I've decided to go for my own ICANN extension and compete with .com
POSTED BY Rick Latona IN Web Sites

Greetings from Sydney Australia.

What's amazed me about this current ICANN meeting is the sheer number of companies and individuals lobbying for their own extensions with ICANN.

Last night we went to a party, hosted by Wolfgang Puck and the good people over at Mind and Machines. Chef Puck is going after .food. Are the restaurants all going to line up for these names? We'll let the market decide.

Or how about Shaquille O'Neil applying for .basketball? Maybe with his bankroll, it doesn't matter if you drop half a million on it just to see what would happen.

Therein lies the issue. For many corporations and high net-wealth individuals it really doesn't cost that much money to secure your own extension. At least, not in the grand scheme of things and not if ICANN finally gets the initiative launched.

The meeting has a very Washington DC feel to it. There are lobbyist everywhere. Even though any extension with two bidders will enter an auction, most companies are openly promoting the extensions they are going  after. One would think that is their way to getting competitors to shy away from going after the same one.

More likely, these companies are putting on an aggressive lobbying effort. There in-your-face marketing puts their wannabe babies on the forefront of the ICANN board's minds.

I guess you can't blame them. If you want to get your extension passed it is a good way to go about it.

Therefore, I've decided to apply for my own extension. My idea is so huge and ground breaking that you may want to open a savings account now to be ready to snatch up my domains during my land rush period.

It's one of those once-in-a-lifetime ideas that will be a game changer. Starvation will no longer be a global problem. Everyone, everywhere will have clean water. Cats will play with dogs. It will stop raining in Vancouver and the Cubs will win a World Series.

Are you ready for the idea?

dotICANN

Yep.

.icann

You could have politics.icann, lobbying.icann, painfullyslowandtediousmeetings.icann, wheredoesallthemoneygo.icann and of course, the super premium travel.icann. These boys and girls do love to travel after all.

Seriously folks, there are not going to be dozens of new extensions or even hundreds. Expect thousands of extensions over the next 5-6 years.

It's a land rush of a new and different order.

  • GKJunior

    Half way through reading your post I was thinking has every one lost their minds? Then towards the end as the sarcasm starts to set in I felt a little better but at the very end ...? Are you serious? I can t even tell, but i do think if that happens the sheer amount of new domains will water down each other and .com will be even stronger.

  • John

    Ha! It's crazy!

  • http://www.defendmydomain.com/blog Darren Spielman

    That is a funny yet scary conecpt all at the same time.

  • http://Extanet.com/blog Eric

    Imo this could DESTROY the value of all tlds except com net org and cctlds. Maybe tel will be ok due to its different nature.

  • http://www.AVE4.com Jim Fleming

    The 4-Letter .COM names will be able to opt IN or OUT as a new TLD.

    .311 will be used by 25,000 U.S. cities as a LOCAL TLD.

    http://Chicago-311.com
    http://Denver-311.com
    http://Miami-311.com

    http://LAGAN-311.com

  • http://www.doomainz.com max

    very funny Rick, you really got me!

    i really thought for one moment that you want out of the .com game....evidence: you're selling some .com names at crazy price....$150000 for French.com? what a bargain....

  • http://FloridaCondos.com Joe

    The one extension I and many other people would feel compelled to buy if it came out would be .inc
    Hope they don't do it since I don't want to give icann any more of my money then I have to.

  • http://scottsdale.com Fred Mercaldo

    I like the part about the Cubs winning the World Series....also Rick...please reserve http://www.scottsdale.icann for me...thanks!!!!!!!

  • whatever

    When a few top brands get their own TLD and people see that this represents the pinnacle of brand advertising and opens up so many new avenues to catch and sort and route traffic, the essence of dot-com, it's 'prestige', will be gone, and it will be seen as just a gTLD with no navigation benefits and no meaning. And to the extent it does have meaning, well that's 'US commercial', just the concept that most 'liberals' or foreigners in the world are told to hate right now. ICANN, Un etc etc all just skirmishes in the anti-US war being waged, and promoted by US weakness and apologies. This one toasts Verisign/.com. There'll be more..

