back to article First figures in and it doesn't look good for new internet dot-words

Figures on the number of new dot-word domain names renewed after their first time have emerged – and they are not absolutely stellar. More than one in 10 of the listed dot-thing domain names were not renewed. Registry giant Donuts has released two sets of data for the first batch of gTLD addresses it put on sale this time last …

  1. Ralph B

    Wildcard TLD

    The next stage of the ICANN TLD shakedown should be to offer a .* TLD where domains registered would be automatically registered in all other TLDs. It'll cost millions (billions?) to have one, but think of the savings in individual registrations, lawyer fees, admin etc.

    Then, when every company and organisation has got themselves a .* domain, ICANN could maybe introduce some new TLDs to categorise these .* domains by, oh, I don't know, nationality, commercial or non-commercial use, etc.

  2. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Meh

    In other news

    Almost nobody's buying snakeoil. Snakeoil producers say it's too early to comment on this year's figures and all their own studies and indicators show that when the next batch is out next year it'll sell like never before.

    1. big_D Silver badge

      Re: In other news

      I must admit, I don't think I've visited any site on any of the new gTLDs.

    2. Mark 85

      Re: In other news

      Almost nobody's buying snakeoil

      Bad news for the producers and sales droids. But good news for the snakes.

      1. Captain DaFt

        Re: In other news

        "Almost nobody's buying snakeoil

        Bad news for the producers and sales droids. But good news for the snakes."

        Don't be silly. Why would a snake want to be squeaky?

        1. Mark 85

          Re: In other news

          Hmm.... they get to live.

          Which reminds of the old joke, If coconut oil comes from coconuts, olive oil comes from olives. Where does baby oil come from?

          1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

            Re: In other news

            Where does baby oil come from?

            When a momma oil and a papa oil love each other very much...

  3. graeme leggett Silver badge

    Telling quote

    "Many in the industry feel that the main barrier to more registrations is awareness – in other words that people simply don't know care that the gTLDs exist"

    There fixed that for you.

    1. Danny 14

      Re: Telling quote

      exactly, "they" have store.com and most phones/tablets/brains have a .com button so they don't feel they need to pay silly money for store.food or store.clothes

    2. thames

      Re: Telling quote

      The more gTLDs there are, the more pointless any of the newer ones become. It's like ".biz" versus ".com". I just googled "dot biz", and the top two results were the Wikipedia article, and an SEO web site page explaining why having a "dot biz" is pointless if you want anyone to take your web site seriously.

      1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

        Re: Telling quote

        I think a dot.biz is better than a dot.co - unless you're Colombian of course.

        But, even if unfairly, I do tend to take both as a bit of a bad sign about a company.

  4. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    Even more URL's

    for Taylor Swift to snap up then...

    Paris because she is 'so yesterday'

    1. John Robson Silver badge

      Re: Even more URL's

      What aplan - a ".yesterday" domain, for celebrity has beens...

    2. MyffyW Silver badge
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Even more URL's

      Who should replace Paris Hilton as the icon of choice for "where's the <irrelevant> angle"

      a) Roger Irrelevant

      b) Unikitty

      c) Anna and Elsa from Frozen

      1. fearnothing

        Re: Even more URL's

        d) A large tusked pachyderm with flappy ears.

        Why? That's irrelephant.

      2. TeeCee Gold badge
        Paris Hilton

        Re: Even more URL's

        Except of course that there used to be a "Where's the IT angle" icon.

        The Paris icon was introduced for Paris related stuff and of course the "Jesus, even bloody Paris would get that" option, now a path less well trodden due to the slaphead icon.

        Not to mention it's also handy just about anything internet / sex / leak related.....

        1. Mark 85
          IT Angle

          Re: Even more URL's

          The "where's the IT angle?" is still there. ----------------------------->

  5. Graham Marsden
    Meh

    Colour me...

    ... unsurprised.

    Gullible idiots got caught up in the excitement in the first flurry after these were released, then realised that they were a waste of money and simply designed to make ICANN bosses' bonuses bigger.

  6. Mage Silver badge
    Devil

    "freedom of choice" that new domains

    Nonsense.

    Anyone is going to have the traditional domain too. Anyone relying on these new gTLD without the older name is mad.

    So, providers, boycotting them on your DNS only hurts the ICANN cash grab. Of course they don't want to spend their OWN money publicising them. They'd (rightly) see it up to the renter of the nee gTLD to spend money on publicity.

    Obviously too you are paying rent for exclusive use of a text string, you don't actually own anything!

  7. Jim 59

    Before gTLD revolution: "Yeah let's go to the Register web page. Bound to be theregister.co.uk..."

    After gTLD revolution: "Yeah let's go to the Register web page. Find the telephone directory so we can look up their telephone number and ask them what their URL is".

  8. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

    Is it wrong?

    I have got a rather childish desire to go out and buy myself a dot.ninja domain. Just for the amusement of telling people my email address. Is that wrong?

    Most of the other domains look pretty pointless. Although I think dot.london, dot.scot and the like will probably do OK.

    Part of the problem is the sheer number of them. And that the Registrars don't actually know their customers. So ours have been firing emails at me every other week seemingly, offering ones for digital photographers, plumbers, etc.

