What Precedes the Dot in Open TLD's?

As I mentioned in my post about that very odd ICANN decision to open up Top Level Domains (TLD's) to virtually any words, it seems like a rather odd move toward confusion and a blow to the concept of Intellectual Property rights.

The first thing to occur to me when I heard this idea mentioned a few weeks back was "What comes before the dot?" Often mentioned in this discussion is the fact that eBay is agitating to be one of the first corporations to buy a TLD - dot ebay. But WHAT.ebay and do they now become registrars or do they simply now have the ability to control the domain name and add virtually anything they like ahead of the dot?

I imagine they'll use the domain name to break out areas for product categories such as auto.ebay and cameras.ebay, etc. And/Or perhaps they'll sell those domains to sellers who have "stores" on ebay so they have a "brand" on ebay. But what of those who start brand squatting within those sites - say Apple.ebay or Canon.ebay etc. Hmmm - not just ebay, but everywhere they can get hold of a new second level domain or even subdomain - who will police this? Wipo?

Below is a quote from Matt Hooker on CircleID about the new domain TLD's.

... it will lead to absolute confusion, and people will not be able to remember one web site from another based on their names. People will not be able to differentiate one web site from another based on their names - and this is a disaster in the making, since we humans use names for everything. We use Language, and by allowing more gTLD's we are creating great confusion in the language of the internet.

This isn't just about confusion and IP protection, it's got to affect reputation management for even the little guy online. If someone else takes your domain name as a TLD - or even as a second level domain within that TLD - how to you maintain search rankings, which until now have been helped by using your brand or keywords in the domain name.

Is Google looking nervously at this development? That element of the algorithm where keywords or brands in domain names carry significant ranking weight is about to be discounted unless they stick with dot com as the default ranking element and manually adjust each new, open domain TLD for it's (subjective) authority - based on the owner of that new domain - the age and probably on inbound links.

Type-in traffic is about to go out the window with this development, cookies may become much more important to customer retention and search engine optimization may be negatively impacted by this potential dilution in domain name authority.

Dot Doh! New TLD's: I Think ICANN, Therefore, ICANN

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN) has just thrown open the doors to a truly wild TLD concept at their meeting in Paris this week - in which anyone who can pony up a couple hundred grand or so, can make up their own domain extension. Below is the official ICANN announcement. Rather than quoting from it, I'll let you read and I'll reserve my commentary for follow-up posts.

Biggest Expansion to Internet in Forty Years Approved for Implementation

26 June 2008

Paris, France: The Board of ICANN today approved a recommendation that could see a whole range of new names introduced to the Internet's addressing system.

"The Board today accepted a recommendation from its global stakeholders that it is possible to implement many new names to the Internet, paving the way for an expansion of domain name choice and opportunity" said Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN.

A final version of the implementation plan must be approved by the ICANN Board before the new process is launched. It is intended that the final version will be published in early 2009.

"The potential here is huge. It represents a whole new way for people to express themselves on the Net," said Dr Twomey. "It's a massive increase in the 'real estate' of the Internet."

Presently, users have a limited range of 21 top level domains to choose from — names that we are all familiar with like .com, .org, .info.

This proposal allows applicants for new names to self-select their domain name so that choices are most appropriate for their customers or potentially the most marketable. It is expected that applicants will apply for targeted community strings such as (the existing) .travel for the travel industry and .cat for the Catalan community (as well as generic strings like .brandname or .yournamehere). There are already interested consortiums wanting to establish city-based top level domain, like .nyc (for New York City), .berlin and .paris.

"One of the most exciting prospect before us is that the expanding system is also being planned to support extensions in the languages of the world," said Peter Dengate Thrush, ICANN's Chairman. "This is going to be very important for the future of the Internet in Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia." The present system only supports 37 Roman characters.

Upon approval of the implementation plan, it is planned that applications for new names will be available in the second quarter of 2009.

Frequently asked questions on the process

1. Are you selling these new names?

 ICANN is not "selling" new top level domain names. There will be a limited application period where any established entity from anywhere in the world can submit an application that will go through an evaluation process. It is anticipated that there will be additional rounds relatively soon after the close of the first application round.

2. What's to stop others registering my brand name?

Trademarks will not be automatically reserved. But there will be an objection-based mechanism for trademark owners where their arguments for protection will be considered.

3. How did this proposal get developed?

ICANN has a multi-stakeholder policy development process that served as the foundation for the process design. It involved consultation with domain name industry, trade mark attorneys, the business sector, users, governments and technicians.

4. How will offensive names be prevented?

Offensive names will be subject to an objection-based process based on public morality and order. This process will be conducted by an international arbitration body utilizing criteria drawing on provisions in a number of international treaties. ICANN will not be the decision maker on these objections.

5. When will all this happen?

ICANN is working towards accepting the first applications in the second quarter of 2009.

