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I
spent all day Monday
flying home from India
after spending last weekend at the 2015
DomainX conference in
Bangalore. As I result I didn't
see the big
news about Google
launching a new holding company for
their various enterprises called Alphabet
on the domain ABC.XYZ
until yesterday morning. I've spent
some time since then reading some of
the countless press reports that
have understandably created a lot of
excitement in the new gTLD
community as well as expressions
of continued skepticism from other
quarters.
The
news and opinions were everywhere
including in our local paper,
the Tampa Bay Times,
this morning. This
is obviously a major coup for new
gTLDs and especially for .XYZ
and its founder Daniel
Negari. However,
opinions on exactly how much impact
it will have on overall
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ABC-XYZ
blocks image from Bigstock
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new
gTLD recognition
and acceptance ranged from very
little all the way up to Wired's
breathless proclamation that the announcement
signals the end
of .com dominance. As is usually the
case with such extremes, the outcome
will likely fall somewhere in the
middle but the fact remains no
one knows for certain exactly
where the needle will end up on that
spectrum.
I
personally think this is a really solid
cornerstone to build on, but the
new gTLDs will still need many
more bricks in the wall. The
thing that made .com dominant
was that it was adopted by almost every
major corporation around the world,
so .com was seen everywhere you
turned, becoming synonymous
with the Internet. It is still
everywhere you turn and I think it
will take a lot of time for that to
change. Even many new gTLD
registries have admitted that uptake
has not met their expectations to
date. We will of course see
more and more new gTLD raindrops hit
the .com stone but that stone is so
massive I suspect it will take a
long time to erode it significantly.
As for this specific case, Alphabet
will not be a consumer facing site
and Google's use of the name is a special
case, something Alan Dunn
broke down very astutely (as he
always does) on his NameCorp
blog.
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In
any case the Google play has
given awareness of
the existence of new
gTLDs a big and much needed
shot in the arm. This
particular string - ABC.XYZ
- also looks like a perfect
match for the Alphabet
name - demonstrating the
branding possibilities
opened by the arrival of new
gTLDs. As developments like
this occur it is always wise
to assess them, case by
case, and make a decision
whether to stand pat or
re-calibrate
your own |
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investment plans.
New gTLDs are going to be
part of the game from now
on, so if you like
playing the game, as I do,
you have to weigh how they
are going to affect your
stack of chips and place
your bets accordingly.
(For the record I have
registered a limited number
of new gTLDs in areas of
special interest to me,
budgeting a figure that
would not hurt me even if
those registrations are a
total loss). |
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With
this Google win and a
tireless marketing effort at
his back, it looks like
Daniel Negari has already won
big on his initial
$185,000 bet (the initial
application fee) on .xyz. I
think the fact that the
TLD's registration numbers
have been enormously
inflated by doling out a ton
of free domains and
thousands more for as little
as a dollar apiece, has overshadowed
the non-stop marketing
spadework Negari and his
team has done with
registries, purple man
mascots, bobsled teams - you
name it. He has managed to
keep his extension and
himself in the spotlight ever
since .xyz went live.
Were
it not for the firestorm of
criticism leveled at him (me
being among those critics)
for touting numbers inflated
by giveaways as evidence of
popular demand, I think
people would have been
lauding Daniel as one of the
best marketers of a new
extension ever (a la
the .co folks) - and
he would be deserving of
that recognition. With the
Google coup, he will still get
those accolades on the
broader business stage
because the registration
brouhaha was mostly
"inside baseball"
that mainstream media and
the man on the street
doesn't know or care about.
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.XYZ
Founder & CEO Daniel
Negari |
However
anyone feels about
"registration-gate"
the man is getting results. If you
happen to be in Southern California
next week, and want to hear more
about how he has done it - straight
from the horse's mouth - Negari will
be hosting the August 20
meeting of the Southern
California Domainers at .XYZ
headquarters in Los Angeles.
You can register for the 6:30PM
meeting here.
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