I convinced my friend not to move his business to a .photography domain.
Why? Because I told him that even if .photography becomes the norm of the industry in 2-3 years, right now it would just cause confusion to his audience.
First of all, let's look at history.
Industry-specific TLDs have all failed. No exception. Think .jobs .aero .travel .museum .coop .pro etc. They have had a
decade to establish themselves, not just 2-3 years.
Why do people think everything is going to be different now ? Yes, fewer or no restrictions, lower reg fee (not always). But this not going to create the demand, just remove a few obstacles (pricing + red tape) to adoption.
Now your friend could buy a domain as defensive reg and keep it "just in case" but that is a waste of money imo. He will still be able to adjust later if the trends change...
Right now, there is no first mover advantage. Of course it's a catch-22 situation, because somebody has got to start the ball rolling, but hey I didn't say those TLDs were useful or should even exist
.photography is an "interesting" case, because there is also .photo, .photos and .camera (yes, all 4 extensions are now "live")
It is strange that
icann't has approved TLDs that are nearly identical and truly confusing. They just let the cats fight among themselves and they rake in the cash.
Mind you, we are talking about the very same body that denied .бг (proposed Cyrillic IDN country-code domain for Bulgaria) on the grounds that it looks too much like Brazil’s .br :shock:
http://domainincite.com/7762-icann-wont-say-who-rejected-bulgarian-idn
By the way, sorry for making a long post, but Edwin hinted at the disappointing registration figures. Even the older new regs like .info or .biz experience growth rates that are inferior to .com. In other words, they are not catching up at all - the gap vs established extensions is actually widening.
Over time they are becoming better known but more marginal nonetheless. Today, nobody says .biz could become the equal of .com.
The end of the story is that .co.uk/.uk will not stop growing or shrink in favor of other extensions. I could write a book on why new extensions are a bad idea, but suffice it to say I am fairly certain some are going to crash and registrants will get burnt.
It is important to keep in mind that the registry contract stipulates a continuity plan of something like 3 years I believe. In other words, if diamonds are forever, domain extensions are not. TLDs that underperform could be retired down the road... believe me, they are not all going to survive so I wouldn't hurry to put my online presence on an unproven extension. Especially if we are talking about a critical business venture.
