The Future of .Co Domains: Another Boom Leading to Bust?

Bets have now been placed

[Webwork]

Have we been here before? Tell me why this time things are gonna be different?

.Mobi -> The future is mobile! Bust.

.Info -> Will be GREAT for INFORMATION websites! Do endless $.99 reg specials = .Iffy!

.Biz -> Errrr . . what was the buzz about biz? .Bizt!

.EU -> Sunrise! Get 'em while you can! .Eeuuuuw!

.Asia -> Huh? I dunno . . Any signs of life? .Aint!

.Me -> Hey! It's gonna be hot because it's all about ME! .Meh!

ZZZzzzzzzzzz

I say the money to be made is made by a) the registry during the tulip-mania period; and, b) anyone wise enough to flip a domain during the mania.

Sure, tell me that Overstock paid for O.co and that that proves something.

Didn't someone pay $$,$$$+ for Flowers.mobi? And that proved what?

Oh, I know! You can get a great keyword domain and that is where it's at! You are gonna rank! rank! rank! because you've got the keyword!

Of course, those who have been around for awhile have noticed how the weighting of keywords in domains is always a heavily rated factor. :P

Oh, but you have the keyword domain . . so everyone is just going to have to link to you . . because . . You've got great content and . . and . . no one else does?

So, my money is what is now happening is just another in a long line of domain tulip crazes. My money is on profits being made by those who flip their domains ASAP for a reasonable profit. (Don't be the last man/woman holding the bag . . err . . .Co)

So, tell me again, why .Co is the future and is great! great! great!

Please, tell me! I want to believe!

Wanna bet? :P ;)

[Webwork]

I know. I know. I'm such a wet blanket. I mean, the honeymoon isn't even over and already I'm talkin' about . . how often domain love doesn't last . .

Consider this my . . cough . cough . . apology . .

[Durham_e]

Whew ....

.tv wasn't on the list

[jmccormac]

.tv wasn't on the list

Probably limited to TLDs that people had heard of. :)

Regards...jmcc

[MamaDawg]

You forgot .ws and .name (or is that going back too far?)

It's going to be a payday for early flippers, spammers and phishers (and the registry!) Can you say "zero credibility" with the general public? It's a 3rd rate .com with a letter missing and a higher pricetag. Doesn't matter how nice a site you build on it, the first high-profile news report of malicious use will send people scrambling to avoid it and leave you swimming against the tide to convince would-be visitors that your site's legit.

Overstock also bought O.biz (which they're using for their b2b products) - somebody over there is lovin' those short domains :).

[maximillianos]

I see no value in them beyond brand protection.

.TV names have done fairly well for themselves. I run a .TV site that ranks really well and holds its own against .COM names in SERPS.

.MOBI - We all knew this was a bad idea before it even started. When we already have so many free options (m.mydomain.com, mydomain.com/m, etc) why would would anyone need a new domain extension? Just a duplicate content penalty waiting to happen... ;-)

[jmccormac]

It should be interesting to see how much of an impact brand protection has made on .co ccTLD. Just on the .mobi, the possible brand protection percentage (where the same domain is registered across different TLDs and on the same hoster) is 50.97%. However .biz has a PBP% of 57.81%. The ccTLDs seem to be rather strange when it comes to brand protection. The .co ccTLD is very much a hyped launch.

Regards...jmcc

[edacsac]

It's big scam in some respects. Now we pay $30/per name just to protect your business traffic from squatters and traffic thieves.

[fenway]

I'm with edacsac. Everytime a new one of these comes out, we basically have to buy it.