Died On Arse + Experiment

I always feel a bit sorry for .info :neutral:

The logic of the extension is undeniable and many domains work really well with it. I wonder if it had been a launched much earlier (before .net) whether it would have been more successful by now.

 

I haven't taken much interest in the new extensions, as it's just further dilution and I don't see a strong investment case.

I would rather focus on .com and .uk. Always remember "quality" when it comes to making an investment.

 

Also, I quite like .co for it's shortness and simplicity, but I haven't been following it that closely and I'm not aware of any major traction.

 

Just received an email from namejet inviting me to pre-bid on 90 'premium' .global domains that will go to live auction at this year's 50th ICANN conference in London. Names include:


FOOD.GLOBAL
HEALTH.GLOBAL
NEWS.GLOBAL
BANKING.GLOBAL
MINING.GLOBAL
STOCKS.GLOBAL
INVEST.GLOBAL
PASSPORT.GLOBAL
MARKETS.GLOBAL
PATENTS.GLOBAL
TRADING.GLOBAL
WEATHER.GLOBAL
POLITICS.GLOBAL
SHIPPING.GLOBAL
STOCKS.GLOBAL

Bag of shite if you ask me, but it will be interesting to see what the pre-bids will be and what levels these domains will fetch in the auction. My guess is both will be embarrassingly low which could deal a severe blow to the credibility of new gtlds in general, given that the auction will be held amidst the pomp and circumstance of ICANN's golden jubilee conference.

 

Whenever I see .co, I assume someone forgot to add the "m" or ".uk".

 

Or "n"...

 

You and the rest of the world.

I had steven.co or steve.co, and every time I gave someone the email on the phone, or sent it to someone, they always replied with things like steve.co.com (seriously) steve.co.uk ?, I had similar with surname.tel. I still use the .tel now, and people always wait for the rest of the address.

My mum uses a .tel email, and recently was buying a huge american fridge freezer, and in currys, she gave him the email and he stood waiting for the rest and said "oh is that it..." so how long has .tel been around, and how many TV adverts were there, and still no traction.

 

The funny thing is that many web forms have outdated validation routines, and will not accept E-mail addresses that have a TLD longer than 3 letters, which of course excludes the majority of new extensions. A TLD that you can't use in real life is a gadget.

Even newly introduced ccTLDs have had issues:
https://lists.dns-oarc.net/pipermail/dns-operations/2013-January/009690.html

 

Just got an email saying .rest is going into landrush for restaurants... what a lame extension! Since when are restaurants abbreviated to "rest"? .fail

 

Feels like some of the bigger registras are beginning to slow down promotion of each new gtld - less and less ad space/coverage given.

I wonder if its actually getting counter productive to their sales now to keep touting them to the public rather than the tried and tested.

 

Not surprising. It's impossible to give the same shelf space to a new GTLD launch when there are 300 other new GTLD that are only weeks old, and still desperate for attention.

We've passed the "novelty" stage and the "hmmm, maybe" stage and we're now into the weekly grind of half a dozen or so new extensions being spat out into the wild like they're being pumped off a conveyor belt. It's interesting to see that many of the extensions that launched in the initial few weeks are getting less than 50 new registrations a day now. Hard to see how that will EVER change.

 

For what its worth, I'm currently writing a couple of apps for a large council who will be heavily advertising their services on <councilname>.community and <councilname>.education.

I will feed back what I can after launch.

 

omg, just goes to show how retarded councils are when it comes to IT - spending tax payers money on dot community?

To think someone actually managed to bluff their way in and recommended that to them and on top their going to pay for it - the naivety beggers belief...

 

in their defence the branding decision had nothing to do with the IT department, all of it came from the "Marketing" team. Still makes me laugh when its discussed in meetings.

 

out of interest, what is the 'marketing dept's.' reason for pushing a .worthless

..what's wrong with visitplacename.co.uk etc?


t of interest what is the marketing

 

To be honest I don't know the rational behind the decision, however if I have a hunch they are going to try and use it a way of getting there ideas in the local newspaper, as they like to put portray themselves as forward thinking

"Headline: <council> becomes first local authority to use new fancy web address

I personally think its ridiclulas as most of the traffic will come through a search on their main website, so <council>.gov.uk/blah-community would work better.

The actual innovation side of this project is quite forward thinking but it feel may be (once again) spoiled in marketing and branding.

You never know it may work....if it does trust me ill be the first to rock up at every councils door flogging them .education .community (also .democrat will be used) and retire off the profits......or maybe not!

 

didn't I read something about councils not being allowed to use placename.gov.uk (Edwin?) from a point in time?

e.g. in my neck of the woods a good few councils have binned their .gov.uk in favour of a .co.uk even though the gov.uk was a big juicy site ranking wonderfully

 

Do you have an example? That doesn't sound right to me.

 

I may have missed that, but possibly you're getting mixed up with the need for some non-Gov entities to move off .gov.uk onto web addresses reserved for them as part of the .uk launch.

See pp3-4 for the list of reserved names that were excluded from the main .uk allocation process:
http://registrars.nominet.org.uk/sites/default/files/sldr_rules_140507_final_0.pdf

Also see this:
http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/late...royaluk-and-princeofwalesuk-domains-delegated

And pp8-9 of this (note that the list of names touted here was subsequently modified before the final .uk launch):
http://www.nominet.org.uk/sites/def...istrationInUKBackgroundAndFurtherDetail_5.pdf

 

Let's rewrite that headline for them:

"<council> becomes first local authority to guarantee the need to increase their marketing spend on an ongoing basis because they have to keep explaining their weird new web address again and again and again forever in the vague hope that people remember it."

There, that looks a lot better!

BTW, if you are on good terms with someone on their team, you could point them at this thread and spare them a lifetime of PR agony...