Mason Cole Would Like to See A Level Playing Field

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Raymond Hackney

In an article he wrote on Circle ID, Mason Cole the VP of Communications and Industry Relations at Donuts, expressed his frustration with ICANN and some policies that are hindering new gtld launches.

From the article:

The New gTLD Program should be the culmination of ICANN’s original mission to introduce real competition to the domain name marketplace. The program should dramatically increase consumer choice, end an era of false scarcity and artificial limitation, and create a marketplace driven by real competition.

The registries participating in the program are already providing some of that value, to be sure, but we remain hobbled by a series of conscious policy decisions that intentionally constrain our ability to compete with the very incumbents against whom we were created to compete.

The steps we take now and in the coming months and years to level that playing field, and provide a real and competitive landscape will go a long way toward determining the success of the program.

As of today, participants in the new gTLD program are subject to several key competitive disadvantages, relating to our registrar channels, the domains we are able to sell, and the complicated rules under which we can sell them.

Its not just Cole who is frustrated as domain investors are perplexed by so many keywords being unavailable due to the name collision list.

This really was not thought out well imo, no extension should have been open for business until they could go full steam ahead. Domain investors are no strangers to games being played and without doing the homework many are not sure if a name is just being held back as a future premium or if the registry can’t allow registration because of ICANN.

Read the full Mason Cole article here

You Can’t Protect Against Almost Infinite Choices

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Raymond Hackney

Last week Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) came out and ripped the proposed .sucks new gtld. Senator Rockefeller said that .sucks was, “little more than a predatory shakedown scheme designed to force large corporations, small businesses, non-profits, and even individuals, to pay ongoing fees to prevent seeing the phrase ‘sucks’ appended to their names on the Internet.”

I think that brands should just boycott the extension as a show of solidarity with the hopes that it puts a financial strain on the extension and that it won’t meet its financial goals.

Because let’s say Microsoft spends $25,000 under a worse case scenario, for Microsoft.sucks. If I have a problem with Microsoft I am not thwarted, I register MicrosoftReally.sucks for reg fee, if the site gets any traction or any publicity, others will follow and before you know it there is GoogleReally.sucks and WalmartReally.sucks etc…

Once the Really names are tapped out, other words will be used, so there is no defending an extension when there are almost an infinite number of choices.

Brands could seek to discredit the extension backing the Senator’s words and exposing it as extortion. Then they can turn their attention to .exposed and .fail.

Even with the best intentions from a conceptual standpoint, .Sucks imo should have never been approved, it just lends itself to being a shakedown. Companies don’t need another site to communicate with their customers, and even if we want to go down that route, why would you come at it from a place of negativity ? A company can register a .com or .org for $9 such as MicrosoftCustomerSupport.com, they don’t need .sucks.

Will .GOP Be a Major Factor in Helping Republicans Organize Online ?

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Raymond Hackney

TheHill.com did a piece about an hour ago on the upcoming .GOP extension.

If the political campaigns of the future will be waged online, the Republican Party hopes to keep the fight on its turf with .gop domain names.

As soon as next week, the GOP hopes to roll out the first ever partisan top-level domain name. And, if all goes according to plan, candidates and activists will be operating from websites ending in .gop by the midterm elections in November.

“We know that this going to be a major factor in helping Republicans organize online,” said Will Martinez, vice president for sales and marketing with the Republican State Leadership Committee’s effort.

There will be a .republican and .democrat coming as well, both of these will be run by United TLD Holdco Ltd.

The one thing a .gop extension will do is insure that a candidate can get their own name. People like Michael Deutsch have been known to snap up political candidate domains, and there was a story in Time about Hillary Clinton names getting scooped up as well.

Political parties should make sure there constituents are familiar these extensions exist, its still a .com world and they might want to put some effort in explaining that the real candidate will be on a .gop just in case someone else gets the .com domain.

” GOP ” is an acronym that stands for ” Grand Old Party .” Both terms are popular alternative names for the 148 year-old Republican Party in the United States of America. The Republican Party is one of the two major political parties in the United States, and entities and individuals who identify with the GOP for business, political or personal reasons can be found world-wide. The overall goal and purpose of the .gop top-level domain is to have an interactive, identifiable, and easily accessible outlet for people in the ” Grand Old Party “, organizations and businesses that associate or identify with GOP and others interested or involved with the political party, whether on a federal, state or local-office level, to communicate by sharing ideas, ideology and policies in ways they deem appropriate and beneficial to the party as well as the public at large.

