There’s no doubt in my mind that the events we are witnessing and will be witnessing will be highlighted in the Internet’s history book. Now sure, we had gTLD introductions in the past as well but comparing those situations to ours doesn’t make sense.
Due to the sheer volume of extensions that are being released, it’s safe to say that we are dealing with something unprecedented and at the same time unpredictable.
In my opinion, being “here” (in other words, being domainers in 2014) is a privilege and no matter which side of the fence you’re on, I’m convinced you’ll have a lot to learn this year.
Some people think the new gTLD introduction is a good idea.
Some think it’s a bad idea.
Some think new gTLDs in general will gain traction.
Some think they won’t.
Some think there are lots of opportunities for domainers.
Some think there aren’t.
… the list could go on and on.
I love the fact that we as domainers are able to engage in such discussions because being exposed to all sorts of different arguments ultimately puts us in a better position to make informed decisions.
I hope things will continue in this manner and most importantly, I hope the domaining industry will prove to be mature enough to generate rational as opposed to emotional debates. Civilized as opposed to heated. Constructive as opposed to destructive.
January 29th, 2014 at 7:44 pm
Count me as a two-thumbs down vote for the gtlds. I am confident beyond a shadow of a doubt that they will fail as have other non-.com’s before them.
January 29th, 2014 at 11:17 pm
@Pete: I respect your opinion but disagree. Given the sheer magnitude of new gTLDs that are coming to the market, comparing this situation with previous gTLD launches is like comparing apples to oranges.
In the past, we only had one launch at a time and all in all, there just wasn’t enough activity for the idea of new gTLDs to go mainstream. Ask 10 people to name two gTLDs aside from dot com/net/org and their local ccTLD and you’ll notice that most won’t be able to.
This will most likely change due to the fact that at this point, we will have a very large number of new gTLDs and in light of this, it just won’t be possible for the general public to overlook the fact that they exist.
We’ll have regular new gTLDs, we’ll have more and more powerful brands which will use their own gTLDs and all in all, the events will probably unfold in such an overwhelming manner that it will be hard if not impossible for the general public to ignore new gTLDs.