The domains are gone!

I was looking into getting a new domain for a new site tonight and there's almost nothing available for .com (and many of the others anyway). They're either used by existing sites or, in many cases, held captive by domain pirates (ok, perhaps that's not the technical term...).

That's all, I guess. Just frustrating!


But a question: what's next? In 10 years, .com will be dead because it won't be current. Is there a next step? Will domains still exist? What will be the next directory of the internet?

There are a couple dozen new TLDs set to be released within the next year or so. I've even got a few preordered.

-- currently approved

-- applied for

No idea when it will all come to "to be." There are still .com's available, though, just not short ones. Short sentences are just as easy to remember. And the business of trading .com's will persist for many, many years. They're still the most recognizable TLD.

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There are a couple dozen new TLDs set to be released within the next year or so.

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Interesting. So now that the 1-800 numbers are gone, a number of inferior 877, 888 (etc.) numbers are available. Although perhaps necessary, I don't see this as an improvement.

One advantage here is that you can have silly names like dynamicdri.ve or webdesi.gn, but the novelty of those will probably ware off... right? Or is that the future?

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There are still .com's available, though, just not short ones. Short sentences are just as easy to remember.

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Perhaps. But still more awkward, mostly because people are too lazy to type in the URL. On the other hand, perhaps modern search engine and bookmarking practices make memorizing URLs obsolete.

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And the business of trading .com's will persist for many, many years.

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This is negative, I think. It's like real estate. Think of settling the United States several centuries ago (and ignore the historically relevant but metaphorically irrelevant displacement and mistreatment of the Native Americans). Land was just there to be taken, with the government at times literally giving it away. That's roughly the $10 per .com fee at this point. But pretty soon there will be no more real estate, and prices will skyrocket. Ironically, unlike a real-world situation where land is actually a limited resource, that's just not true on the internet. But it is true due to the way things ended up being organized!

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[.com domains] They're still the most recognizable TLD.

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Will that change? Or are we stuck with it?

Agreed on all points.

As for longer domain names, I think it is already "good advice" to choose a domain name that is easy to memorize over one that is quick to type. If I was choosing my domain name today, for example, I can guarantee it would not have a hyphen in it.

And note that many of the new TLDs are not the 2-3 character acronyms we're used to. Some of the domains I have pre-ordered, for example:

******.gallery (for a client who owns an art gallery)
******.app (for a software application I am developing)
adrian.rocks (because I rock)

Not the shortest names, though, by far. .LIFESTYLE, .INSURANCE, .AFAMILYCOMPANY, and of course .MCDONALDS. I don't know that there is actually a limit on how long they're allowed to be (it'll break a lot of homegrown URL validation scripts!).

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As for longer domain names, I think it is already "good advice" to choose a domain name that is easy to memorize over one that is quick to type.

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This is a change, right? It used to be common knowledge that shorter was better, right? I'm not saying I disagree, but I think it's partly because before it was possible to get memorable and short (rather than your favorite ten-word sentence), but now you have to pick.

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I can guarantee it would not have a hyphen in it.

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Haha. Like my website. And I know what you mean. I wouldn't do that again.

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And note that many of the new TLDs are not the 2-3 character acronyms we're used to. Some of the domains I have pre-ordered, for example:

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Interesting, yes.

It seems like it's almost circular: we can now have a new TLD called ".webdesign" and go from there. So any old .com now has a TLD counterpart and subdomains to follow. Anyone else find that a bit strange?

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******.gallery (for a client who owns an art gallery)
******.app (for a software application I am developing)
adrian.rocks (because I rock)

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Those are pretty cool. I'm not sure how professional they seem (maybe it'll be fine in a couple years once the .com thing has worn off-- just think about what a huge linguistic impact .com has had on all of our minds!!).

I think it would be really cool to have:
FIRSTNAME.LASTNAME

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I don't know that there is actually a limit on how long they're allowed to be (it'll break a lot of homegrown URL validation scripts!).

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Yes. Strange.
It seems that a better approach might be reverting to IPs plus some kind of official naming conventions with a central search engine.
Or I suppose we can all just go by the stupid looking pixelated blocks that are appearing all over the place :p



Edit:
One more thought: how do TLDs work? Who decides this? And will they all be supported by everyone, or is it possible that some (say .MCDONALDS) won't work consistently/globally?? Will this overwork the DNSs?

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Originally Posted by djr33

This is a change, right? It used to be common knowledge that shorter was better, right? I'm not saying I disagree, but I think it's partly because before it was possible to get memorable and short (rather than your favorite ten-word sentence), but now you have to pick.

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Yeah, it's a change. An interesting parallel is when all of the two-letter .com domain names were taken: they used to be very highly sought-after.

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Originally Posted by djr33

It seems like it's almost circular: we can now have a new TLD called ".webdesign" and go from there. So any old .com now has a TLD counterpart and subdomains to follow. Anyone else find that a bit strange?
[ ... ]
I think it would be really cool to have:
FIRSTNAME.LASTNAME

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Yeah, except my last name has a hyphen in it. :p

Expensive, though. Somewhere around $190,000 to have your application evaluated. Plus, you have to be qualified as a registrar. And this doesn't include the actual operating fees.

The application window is already closed, however.

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Originally Posted by djr33

One more thought: how do TLDs work? Who decides this? And will they all be supported by everyone, or is it possible that some (say .MCDONALDS) won't work consistently/globally?? Will this overwork the DNSs?

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iCANN is responsible for all this, including making sure they don't break anything in the process.

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Yeah, except my last name has a hyphen in it.

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:D

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Expensive, though. Somewhere around $190,000 to have your application evaluated. Plus, you have to be qualified as a registrar. And this doesn't include the actual operating fees.

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Well, at that price the $9000 or so price tag on some of these current domains doesn't seem too bad!

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iCANN is responsible for all this, including making sure they don't break anything in the process.

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Hm, arbitrary [and they effectively own the internet, for no real reason-- imagine if Iran or North Korea decided to reject their leadership for political reasons...]. Maybe not bad, though. I guess someone needs to be in charger, rather than making it decentralized...

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Originally Posted by djr33

Well, at that price the $9000 or so price tag on some of these current domains doesn't seem too bad!

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Well, what you're really doing is applying to be a registrar. Hopefully, the application + annual fees will be small change compared to what you earn by selling domains under .YOURLASTNAME :)

Hope you come from a large family.

*And Mr. Smith jumped up and down and clapped triumphantly at the thought of his new business venture, while he thought about calling his friends Ms. Li and Dr. Johnson to see if they also wanted to get in on the plans. Unfortunately his pet poodle, Mr. cuddles-a-lot, would need to sit this one out...*

.come 2/3/4 letters are already gone and most sensible names are gone too but if you try you can still get unregistered names in .com
Generally, its better to take an average .com name than taking a specific/very good domain with non-dotcom extension (defeats the purpose since most people would go to .com in the beginning till your site gets popular)