jmccormac - 1:11 pm on Apr 26, 2006 (gmt 0)

maybe all the domain hype about .eu is a joke?

The launch of any gTLD is like this. It was the same for .info and .biz and it seems that very few of the lessons were learned. But then EUrid is the creation of three ccTLDs: the Belgian .be registry, the Swedish .se registry and the Italian .it registry. None of them have any operational experience of running a gTLD and most of the practices and procedures of EUrid seem to reflect the operation of a small ccTLd registry rather than a gTLD operation. That's the problem - a lack of experience. These guys just aren't up to the challenge and it is not the kind of thing you can learn about as you go along without making serious mistakes.

but what's behind the bubble?

Greed? Human nature? The insanity of crowds. Much of .eu is heavily speculated domain registrations. Most will drop within 18 months and will not even be used. If you look at any gTLD, you will find that only 70% of the domains on average are active (have active nameservers). The number being actively used goes down lower, perhaps 40-50%. There is always a big landrush at the start of the launch of a gTLD but it is really only the registrars who get rich off it.

Regards...jmcc