org” itself, and it’s a moot point because it is already so commonly known.
JBS
Robbie – that is what I keep going back to and Rick points it out often as well, the severely limited amount of meaningful combinations on most of these keyword extensions. The “gold rush” on most new keyword extension domains will be over in 3 minutes flat. Maybe a dozen or two domains from each extension.
And with .brands, the absolute death knell of the 10 – 20 year “vision” some keep talking about was when Amazon.com was rejected for .amazon. My first thought when I read that news months ago was “well, there goes that revolution”. Regardless of the other gTLD extensions Amazon.com might acquire and sell, they will always be Amazon.COM. In the world of commerce, it is always follow the leader… So, no .brand revolution – but nice try!
And, the few new “generics” coming will likely never pass even .net. So, I’ll pass…
Jeff Schneider
Hello Rick,
End-User corporations assign phenomenal future valuations to URLs in the only extension that really counts.
For the benefit of those not in the know, the worlds records for highest ROIs of any asset class , ( that are continually being reset in the .COM Non disclosure market ) , belong to the .COM Business Model, which remains the Point of Purchase Epicenter to the Worlds Largest Consumer Base. All these other promotional extensions are just static noise.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Barry
I believe the more lightweight .whatevers there are will only serve to further differentiate and elevate .com, .net, .org and mainstream country tld’s for serious business use.
I think the plethora of ‘toy’ domain extensions could lead to confusion but it does give lots of choice for hobbyists and personal use etc.
Domenclature.com
Rick,
I have stayed away from commenting on your posts after I see you “thanking” Frank Schilling for responding to your posts, and I’ve just about had it!
Somebody should be thanked if they make sense in what they are saying. BUT the thank you and deference you give to Schilling, and Berkens, I’ve just about had it up to here!
If they wont defend their position without their huge egos getting massaged, they can forget! I had to endure all the bullshit ..
Please tighten your jaw as you tell everybody the truth as you see it.
Domenclature.com
…I know you’ve seen how Francois and Berkens has a bunch of .whatevers scrolling atop domaining.com
Name Order
Actually dot net stands for network not internet.
BillW
While you are technically correct, how Rick said is the more common “understanding” by the general population at large.
Name Order
My point is dot com net and org are not dot keywords or dot product or dot service. Dot whatevers as folks are calling them are really dot keywords dot products and dot services. Maybe a much more targeted market but no confusion with a dot keyword. We are all scratching our heads and saying all these extensions are too long they won’t work. The new TLDs are about search not type ins. My brother was online way before me and he still types www. before everything. Most traffic is from mobile today and typing itself is going away. I don’t have a crystal ball but my guess is that dot com net and org will be Prestige extensions in 5-10 years. Still worth more even much more in the case of dot com then the new TLDs in most cases. Time will tell. These things are here and coming at us full speed. Like it or not here they come.
John
“Actually dot net stands for network not internet.”
The “Internet” is accurately described as a “network of networks” and hence in my opinion also as one large network. There is not need to be so restrictive imo.
John
In keeping with the mining analogy, perhaps the few new gTLD’s that may become relatively successful and desirable can be called the:
rare earth metals
Pb, Party Bob
I predict that the gtld’s will most closely parallel LEAD (Pb) in their overall acceptance and will all sink.
I don’t even have the slightest urge to try to get even one. They are all so long, stupid and silly to me. Even if Frank pulled me aside and said, “Pal, you just saved my life. Since it’s prior to Sunrise, you can take your pick of any .tattoo, .sexy, .guitars, .restaurant, .blackfriday, .yoga, .furniture or any of my 45+ other hot new tld’s and I will give it to you as a gift, but you’ll have to promise me that you will actually use it and pay the annual renewal fee going forward”, I would thank him kindly for the offer but respectfully pass. Just not interested.
I wish him and the others well in their high risk ventures, but think the gtld proponents are all wasting their time pissing in the wind and will soon end up with urine on their collective face.
AlanR
Rick, here is something that might concern you. http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/candy-crush-saga-makers-want-trademark-word-candy-195724320.html
sam
Godaddy sits there and tells you that Godaddy is your partner. Total bullshit.
Kevin Davis
Rick you should also check out The Men Who Built America its on the History Channel.Good stuff.
Paul Goulart
Brilliant! Nail on the head.
Thank You
Chris Brennan
how much does it cost to float a new tld, how many domains do you need to sell to break even, everything else is profit.
it is not about the general public or domain investors, it about an entrepreneur launching a tld and making some money.
so if you are a domainer look at what will make you money not what will make a tld owner rich.
Name Order
I think it is about the general public and turning them into domain investors. There was more SEO folks at namescon then old school domainers. They are marketing to SEO people. I think the domain industry is about to get a big boost from the most unlikely source. SEO people have known for years the value of generics but they would never EVER admit it. Now with all the keyword extensions guess who will be shouting domains, domains, domains. If you guessed SEO people you get a gold star. That’s good people for some reason “trust” what their SEO guy says.
PT Barnum said “there’s a domainer born every minute”
gene
Putting aside Icann’s transparent motivations for launching the gTLD program…
The ‘hype-machine’ for these trivial extensions can be 100% attributed to (a) bloggers who want to make nice with a new advertising base, and (b) would-be registrars launching new registries because they’ve calculated (what they think are) favorable, break-even points on upsell services, like email and hosting, i.e., the old razor & blades model.
While I don’t necessarily fault either of them, there is less than a 1% possibility that there will be a ‘real’ aftermarket for these names.
The registrars are banking on unsophisticated, mom & pop entrepreneurs coming to their rescue with a $10 transaction here and there to help their cashflow, while the bloggers are counting on landing ‘premier sponsors’ in the gTLD space — who will probably accommodate them so long as they keep writing ‘hopeful’ and ‘get-with-the-times’ pieces.
Fast forward 24 months from now, and the postscripts of “what really derailed the gTLDs” will be published ad nauseam – and not just on domain blogs.
Here 4 You
@PartyBob
I agree with what you said above. I see no value added by tacking on these long words at the end of a domain. If there was truly a need, .travel, ,museum, .jobs, .aero, .coop, .biz, .name, .cat, .post, .info, .tel, .pro, .asia, .int, .xxx and more would be with us in far greater numbers today. Even .mil is no longer promoted by the military and .int is no longer promoted by WIPO. Both use their .com’s instead. I acknowledge that many of these alternatives are still around and technically still exist, but I just don’t see many resales, that’s all I’m saying. Also, I believe there to be very little likelihood that a startup business, an established business or someone concerned about their SEO will ever want to utilize them.
I simply see no need and no value and predict no enrollment.
Altaf
Hi Rick,
You promised a vivid picture by middle of the week, how & why did you hand register 2500 type-in domains recently. Gratefully,
Rick Schwartz
It was about 375 and I will appear in a special DomainSherpa show a week from Monday.
Horizon
I don’t think we need any of these new gtld’s at all.Sh$t many of the big country codes are under estimated and untapped,there’s enough cctlds with the .com’s to last for many years.The new NEW ones are just a market trying to be manufactured by some very greedy people,who couldn’t give a sh$t about us or anyone else,just my 2 cents worth.