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What's Up With All These New Domain Extensions?

by 101AnonymousGuy101
13 replies
I have seen quite a few interesting extensions lately. I saw .directory, .club, .rocks, .financial, and many others.

Are these extensions worth anything?
#domain #extensions
  • Profile picture of the author thefulltimer
    As a pretty successful domain name investor, I'll say this. If you are looking to invest in domains, stick with .com. It's still very much a dot com world. If you have a specific reason to buy a domain with one of these new extensions and it fits your business model, by all means go for it.

    There are literally 1000+ new extensions out or coming out and 99% of them will be short lived. Some will find a home. Just like .info or .mobi did. But 98% of my portfolio is made up of .com.

    If you want to learn more about these new extensions, check out DomainInvesting.com (Not my website, nor am I affiliated with it in any way).
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnnyPlan
    These new extensions might seem weird now, but give it a few years when they are all taken for popular keywords and you will wish you had gathered up a few of your own. This is the new frontier, don't miss out.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    They are there for registrars and icann to make more money. I wouldn't buy them. I doubt that many of them will sell well purely as a domain.
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  • Profile picture of the author Clixess
    Nothing can beat the .com !

    All these new extensions will only confuse the average visitors.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Davison
    I'm with everyone else, sticking with .com but I would also add that I have had success with .net as well and if the .com isn't available then I go for the .net.

    Mark.
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  • Profile picture of the author 101AnonymousGuy101
    Thanks everybody for your reply.

    Personally I feel that these extensions are not worth anything right now. But 10-15 years later, people may get used to with these.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
      A Few of them will stick but theres just waaaay to many coming out.
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    • Profile picture of the author JensSteyaert
      Originally Posted by bizarrionetwork View Post

      Thanks everybody for your reply.

      Personally I feel that these extensions are not worth anything right now. But 10-15 years later, people may get used to with these.
      Yes if you get these domains now, and you got some top level domain names they might be worth something in the future.

      But for now they are worthless, so all you can do now basically is hold on to them and hope they will increase in value.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jack Gordon
    If you stop thinking like a domain investor and start thinking like a human being, they start to make a little more sense.

    Probably the biggest immediate victim of the new extensions is the .net - it is no longer the natural backup to .com

    .com will still rule for a while, but it is foolish to think all of the new extensions will fail.

    Some will fail, some will succeed, and most will probably plod along.

    However - and this is important - they have changed the way this game is played. Traditional domain portfolios will plummet in value, as important keywords suddenly have dozens or hundreds of new possible extensions.

    Over the next few years, we will begin to see the new extensions show up everywhere in popular culture - videos, signs, brochures, radio, etc.

    Most people could not care less that .com is .king - what they care about is that they get a memorable domain. The new extensions WILL gain credibility and acceptance. Maybe in a year, maybe in three. But it is coming, and to discount it outright is foolish.

    Better to get ahead of it and get the killer extensions for your business interests now, while you can.

    What I would not do is treat them like .coms and try to invest in them, hoping for a big sale. With so many alternatives, speculation is going to be much more difficult.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve B
      Originally Posted by Jack Gordon View Post

      Traditional domain portfolios will plummet in value . . . Most people could not care less that .com is .king

      I take the opposite view on this one . . .

      IMO, traditional domain portfolios that have great dot com names already will become more and more valuable.

      Great dot com domains will become more scarce as time goes on and even though not everyone cares about such things, for those that do, the great dot coms will command an even higher price.

      Steve
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      • Profile picture of the author Jack Gordon
        Originally Posted by Steve B View Post

        I take the opposite view on this one . . .

        IMO, traditional domain portfolios that have great dot com names already will become more and more valuable.

        Great dot com domains will become more scarce as time goes on and even though not everyone cares about such things, for those that do, the great dot coms will command an even higher price.

        Steve
        I don't view that opinion as contradictory to mine.

        Great .coms will likely be king for the foreseeable future. However, most .coms don't fall into the category of "great," and within a couple of years, mediocre .com domains will no longer be preferable to great alternative TLDs.

        A mere 14 years ago, AOL was a powerhouse that was able to purchase Time Warner. How did that turn out? Things move faster than warp online, and the new reality is coming quickly.

        The big change that is happening now means that everything we do online no longer has to fit into a broad categorical box (.com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, etc). Most people will spend 5 minutes being confused about it, then figure it out, accept it and even come to like it.

