What a baseball game and radio show remind us about domain names.
Last night I watched the Cardinals play the Phillies on ESPN. Play-by-play announcer Jon Miller mentioned a .tv web site (I think it was MLB.tv) and sidekick Joe Morgan chimed in “dot tv? I didn’t know there was a .tv.”
Then this morning I was listening to the radio and a guest was promoting a gala her nonprofit was holding this weekend. She told the audience of tens of thousands that they could buy tickets at nonprofitname.com. She even repeated the address with .com a second time. A couple minutes later she said “I need to make a correction. Our web site is actually nonprofitname.org.
What do these two incidents tell us about .com and domain names? .Com is ingrained in our heads. It’s our default, and it would take a long time to change that. But little by little alternative extensions are gaining acceptance. The fact that the conversation about .tv took place on ESPN is an example; people are getting introduced to these extensions. But very slowly. After all, .tv has been out for nearly a decade.
With dozens (perhaps hundreds) of so-called “vanity TLDs” on the horizon, it will become even harder for these alternatives to gain traction and rise above the noise. That only reinforces the value of .com.
On the business card of my MMA (mixed martial arts) promotion company-I use the .tv extension.I use it because the main function of the company is to bring advertisers to the sport.I realize of course that whatever is printed on the card probably translates into .com when they type.Of course I own & point the .com @ the site too.
Indeed, dot com is king.
What is most upsetting about this is that the Cardinals failed to tie the game in the ninth with the bases loaded.
I was at the game. Did you see me?
I was the one wearing red.
I’m calling you out ! .TV bait
LOL. All you have to do is post something like this and the .tv’ers will come waste a couple pages telling you how wrong you are.
I would have to agree with you on this. Although .tv is very different than most extensions and is more of an “enhancement” to the .com domain name. IMO, .tv can be marketed as a secondary domain and obviously tell people what they find on that domain, VIDEOS or something along the lines of video content. With that said i would have to say .tv will shine in the future and might even take out the .nets of this era.
@ GARY:
Yep…saw you.Too bad your crew does’nt have the arms to stay in the hunt.You’re
cheering for the wrong red.GO HALO’S!
I guess I’m a .TV and .org half full kinda guy. The fact that they had mainstream media is becoming more and more common. If you think how much value is in .com names – just a 10% market share would mean massive increases in the value of a .tv or .org portfolio.
Your article could have been titled “two reminders that the .tv and .org princes are coming of age…”
Like I said, it’s great that .tv is getting attention here (and even .org, which is already well known). But you need to own the equivalent in most cases.
Adam, you’re wrong…this is Cardinals bait 🙂
And yes, but upset me the most was that the Cards a) blew the lead (b) couldn’t get it down with bases loaded. Ludwick hits a double and homer, then hits a double play with the game on the line? C’mon!
My current favorites in this order:
.com
.tv
.org
.net
.info
.us
.mobi
the word baseball in your post caught my eye… I’ve been gathering baseball related names for a couple 2-4 years now… hoping to get a batch of those developee this winter and ready for baseball season 2009…
~DomainBELL (Patricia)
For non-country-specific TLDs, once upon a time there was only Com, Net and Org. (long before the .PROs, .NAMEs, .TRAVELs, etc. etc.) ….and then ….. came .BIZ! In those days of yore, the publicity for .BIZ was massive, way beyond anything that’s possible now … because there was no competition. If any TLD was going to gain sufficient corporate usage to threaten .COM, it was going to be .BIZ. However, it was clear after about 2 years that .BIZ was a FIZZ. I recall realising that if .BIZ failed, no subsequent ‘new sensation’ TLD would ever have as much chance of success, no matter what the spin. So it has been.
MLB.tv points to MLB.com.
It’s really funny — I think a larger percentage of .COM names are registered to registrants outside of the USA (and a recent McAfee report noted that it’s one of the world’s riskiest TLDs).
Still, Americans seem to think it’s the gold standard!
;D nmw
Good point David…hadn’t checked it. It’s just a pointer for its video service.
