The Wall street Journal published an article in their Managing Technology section on October 13, 2008 introducing the plans of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to sell new domains. This is to address the fact that all the good ".com" names have been taken and small businesses are left to buy domains that are long and cumbersome.
I know that by the time I was aware of the need to have web presence and searched domains, I could not believe how many were gone. I spent hours (probably days when you add them together) searching - after realizing that having my personal name as a domain was not a good idea. The ones I finally came up with - "the wordy leftovers" -- homesinoaklandcountymi.com and southeasternmichiganrealestate.com are definitely not convenient on a business card or to use as my e-mail address. I would definitely love to have a name like royaloak.realestate or royaloak.homes or other similar addresses of the many areas where I promote myself--Birmingham, Rochester Hills etc.
Apparently the intent is to provide small businesses with an alternative to these exhaustive domain names. The problem is that this ultimately is about making money. So they plan to auction them off to companies that have the "deep pockets" and they, in turn, will sell them to local companies. For example, someone who can afford it will buy .realestate for $100,000+ (they predict) and turn around and sell sub-addresses to local companies within their new domains--for probably $50/year (or more I would predict). Someone could buy Royaloak and then sell addressea to all the local restaurants and businesses.
They did quote Google officials who said that it does have "potential to cause widespread user confusion" but that the company does plan to include the domain names -- "subject to the same criteria as other sites: most relevant sites will be listed first". I for one am still focusing on "content is key" including bringing video to my websites and to Localism.
Royal Oak Realtor selling Real Estate in Southeastern Michigan. TishHouse sells Houses - selling Oakland County Real Estate with RE/MAX Showcase Homes in Birmingham, Michigan. Helping People in a challenging market by specializing in Short Sales. See what my clients have to say about my extraordinary customer service
