jmccormac - 7:41 am on May 10, 2006 (gmt 0)

I'm mildly amused by the resale offerings of various "word phrase domains" under the .EU domain. I just don't see the market, but . . . who knows?

It is classic early market speculation. The trading prices for domains have not been established and there is a lot of iron pyrites domains in the hands of speculators. They are in for some very nasty surprises. It often takes at least 18 months or more before anyone has a realistic idea of the value of a domain.

Has anyone thought about - teased out the role - of language in the evolution of .EU domains?

Yes. I've been looking at the problem of language as it applies to domains in the .eu gTLD and what seems to be emerging is a highly fragmented (along country/linguistic lines) gTLD. This is based on approximately 1.1 Million .eu domains that I've detected here so far.

Will languge play a unique role in the user adoption or limitation use of this uniquely European domain - .EU?

Common generics/numerics will bridge the gaps but as a gTLD it will fragment along country and linguistic lines. The rest will be PPC landing pages, protective registrations and hoarded domains.

Maybe Europeans will default to .EU instead of .com at some point? When? What will it take?

A properly run registry that is selected by a real panel of experts rather than a bunch of EU flunkies who don't understand the domain or hosting business. There is a very real backlash beginning to occur against .eu in some European countries and if anything, the launch of .eu has caused a flight to quality - new customers seem to be more eager to get their ccTLD dom if it is available. The .eu is very far down the list and some hosters now seem to be considering bundling it as a special offer with other domains - not quite the way .info was dumped on the market but as a .cctld/.eu bundle where possible.

There is a rather disturbing element to all this - according to one post I saw yesterday, apparently PwC only validates 1000 domains per day from the Sunrise phases. So most Sunrise 2 applications may not get accepted/approved for months. If this is correct then the level of incompetence associated with this validation process is astounding but all too believable when it comes to the Commission, Eurid and .eu gTLD.

Without that core of quality business domains that are languishing in Sunrise limbo, .eu has no credibility as a gTLD. And the critical aspect of the thing is that these domains are important because they are leader domains - they are the big name companies that the market looks to. So if the market in a particular country does not see these leaders with .eu domains, there is a cascade effect that causes people to associate the gTLD with being just another gimmick domain like .name or a backwater gTLD like .biz or .info. The more I think about this, the more ridiculous the whole .eu gTLD becomes.

Regards...jmcc