.Brand domain names are on their way, but how they’re used is still an open question.
One of the specific uses of new top level domain names that has always confused me is the .brand domain name, such as .nike.
I’ve often asked how someone would actually visit .nike and received very loose answers.
So when I saw that CentralNic launched a new service called DotBrand Solutions, I jumped on the opportunity to talk to CEO Ben Crawford.
So just how will people visit .nike?
Crawford says that, at least at first, you can expect to visit brand TLDs via a second level domain such as shoes.nike.
Even if you could type .nike into your browser, “That’s not intuitive,” Crawford says. “It’s useful to have something that computes to how people are used to using the internet.”
You’ll probably find that emailing someone with a .brand domain will look something like this: [email protected]
At least at first, don’t expect email clients to understand [email protected], even if it’s technically possible.
“The real benefit isn’t eliminating the second level domain, it’s owning the entire inventory of the second level domains and being able to do whatever you want with it,” Crawford explains.
Crawford says that brands that are looking to get a .brand already have a lot of existing domain names. They won’t flip the switch overnight.
“They’re going to have a long and sensible and careful migration period,” he says.
But won’t people still try to email [email protected].com by habit?
“When you’re talking about big brands with big budgets, they’re not just going to rush into it and close one web site tomorrow,” says Crawford. “They’re going to take it slow and see the ways to make the most out of this opportunity.”
Other than owning the entire inventory of second level domain names, Crawford says businesses can improve their security with their own top level domain name. They can tell their customers that if they see their brand to the right of the dot, it’s the authentic web site.
Crawford uses plenty of margin for error when predicting how many .brands will be applied for.
“Hundreds,” he says.
The cost of getting a .brand will vary widely. Some companies may get their .brand and just forward it to their existing web site for a few years until they decide how they want to use it. In that case it will probably cost them a few hundred thousand dollars for the first year including ICANN fees.
Given the relatively low cost to a Fortune 500, I think Crawford is right. I think hundreds of companies will apply for .brand TLDs. Most won’t have any idea what they want to do with it yet, but they’ll still want to secure it.
Fun times ahead 🙂
“I think hundreds of companies will apply for .brand TLDs.”
Why stop at hundreds? Thousands?
It’s the end of the internet as we know it, and that’s not in a good way. Not in a long shot.
@ FarmerJohn – could be thousands. But I think low to mid hundreds is a decent guess.
I think most companies who pick up a .brand in the first round will be getting it “just to make sure”, and then decide if they want to use it later.
so what we can expect in the next 10 yrs:,.nike,.converse,.newbalance,and of course the generic from china sneakers.com
This is a breaking change for Google so Google will probably not support it.
A couple important things for seo & serps:
1) google considers a.com and b.com completely seperate and unrelated websites ranked mutually exclusive of each other.
2) google also considers a.com and b.a.com completely different too
3) google will consider shoes.Nike and home.Nike separate as well. The full website will not ge indexed as a website. Google will not do Nike a bit of good any more.
4a) this policy will not change. First google won’t care that just because a few companies are being idiots they don’t need to change their system.
4b) google cannot Change the policiy because it would have to be consistantfor all tlds. Chinese.food and Mexican.food should not be indexes as the same site should they?
Only way goole could index something like this is if Nike submitted and constantly updated a sitemap, and google would have to 100% trust the accuracy. And all the brands would have to do this And keep if updates, for all the search engines really, that is if they want to be indexed.
@ jp – I agree that there will be major SEO ramifications for companies going with .brand.
A smart company would at least alias the .brand domains to .com at first while people get accustomed.
So shoes.nike would also work with shoes.nike.com
I guess you’d just forward shoes.nike.com to shoes.nike so you don’t have duplicate content.
Still, you’re right — now you have to get inbound links and SEO for every second level domain you launch, rather than keeping them at nike.com/shoes, nike.com/basketball, etc, which are all part of the same second level domain.
I think this .gtld is MOSTLY of hype. It reminds me of the command and control structure of typical centralized planning. Build it and they will come. We will see.
@Andrew
Shoes.Nike.com and Hats.Nike.com still mutually exclusive as far as google is concerned. Same like loans.co.uk and loan.co.uk
3rd level domains don’t change anything. How many “special circumstances” would google be willing to accommodate. Many website owners would have prefered to have used 3rd levels for their navigation long ago rather than using slashes if this had been possible. Its easier to remember and advertise on tv, but mathatmaticallyit is impossible to create a hard and fast algorithm for the spiders to index sites like that simply because of all the cctlds that came out of the gates only offering 3rd level domains. Artificial intelligence needs a few hard and fast rules it can follow. The spider would have to know the specific rules for each tld and if there are going to be endless tlds, of which policies, use and extinction may change at any time it would be a lot of fuss for the spiders to stay on top off. I don’t see .brand working for spider indexing as it is. It changes the paradigm. .brand throws 3rd party centralized indexing (search) out the window. I love domains but for brands search is very important also.
I think that if a company has a generic word brand then they may/should apply to ensure that they get in there, but, since there’s a dispute process (like a trademark objection period) then why bother spending the money “just to have it” when you can object later…..
@ Paul – the problem is they might not be able to get the TLD later if they need to.
So when the CEO comes to the intellectual property group and says ‘why didn’t we get this’, then the person’s job is on the line.
Or they just pay $300k now and say it’s important for brand protection.
@ Andrew
Is that what it costs for a gtld, 300k ?
@ Mel – that’s close to the minimum for the application process and first year of registry services assuming you hire an outside firm to do it for you.
In the end, I don’t think there is much advantage in .brand. Nothing significantly different is being offered. It is simply “another address”, that leads to the same destination page.
Furthermore, with well established brands, something like .nike provides no real navigational advantage over nike.com.
@ M. Menius – I’ve yet to hear what I think is a good use of a .brand. But I guess we’ll let some large company spend lots of money figuring it out for us.
.dell .ibm what about .hp?
What about .cat?
What about .amazon?
What does Proctor and Gamble do their brands are not associated with their name. Do they pay $185,000 + $25,000 p.a. for each brand? cos $185,000 + $25,000 deoesn’t scale too well.
Also it’s not an either/or cost it and the existing registrations sometimes 100s and 1000s for major brands will still be need to be paid for.
Then there’s the huge problem of deriving branding advantage from the DNS.
It means if a major player in any vertical decides to move to the right of the dot and consumers come to believe players to the right of the .dot are superior…
What do all the medium sized enterprises who are competing against a .brand do? Do all of them pay $185,000 + $25,000 p.a. to ICANN to enjoy the same DNS branding advantage?
What about start ups and small businesses? The cost is likely to prove prohibitive.
At the moment to launch some software to compete with Microsodt or Sun its $10 + hosting a year then it’s down to skill and innovation
So all ICANN will do with their proposal for .brands is destroy one of the key reasons for the Internet’s phenomenal success – A level playing field.
I wouldnt my risk capital “buying” a domain from a gtld in this uncertain economy. Who knows whether the entrepreneur behind the gtld will be able to whether the coming economic storm.
@Andrew: I would think that the cost to set up and run a “closed” registry (i.e. only the .brand owner would register subdomains) would be a lot less than for a full-blown public registry or registrar. And if the .brand owner is just buying it for protection, they probably don’t even need to be able to register any names under their .brand initially.
@ Jeremy = agreed. But a full blown registry is going to cost you a lot more than $300k including application and consulting fees.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think .brand applicants still need to have a full blown registry system in order to be awarded a TLD.
What is the initial and ongoing costs to get a registry going ?
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