Featured, George Shepherd

DomainFest and New gTLDs

The first day of DomainFest in Santa Monica was great. The first panel discussion centered on the release of new gTLDs by private companies. While the discussion of the subject swings from those for it and those against, both can agree that the landscape of the internet is changing with the demands of the market, and when there is no beachfront property available anymore, well just figure out how to make a new beach. I guess that is what got the world economy into such a mess. If you don’t have th money, just print it… but that’s a whole nother subject for a later date!

With gTLDs available to anyone with good TLD idea and about $200k, the future of domaining is going to change.

My opinion is that the new gTLD opportunity will dilute the market with so many TLD branding options that dot coms will loose some of the marketshare it has earned and the public will start to recognize the gTLDs to represent a category or keyword associated with each new property.

I see the type-in model giving way to the development of good generic and longtail dotcoms as the only way to retain marketshare and to hedge continually falling parking revenues.

Is it still the wildwest for domainers? I believe that we, like early explorers are about to embark on a journey that with further expand our limited view of the possibilities that the web still holds for those bold enough to stake thier claim and pursue take a risk on the opportunites the future holds.

For those that are aggressively building their portfolio, exciting times ahead. Carpe Diem!