  • http://www.FrenchKisser.com AJ

    The killer of all domain names begins soon... I think all domain names will drop much in value after icann does this. There are already too many cctlds and tlds, but this could be a good thing for them to make money, and I could be wrong, it could be a big hit and .xxx might win the .com XD... I am kind of wondering what companies will open the best new extensions... only time will tel. .tel lol :) :)

  • http://rodenbaugh.com Rodenbaugh

    Seriously though, ICANN has reserved its trademark and some of its other um 'famous' marks like GNSO, SSAC, IAB and RIPE, so they cannot be granted as new TLDs or allocated as second level domains.

  • http://sax.com Anunt

    This is great news for the dot com owners. .xxx, .food, .icann, .whatever, .etc...the more extensions that come out, the more traffic the dot com will get.

    For example: The person that types in sax.xxx will also check out what's on sax.com

    dot com rules -- turn on your TV right now...flip thru the channels until you see a commercial -- by the end of that commercial, i bet you will see some dot com address ...why...because dot com rules baby!!!

  • Rick Latona

    @ Rodenbaugh,

    It wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

  • Brooks

    Your right Rick. I heard from someone else who is "lobbying" so to speak, or at least is letting it be known, that they are going after geo names, concentrating on resort/golf areas, music oriented cities, and the usual high profile large population places.

    Supposedly, this is a conglomerate of two publicly traded over the counter companies, 3 hedge funds, and a few ex-government people.

    What I don't, or at least find it hard to believe, is that the number they are supposedly throwing at this....$250 million?. Can't be.

  • Sime

    I'd like to register just one domain in that new extension. Please reserve:

    http://www.CanYouSeeRickIsJustJoking.Icann?

  • Brian Carr

    "super premium Travel.Icann" .... lol

  • http://www.mwzd.com Samit

    Ha Rick, you had me going there for a minute. A thousand new tlds is hilarious, but probably spot on.

    I don't think the current domaining community can even support all these tlds, so they will need to grow an entirely new breed of domainers, which can't be bad as I see it.

    We've long thought why the other investment communities don't consider domaining as an investment, maybe this will be the black swan event that will change all that. However, the newer tlds will still need to have substantial development to even catch up with existing tlds, which should lead to more sales for people already in the business today.

  • http://DnSalePrice.com Richard Wixom

    I predict mass confusion and distrust in the new extensions. And I'm just amazed ICANN continues to push this agenda forward.

  • http://www.paulcherry.com.au Paul Cherry

    Hey Rick,

    Put YES.ICANN aside for me, for when I run for POTUS, it's kind of catchy.

    Hope you enjoyed Sydney!

    Thanks,

    Paul

  • http://rickzedd.blogspot.com Rick Zedd

    I'm sure Mr Joe Domainer will grab at anything thrust in front of him (or her!) even...Sucker.Icann

  • http://develop-domains.com Veli

    oh no! I'm not getting any more extentions!
    Well maybe just...
    Damn this addictive biz, lol
    I want LOL.icann

  • http://www.pokermaster.net Brian

    iThink.Icann - no way.

    I am still waiting for the revolution of dotNOW. In the meantime COM will be king

  • http://www.domainersystems.com DS

    I still believe that as many new extensions are added, dot com will retain the highest value even in an over-saturated market.

  • http://shortcuts.ws Bidigital

    Ouch. One is challenged to figure out if Rick's last comment about "thousands" is just an extension of the sarcasm. Limits gone within five years or so? Comments, please?

  • http://www.cognation.net Dean Collins

    there are bigger issues than the thousands of suffixes coming with the introduction of non-latin characters.

    http://blog.collins.net.pr/2009/12/de-latinisation-of-web.html

    Cheers,
    Dean

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