Interview with Andy Brier – NameStat.org

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Raymond Hackney

Andy Brier runs NameStat.org which serves as a portal for all things new gtld. From the latest delegations to new gtld stats, Andy also provides a lot of updates on Twitter @namestats

1) So what was the motivation for starting NameStat ?

Andy – I’d been following the domainer blogs for a while and the increasing debate on the new TLDs. Words are a passion of mine and I realised that internet naming was about to go through a revolution. I wanted to be a part of that. I’m working on a naming framework and realised I’d need a platform to explore, develop and receive feedback on those ideas. NameStat was born of a need to understand what was happening and to provide that platform. I’m only part way there, but so far pleased with the results. Just need to code faster.

2) Can you tell us a little bit about your background ?

Andy – I enjoy programming and released my first shareware (remember that?) in 1998, a 3D desktop launcher which sold a phenomenal 20 copies. Two years later I’d made enough to pay the monthly mortgage, just, but then along came the children and my internet dominance days were over. Now our main income is from an ecommerce site I run with my wife, selling homeware in the UK. We’ve been operating about 5 years, are probably #1 or #2 in our niche and last year emptied the house of stock and moved to a warehouse. I design and run the site but my wife does all the hard work.. dealing with customers!

3) How Many Domains and in what extensions do you currently own ?

Andy – I have a small portfolio of around 100 mostly com/net/org and a few .co.uk and .me’s. I dropped about 25% in the last year to release some cash in readiness for the new gtlds, some not even worth the characters they were displayed in. I’ve never sat down and deliberately bought a domain with a goal to sell. In the past I’d buy impulsively in response to an idea for a site. Then as the idea became more concrete I’d narrow down to the ideal name (and probably reg a few more in the process!). By the end I’d have more than a few names on a similar theme but only one that I’m really interested in – I admit not a clever technique for buying domains! But that was the old way, the new domans have changed all that, for me at least.

4) Are you planning on putting your own money into new gtld registrations ?

Andy – Yes, it would be foolish (and not great business sense) to not take part at all, but equally foolish to go all-in and lose it all (and your shirt). I have only a modest budget so have to pick and choose. I’ve registered about a dozen so far, all bought in Early Access or Pre-reg in areas I know or care about such as .bike, .kitchen or .photography. Most I have a solid idea for and time permitting will start to develop early next year. I don’t think all the extensions will succeed or all registrations turn a profit, but a few very good names over the long term seems sensible.

5) Where do you see the new gtlds as a whole in 3 to 5 years from now ?

Andy – A whole lot less chaotic for a start! I’m relatively new to this industry so won’t stick my neck out but it seems the industry as it is structured now is not best suited to this new TLD landscape. What with registries feeding registrars feeding consumers – some registries have many products, others only one. I’d like to think the market will have consolidated, more mature, open and easy to access. Consumers will be much more aware of registries as brands in themselves. Big brand TLDs will be everywhere.

Denver Post “Dot-what? Web land rush 2.0 to feature .wtf, .beer, .porn domains”

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Raymond Hackney

A couple hours ago Andy Vuong of the Denver Post did a piece on the new gtlds and local favorite Name.com got some ink. Steve Banfield is quoted in the piece that takes a look at what the new gtlds mean and also what challenges they bring for established brands.

We all went through the dot-com era, the dot-com boom and dot-com bust,” said Steve Banfield, senior vice president of registrar services for Rightside, parent company of Name.com. “What you’ve seen over the last year or two is a real embrace of non-dot-com domains.”

Banfield said Name.com, founded in 2003 and based in the Cherry Creek area with about 30 employees, has seen a huge spike in sales in recent weeks with the release of the likes of .shoes, .careers and .guru.

Name.com offers a watchlist feature (at bit.ly/watchTLD) that allows consumers to sign up to receive alerts when a certain extension is available. The company also recently paid to be the official sponsor of the New Zealand bobsled team to get the word out on the new domains.

Read the full story here