The MLB.com and MLB.tv relationship is a great example of the complementary value of dot tv.
MLB also controls all the individual team names – Cardinals.TV, Phillies.TV, Tigers.TV, RedSox.TV, etc Type in any of these names and you are taken to a landing page which markets MLB.TV and MLB.TV Premium viewing packages (yes, its on mlb.com – but they are promoting their TV service.)
If you’re a sports fan – some of the other major league sports have joined the action:
NHL.TV
NBA.TV
oops NFL missed out just like the cowboys missed out on cowboys.com
OOoops!…the .tv debate again! never put all your eggs into one basket…just diverify!
Just imagine if MLB.com did not own MLB.tv, I think they’d be very worried if a domainer owned it. IMO the MLB guy’s understand the trend which is why they are scooping up .tv domains. Either way, what happened here is publicity for .tv and since viewers have now learned about MLB.tv, my guess is they will gravitate to the .tv and naturally expect to see videos! Potentially more lucrative for MLB going forward.
Has anyone here looked at LX.tv? my understanding is it was bought for about $10M by NBC I think….hmmm I wonder why?
I wish someone liks a Rachel Ray or an Oprah would come along and make and offer on my Dinnertime.TV
That’s my favorite .TV I have…
and Jarred.TV
neither developed yet…
what’s the favorite .TV each of you own ??
is there a Directory of developed .TV’s somewhere… ??
~DomainBELL (Patricia)
My owned favourites:
TimesNews.tv
NewyorkApartment.tv
GreenTechnology.tv
TO:
#
Robert Haastrup-Timmi
August 5th, 2008 | 12:51 am
My owned favourites:
TimesNews.tv
NewyorkApartment.tv
GreenTechnology.tv
of your 3 mentioned — GreenTechnology.TV
was my Favorite…
Best of luck with those…
~DomainBELL (Patricia)
Thanks for the compliment Patricia!
Yes, we agree .Com is “el Rey”.
What about .Us?
Andrew, good article! The Spanish version is already posted on Dominiolo.com.
Thank,
Gamaniel Rosas
To: Maestrus
I have very few .us
I really feel the name/ keyword needs to really
work with the .US (as it relates to either
United States or the word “us”)
I think my favorite one I own is:
PizzaMAP.US
~DomainBELL (Patricia)
Which ones do you all have ??
To: Patricia Kaehler (DomainBELL)
Patricia, currently I have only Mujer.us, the Spanish name for Woman -We have the “Queen” 😉
PizzaMAP.us, it is a good one!
..
Maestrus
I think few (US)Americans realize that there are other countries with other laws *besides* US law — so that is why they do not generally think about .US too much. I myself therefor did not invest very much in .US *from the American perspective* but rather from the “rest of the world” (tourist) perspective — for example: shoppen.us , vakanties.us
or toerisme.us (etc.). I also have several targeted at the “domestic” US market (e.g. bedspreads.us ;), but I actually did not get into the .US space until — well, I wasn’t in it right at the bell.
BTW: I’ve got a couple .TVs (e.g. “messen” = “trade fairs” in German, or “sender” = “(TV) station/s” — and apparently .CH is very popular for “channel”, so I also picked up listings.ch several years ago.
😉 nmw
Great .tv post. Save it for the archives.
All great advise and comments above.
I own BLOG.TV
I registered it in 2002 and recently developed it.
To: Lou
That’s a super good Domain Name…
Is affiliate.kickapps.com an actual affiliate program or is that you too ??
~DomainBELL (Patricia)
To: Patricia
Thanks for the compliment Patricia. KickApps is a company that I use that provides the social networking platform behind http://www.BLOG.TV
They refer to everyone who uses their platform as “affiliates.” Although it’s not an actual “affiliate program.”
To Lou:
Thanks for the info…
(smile)
~DomainBELL (Patricia)
Patricia, you can go to http://www.ollo.tv to search for developed .tv sites.
Thank you heidi…
I will do that…
Much appreciated…
~DomainBELL (Patricia)