    The other thinig I can see working is the likes of dot.bank. If they genuinely only allow regulated banks in, have some proper standards, proper security and go through the rigmarole of getting approval from national regulators. Then they might succeed. But they'd have to have some more secure way of finding the domain your after, like a dot.bank only banking search engine. And they'd have to spend lots of money on marketing, to convince customers that for financial stuff they shouldn't search Google, but go to info.bank and go from there. That's quite a lot of hurdles to jump.

    You could do the same with a sort of internet approved traders scheme with dot.plumber, dot.electrician etc. But it would have to be much more of an approved operator scheme, than just a domain registry. And that requires proper investment, serious work, and some sort of standards and appeals/ombudsman process. So it's not just a get-rich-quick scheme. I'm not sure the Registrars are up to it.

    1. thames

      Re: Is it wrong?

      @I ain't Spartacus: "The other thinig I can see working is the likes of dot.bank. If they genuinely only allow regulated banks in, have some proper standards, proper security"

      You're going to give all your money to someone you've never heard of before just because they have a "dot bank" web site? Seriously?

      "But they'd have to have some more secure way of finding the domain your after"

      Or you could, oh, I don't know, perhaps just ask your bank?

      1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

        Re: Is it wrong?

        You're going to give all your money to someone you've never heard of before just because they have a "dot bank" web site? Seriously?

        What would happen if someone manages to poison Google so that a search for hsbc gives hsbc.scam, instead of hsbc.com? I'm presuming ICANN will have launced a dot.scam by now, given the high demand for it, and their high demand for cash... I doubt my Mum has her bank's website bookmarked, and so will be going through Google every time. A dot.bank domain would be useful for that.

        Again, people often find out who's giving the best savings rates by looking at the tables in the paper. Obviously if they go online, they can click directly on a link (assuming that's working properly). But otherwise they're going to be typing cahoot (or whatever other odd term) into Google. Then probably doing their usual level of checking - i.e. clicking on the first link.

        Whereas if everyone knew that dot.bank was where reputable financial institutions were, and you weren't allowed to register a dot.bank unless you were regulated by a legitimate national central bank (or banking regulator), then you'd have one less bit of guessing in the dark to do. If they were really on the ball the registrar could operate a national page, with best-of tables and the like, and then get cash out of the banks in the same way people like Money Supermarket do.

        I don't think it'll take off, as there are so many hurdles. But it could work. Basically you could end up with curated bits of the internet - with more or less strict controls on who's allowed to register. Dot.xxx is already a bit of a model for this, I've no idea how it's worked out though.

        1. thames

          Re: Is it wrong?

          @I ain't Spartacus - "What would happen if someone manages to poison Google so that a search for hsbc gives hsbc.scam, instead of hsbc.com?"

          So is "royal.bank" the Royal Bank of Canada (Canada's biggest bank), the Royal Bank of Scotland (weren't they a bit shaky?), or the Royal Bank of Nigeria (I just made that one up)? I guess I'll just have to google "Royal Bank" and click on the first link that comes up. Or I could just look at the business card the nice lady at the bank gave me when they set my account in the first place.

          @I ain't Spartacus - "you weren't allowed to register a dot.bank unless you were regulated by a legitimate national central bank (or banking regulator)"

          Because that works out so well for all the crooked banks in all the massively corrupt countries around the world. Do you have any idea how easy it is to get a financial institution license in a lot of countries? Do you have any idea how many "banks" are just brass plates or file folders in obscure third world countries?

          @I ain't Spartacus - "the registrar could operate a national page"

          Or the UK government could simply set up a ".bank.uk" sub-domain and tell the handful of existing UK banks to use that. Then it would be entirely under UK law in the same way the banks themselves were and you wouldn't have to worry about the honestly and integrity of the Royal Bank of Nigeria.

          1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

            Re: Is it wrong?

            thames,

            All valid points. On another thread, we were discussing the dot.bank registry, and I made the point that this would be run better on a national rather than global system.

            Or it may never happen. The domain system may remain the slightly chaotic place it is now.

            There is a possible business opportunity here though. Maybe... After all, someone has bet $150k on being allowed to set up a dot.bank registry.

            Oh, or it may go horribly wrong.

    2. VinceH

      Re: Is it wrong?

      "And they'd have to spend lots of money on marketing, to convince customers that for financial stuff they shouldn't search Google, but go to info.bank and go from there. That's quite a lot of hurdles to jump."

      One of which is that once you've drilled into people that they shouldn't search Google for financial stuff and that they should use info.bank instead, they'll start searching Google to get to info.bank in the first place.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      How to break Google search

      Consider "sutton bank" as a trivial example - does that refer to the bank or the, err, bank ?

      At the moment, if you type those 2 words into your search engine of choice then you can immediately see the ambiguity and select the appropriate item(s) from those listed on the first page of results.

      However, if both banks end up with lots of entries on many different TLDs then the usability of the search engine results is reduced and the value of a memorable domain name increased.

      Looks like a cunning plan to me.

  9. TeeCee Gold badge
    WTF?

    Does it matter?

    Let's face it, revenue from gTLDs has got to whatever it is from a starting point of, er, absolutely bugger all.

    Does the amount of free money being trousered actually matter?

  10. Oninoshiko
    Trollface

    those of us that know they exist

    don't care.

    That can't be helping.

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