        As more web sites adopt sensible alternative TLDs, that will push acceptance among the public. Momentum will build to the point that, before long, nobody will think twice about looking at the extension as part of the brand.

        The only people really harmed are domain speculators. I am one of them. Believe me, I wish this never happened. I fully believe my investment is being greatly devalued by this move. But, it is life. I will be ok, and so will everyone else.

        Mark my words... 5 years from now, the .com superiority complex will be as weird as the idea of AOL Time Warner.
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        • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
          There have long been alternatives to .com such as .net and .org

          There has been .info, .us. .ws, .mobi, .pro, .co., .biz and others.

          None of them have dethroned the .com. To assume the plethora of new domains will do so runs counter to all experience so far.

          5 years from now, and ever more searches are done on phones, I don't see the new domains extensions, some of which are quite long, having much success.

          That doesn't mean a particular website cannot succeed with a new domain - probably because it would succeed with any domain extension. But those will likely be the rarities.

          In any event, at this point most popular words associated with the new extensions have been snapped up by speculators. In a year or two, when they have been unable to sell the domains, they will be released to the market and then we will see what adoption occurs.

          before long, nobody will think twice about looking at the extension as part of the brand.
          I disagree. Many of the extensions make it more difficult to realize one is looking at a web address. I think they will be rejected for that reason.

          Example: .TECHNOLOGY - I don't see this being adopted due to its length and lack of clarity about being a domain extension.

          .
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          • Profile picture of the author Jack Gordon
            I think what everyone is missing is that we really aren't talking about adding a new extension or two attempting to dethrone the .com dominance.

            Instead we are talking about a paradigm shift, where over the next few years over a thousand new extensions will begin flowing though the popular landscape, forcing people to figure out that .com no longer works for everything they want.

            This will be forced from the top down, with major companies registering proprietary extensions that you can bet they will begin using in the very near future in all of their advertising. Here is a small example, but there are many others (source: Technology Newsmakers - Retail brands register their own top-level domains - Internet Retailer)
            WalMart Stores registered .george, .asda, .samsclub, and .walmart. George is a line of clothing produced by Wal-Mart, and Asda is a British supermarket chain owned by Wal-Mart.

            Gap Inc., registered domains for each of its retail brands: .bananarepublic, .gap, .oldnavy and .piperlime.

            TJX Cos Inc., which owns the Marshalls, HomeGoods and TJMaxx brands .homegoods, .homesense, .marshalls, .tjmaxx, .tjx and .tkmaxx.

            The Home Depot Inc., No. 16, registered .homedepot and .thd.

            Target Corp, Staples Inc., Dell Inc. and Macy’s Inc. all registered domains for their flagship brands.
            It is not the small entrepreneurs and disaffected domain investors who will carry the burden of acclimating society to this new reality. If it was, then I agree it would fail.

            Each of those companies above has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars (and in some cases millions) to embrace the new opportunities of the new TLD landscape. They are the ones who will go first, and once the mold is broken, all of us little guys will poke our heads out of the ground, look around, and realize it is safe to begin doing the same.

            It is not a matter of if, but when.

            I am not saying .com will quickly fade to obscurity. Of all of the old .TLDs, it will hang on the longest. But eventually, it will stop holding the power over us that it has now, because, just maybe, with 1200 other choices, there will be a different extension that is just as good or better for your next project.

            Once that happens, the .com sitting on a landing page with a five-figure price tag will be laughed off, and the .travel, or .law, or .training, or .photo, or .credit or even .technology won't look so bad.

            Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

            There have long been alternatives to .com such as .net and .org

            There has been .info, .us. .ws, .mobi, .pro, .co., .biz and others.

            None of them have dethroned the .com. To assume the plethora of new domains will do so runs counter to all experience so far.

            5 years from now, and ever more searches are done on phones, I don't see the new domains extensions, some of which are quite long, having much success.

            That doesn't mean a particular website cannot succeed with a new domain - probably because it would succeed with any domain extension. But those will likely be the rarities.

            In any event, at this point most popular words associated with the new extensions have been snapped up by speculators. In a year or two, when they have been unable to sell the domains, they will be released to the market and then we will see what adoption occurs.

            I disagree. Many of the extensions make it more difficult to realize one is looking at a web address. I think they will be rejected for that reason.

            Example: .TECHNOLOGY - I don't see this being adopted due to its length and lack of clarity about being a domain extension.

            .
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