About ICANN:

ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers like domain names (like .org, .museum and country codes like .uk) and the addresses used in a variety of Internet protocols that help computers reach each other over the Internet. Careful management of these resources is vital to the Internet's operation, so ICANN's global stakeholders meet regularly to develop policies that ensure the Internet's ongoing security and stability. ICANN is an internationally organized, public benefit non-profit company. For more information please visit: www.icann.org.

Media Contacts:

Jason Keenan
Media Adviser, ICANN
Ph: +1 310 382 4004
E: jason.keenan@icann.org

International: Andrew Robertson
Edelman (London)
Ph: +44 7921 588 770
E: andrew.robertson@edelman.com

This file last modified 26-Jun-2008 (Current Version)

© 2008 Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers

Dot .tel Top Level Domain Names December Sunrise

We started with web sites in their most simple form as online business cards with the requisite contact data, regardless of the domain name the information was hosted on - that was the beginning of web 1.0. We've come a long way since then, with ever more complex functions and levels of interactivity possible online, but still - domain names are more often a function of brand identity and business and personal touchpoints than single-purpose locations for ever more granular data assigned to separate domains.

We now have what appears at first glance to be a domain name intended as an internet business card with complete contact data served up publicly on a curiously non-hosted domain. This interesting animal is showing nothing but (extensive) contact data. It starts with the basic of phone numbers, emails, web sites, street addresses linked to maps, and including hyperlinked entry into all social networking pages. Kind of an expanded Whois which not only serves up contact data for the single representative of the domain owner, but any and all other contact data. This seems like a domain named equivalent of Plaxo.com.

This all appears to come with many layers of privacy protection so that you can offer only limited information publicly and more details to those you've "Friended" via an application process. But as always - one has to seriously question the levels of security and trust you are placing in the organization hosting this data on their servers. Hacker proof? Secure login and protected systems that cannot be accessed by anyone but the owner (that's you).

Still, it's an interesting prospect to have a single place to go for a globally accessible sort of phone book with granular access controls and privacy. It appears to allow instant editing from any web interface - so if you add a business location for your office in Los Angeles, it can be easily added to contact data for businesses. Email addresses and phone numbers can be added or edited at any time, assuming that secure login again.

The odd part of this concept is the idea of UNIQUE domain names. On the site, they show video tutorials which explain how businesses might reserve their corporate name as say, Apple.tel and list all of their worldwide offices, sales outlets and perhaps a staff directory of contact data and job titles. OK, that makes sense for those with registered trademarks and worldwide ownership of a corporate name.

What about individuals, which TelNic separates out to "Individuals" links and shows an example of an imaginary "Emma.tel" which of course belongs to a person named Emma - but what of the fact that there are several tens of thousands of Emma's who might (eventually) want that dot tel domain name? And forget it if your name happens to match a major corporation as they will undoubtedly qualify for ownership of surnamed companies, like oh - Ford.tel or McKesson.tel or similar instantly recognizable company names.

But when it comes to first names, we can't copyright and protect them - it's first come, first served. Celebrities - say Madonna.tel or ... you get the picture. Second to the table will no doubt choose FirstLast.tel names and then FirstMiddleLast.tel names, but that's about the limit and then we switch to .name hosted domains? Clearly pricing will determine how popular and competitive this space becomes. So far I haven't see pricing information on the TelNic.org site beyond this:

Prices for a .tel domain name will vary from registrar to registrar, but should remain comparable with the prices for other popular domain names

The .tel domain name itself brings images of "Telephone" and the registrar promotes it as viewable "on any platform" which also suggests phone accessibility, not to mention the demos on the site picturing several phone browsers, including the iPhone. But it seems to be more about a sort of directory and the TelNic Site says "Tell the World" as part of their promotion.

Below is the official press release which came out on Saturday.

PDF Version of Press TelNic Launch Announcement Press Release here.

PARIS, June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Telnic Limited, the Registry Operator and Sponsoring Organization for the new sponsored top level domain (sTLD) .tel, today announced details for launch at the ICANN meeting in Paris. Sunrise applications from national trademark owners will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis as of Wednesday, 3rd December 2008.

.tel enables you to store, update and publish all your contact information, web links and keywords directly on the internet under your own unique domain name. Simple, fast and accessible from any device, .tel provides a new internet standard to take full control over how and where people reach you. The .tel delivers:

• integration of any and all means of communication (i.e. Phone numbers, IM, VOIP, email, social media)
• real-time publishing of your contact information on the internet
• full ownership of your published data
• protection of your private data, only viewable by people you authorize
• simple structured navigation to easily reach the most relevant information
• high speed global access optimized for mobile devices
• multi-language, search engine-friendly structured information and keywords

"Thanks to its rich functionality and open specifications, .tel will open up new opportunities for registrars, resellers and developers alike," explained Justin Hayward, Communications Director at Telnic. "We've been working hard over the past years to make sure that everything we're delivering to the industry will enable it to take advantage of this new ecosystem."

