

The Best Internet Addresses Will Cost a Cool .Million - ams1
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/the-best-internet-addresses-will-cost-a-cool-million/

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saturdayplace
I have a feeling that organizations that are able (financially and
technically) to run their own domain (named after their brand, ie .coke or
.nike) will start to seem more authoritative than those that can only afford a
.com address. Companies that end up doing this will inevitably have very
corporate-looking/feeling sites that give consumers confidence in the
organization. This in turn, will lead to people giving more credence to the
custom TLDs than to .coms.

Not sure about what the impression might be of those who register websites
with a generic domain (.softdrinks, or .shoes). That seems to swing the other
direction.

Seems the usefulness of owning such a custom TLD id limited to those with huge
brands to protect.

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jacquesm
To me this is just a money grab by ICANN, they had better specify how they
plan to use the money that they will cash by setting up this scam for the
public good.

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saturdayplace
No doubt about the $$$ grab. I'm just thinking about the implications of
_having_ such a domain. Aside from providing the TLD system, what benefit do
we have from ICANN now? And what benefit can you imagine them providing with
all the potential loot from this move?

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sosuke
I'd love to hear from the professional domain squatters what they think this
will do for their business model. I can't remember names but I know some of
the larger players can afford to pay for those TLDs.

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saturdayplace
They might be able to afford the application process, but would they be able
to handle the infrastructure required to _administer_ the TLDs they buy? Seems
like a costly and time consuming proposition for squatters.

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wmf
You can outsource all the infrastructure to a real registry. (Like how the
"non-profit" PIR outsources all operations to Afilias.)

I agree that trying to buy a TLD specifically for the purpose of domain
squatting is very risky. But in case anyone wants to try it, may I suggest
.con?

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dc2k08
Every phisher's dream. I wonder if ICANN would be short-sighted enough to let
that one through the application process.

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jacquesm
That's a lot of money for a domain name. Tell you what, for a 'cool million'
you can have ww.com .

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mgenzel
Seems like it's time to get rid of domain names period :) Why not go back to
numbers? Most people use search engines to get where they're going anyway.
Who's with me? :)

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jacquesm
I know you're joking but I'm not sure if it wouldn't be better to only have a
'dns' that maps anonymous 10 digit numbers to ip numbers. You could then use
your own 'local' address book (much like your cell phone address book) to map
those numbers (that are portable) to your own descriptions.

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mgenzel
I'm half-joking. Obviously, there are benefits to domain names; however, I'm
not sure how we can return to the egalitarian nature of web addresses, what
with most normal domain names taken. We'll go through a few more years of
Socialisrs, Ooookies, StupidCombos, and ReallyReallyLongDomainNames, but then
what? Domain names that cost tens of thousands of dollars on average? I'm not
looking forward to that future.

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aptimpropriety
I'd say the likes of .copm, .cop, etc. will be hot property - typical typos I
always used to do.

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BerislavLopac
I want to register .localhost ... :)

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run4yourlives
No worries, since I'll just register .milllion for $30 and call it a day.

This is either going to be more of the same (with .com) or it will be a
complete non-starter.

(Oh wait, I just saw the end. Hah, $200K? Nobody will care.)

