New "Generic" domain names effect on Google

[powers]

What do people make of this new introduction by ICANN, where from 2012 you can buy a domain name without .com, .net, etc. With this new format of domain names you can buy something like www.cars which will definitely rank hire in Google. It's way too expensive for small Online Business' a fee of $185,000 and $25,000 annually is needed to get yourself one!

Where does this leave the Average Site owner?

[tedster]

Welcome to the forums, powers.

I'm not personally concerned at all. We're discussing in another thread how Google has recently made a change so that matching domain names are even less of a factor than they were. It's still going to take relevance, quality, and links/citations to rank well.

[powers]

Thanks for the Welcome tedster,

"matching domain names are even less of a factor than they were" that will be better for the smaller Business' no doubt. However these sites can easily be made into Web Portal such as "www.cars" which may decrease the visitors to Google.
Personally I think it will definitely have some effect in the way pages are ranked, How significant? I'm not too sure.
I doubt ICANN will introduce these new domains with such a high price if it does not give you a good advantage vs your competitors.

[Shaddows]

I doubt ICANN will introduce these new domains with such a high price if it does not give you a good advantage vs your competitors.

This is precisely the kind of muddled thinking I see more and more often.

ICANN could not possibly care less about "advantage". Branding existed long before the Internet, long before computers even. The pricing structure is based on market rates for corporate branding exercises. It's priced to bring in the maximum revenue possible. Higher, and too many corporates would baulk. Cheaper, and they leave money on the table.

You might as well ask where the price of corporate jets leaves the Small Business when wooing potential clients. It doesn't- it's just a toy that is not in your price range.

[walkman]

I doubt ICANN will introduce these new domains with such a high price if it does not give you a good advantage vs your competitors.

The best names will be auctioned off so expect very, very high prices. Either way these names are not like .com, they are at the mercy of whoever is paying the $185K++++ fees a year. So you buy one today, it may disappear 2 years from now. And, IMO, it makes sense if Google said that new names are on a probation and get even less exact domain credit. Makes sense since the market will be flooded

<sup>Yes Google has apparently done something with exact match domains, but maybe it's just my pandalized site. I have a very popular "domainame.com" (two word) domain and one particular famous company is now #1 for 'domain name' keyword on some datacenters--not everywhere. It makes zero sense since their 'widgets' are for a very very specific thing, one of the many.

Think of it as replacementparts.tld (not my name) and that site has replacement parts for thousands of cars, dishwashers....bicycles, yet Ford.com/parts is #1 and only talks about where to find parts. Makes no sense, and yes, I have many links with 'domain name' and "domainname.com," which is very normal and the links are ages old too.

But then my other keyword domains are doing very well. Two are .cctld too and are ranking very very high.</sup>