As well as announcing its launch, Telnic unveiled its new website -http://www.telnic.org - for people to find out more about .tel. The Telnic website hosts comprehensive videos, information, policies and procedures for registrars, resellers, developers and IP owners.

About Telnic Limited

Founded in 2000, Telnic Limited is the UK-based Registry Operator and Sponsoring Organization for the new .tel sponsored top level domain (sTLD). For more information regarding the .tel domain or Telnic Limited, please visit http://www.telnic.org.

Finding Available Keyword Rich Domain Names Easily

Here is some great advice for the budding domainer looking for keyword rich domain names to drive traffic to your niche products or content sites.

1. Go to Google Keywords tool at this link and research your keywords, when it returns results, click the link at the top of the "Average Search Volume" column, paste the resulting list into a spreadsheet, then select the row of keywords (still sorted by search volume), select and copy that column of keywords to your clipboard
2. Go to this page by clicking the link (new window will open so you can still see the instructions here). Paste that list of keywords into the text box. Don't worry about the spaces, we remove them for you
3. Check only the .com box to get the best domains
4. The list returns those names still available if there are any
5. Reserve the ones you want and point them at your target niche pages to gain the extra "type-in" traffic.

If you prefer video instructions or missed something there, here's an 8 minute video that walks you through the process. Very well done:

Domain Name Registration Search Declines - Google

I've been spending a lot of time on Google Trends since discovering how useful it is to track interest levels over time on any particular keyword phrase search. As a Search Engine Optimization Specialist, I pay a lot of attention to Google Hot Trends to see what people are searching for by the hour.

I made note about that in a post a couple of days ago and pointed out that there are usually about a half-dozen specific domain name searches in the top 100 most frequently searched terms at any one time.

But today it occurred to me that interest levels are much lower in establishing new businesses online. Now it's not about internet riches that entrepreneurs dream - but business riches based on solid business models and real services with actual utility behind a web site.

Just four years ago, the internet bubble had burst and was re-inflating. Buying domain names for cybersquatting was bigger - or just finding the last of the remaining generic domain names.

Perhaps it is because people now go directly to their favorite registrar, rather than searching for domain sellers, but that would suggest that everyone now has a registrar bookmarked and doesn't do those navigational searches I've discussed here recently. I doubt that. But one thing is clear - searches about domain name registration are far less common than they were four years ago.

I'm Voting Republican Viral Video imvotingrepublican.com

Viral video campaign using a video title as domain name gets traction with voters.

During an election year, it's inevitable that there are thousands of videos attempting to go viral during the election campaign and gain fame and fortune for the producers. But these guys not only understand that a domain name matching your title or campaign http://www.imvotingrepublican.com/ will increase search engine visibility, but they also clearly understand social media as well, since they embed the video on their domain named home page AND provide embed code directly (so you don't leave to go to YouTube to get the code) AND they suggest that you embed the video (call to action) AND they understand the value of having an "I'm Voting Republican" MySpace Page for visibility.

Regardless of your political affiliation - you can learn from the producers at Synthetic Human when it comes to visibility.

Here's that video in case you are not interested in domain names or social media ;-)

Hot Domain Names in Google Hot Trends Searches

Google Hot Trends Reveals huge number of people search for domain names rather than typing them into the browswer address bar. Any list of popular keywords shows that yahoo.com, google.com and cnn.com are among the most searched phrases on the web on a daily basis - but Google Hot Trends refreshes on an hourly basis to show that the top 100 most frequently searched phrases at Google ALWAYS includes domain names on the list. On average that list of 100 top search terms at Google Hot Trends includes 5 or 6 domain names on the list, but on occasion it includes as many as twenty full url's!

When the list of searches gets that long for domain names, it is usually because there are about a dozen or so variations on the theme when people don't know proper spellings (or subdomains) of the URL - as in Del.icio.us. I discussed this phenomenon last week in a post about Navigational Search, but that post focused on people's preference for search above the address bar.

Now comes news that FireFox 3 (Download Beta here) will include navigational search in the browswer address bar. Hmmm, why would people use the address bar to search? This could be an interesting move, since it may get people to do their searches from the address bar and stop them from going to Google to do those searches for navigational purposes. Why go to Google, then type a domain name, then click a search result, when you could just make it a single step right in the address bar? Confusing right? Watch this video for more on FireFox 3 and searching from the browser address bar- or as FireFox is calling it - the "Awesome Bar."

Most of the address bar navigation stuff is within the first 30 seconds of that video, but there are other useful features such as Malware protections, bookmarking, tagging bookmarks and domain identity info right in that same address bar. Make it useful and maybe more people will use the address bar. But unless they heavily promote and advertise these features, my prediction is that people will STILL use the address bar very little.