[cnn.com...]
The Jury seems to be out on whether non credentialized people can register names and more importantly keep them.
EnCirca think they have found a way of doing it by using themselves as the "Credentialized Party" ICANN think this may be not what they intended for their restricted gTLDs.
They wanted hundreds of dollars for 3rd level domins
example.law.pro
example.med.pro
example.Eng.Pro
Then reality set in that .Pro had failed with the far reaching restrictions and pricing (Vint Cerf even concedes this point) and pricing ,what had happed was .Pro ended up being an exclusive club for less than 50 people .
Second level was then opened with the same restrictions but the same pitifull registration results ..
So EnCrica opened registrations for anyone willing to fork over $49 for a domain (1 month special went back to $99 April 1).
They are the official registrant and they lease you the domain .. in doing so you dont have to have to prove any credentials ( law degree , Med degree etc.) You are free to build you website , sell the doamin etc ..anything you like
In other words any one can now own a .Pro that's willing to Fork over $99 a piece for a second level .Pro domain .. you still need to prove credentiuals for 3rd level domains..
You cannot register Tort.Law.Pro for example with proper credintials.
It is my position that in order to maintain the "exclusivity" of 3rd level for those with credentials (example.Law.Pro )
That ICANN embrace the idea opening up second level so anyone can continue to register example.Pro .. Because second level is actually desirable for most people and that by keeping the price at $49-$99 and above will keep the .Pro image as for only those serious about their business.
Those second level registrations can then support the 3rd level "exclusive" area for those with credentials.
This keeps with the spirit of providing an area especially for credentialed professionals and at the same time makes .Pro finally a viable business .
You can read the deabtes at registrypro.pro
I mean, as SE's try to validate more and more information on high ranking pages for serp credibility, the .pro domain might help in ranking a Professional's site?
I wouldn't think it would help in the SE's ..be treated liike any other extension.
That said , It may have some benefits in human edited directories..something along the lines of .Org
I have 2 .Pro sites started but not ready for submission so cant say for certain.
I guess where I was heading with this was in a hilltop sense.
I mean, as SE's try to validate more and more information on high ranking pages for serp credibility, the .pro domain might help in ranking a Professional's site?
I think the current opening up of .pro means a lot of sites will not be from the niche of professional companies and persons it was intended to serve originally.
If all the sites were from these sections of society it is a lot more feasible that the search engines could weight accordingly, however such weightings would be much more complex given the recent mix of registrations.
