Radix tops Google and three others to win .site domain name.
New top level domain name company Radix has secured the .site domain name, the company announced on social media this morning.
That means the company has .website, .site and is still in the running to complete the trifecta with .web.
Particularly interesting is that Google was in the contention set for .site. To my knowledge, the company has been a holdout for participating in private resolution of new TLD contention sets. If Google is now participating, this means many more new TLDs will be resolved without going to ICANN’s auctions of last resort.
.Site was set to be auctioned off by ICANN next month.
Radix competed in a five-way race for .site. In addition to knocking off Google, Radix topped Donuts, Interlink Co and Minds + Machines.
In my opinion, .web is better than .site, which is better than .website. However, it will be a while before .site comes out. And I bet we’re a good year or two from .web coming out, which gives the others a head start.
All these premium renewals they are selling will go to 99 cents when web comes out.
People are not forecasting what is coming down the pipeline, and trying to hoard what us out today at an investment grade price in a non retail environment.
Setting yourself up for losses.
Even if all new extension came out today – and if round 2 happened tomorrow, within 10 years all the good names, across all extensions would be registered by investors or held back as registry assets. The law of markets dictates that nothing good will remain free for long and a growing demand for names from a young generation of developers, business owners, and future domainers, virtually assures the take-up of every meaningful name in all namespaces just launched.
Congrats to Radix on .site That should do well.
Frank, do you think all the good TLDs were taken in this round? If there’s another round in 5 years, will more good generics come on the market?
or in plain speak, what are your specific plans for round 2?
WIth all due respect many quality .com .net .org sit on parked nameservers today.
Yes, many new users coming online may want a domain name for their business, or for a blog. Let’s face it social media has comforted some of this demand by giving these people an online homestead. The act of physically creating, and maintaining a website still really takes a motivated party.
With mainly .com/,net in the past 15 years or so, the applicants keep stating they are creating domains for people as all the good .com’s are taken, and are held by domainers who want a premium. How are GTLD’s any different out of the gate, if not worse?
I am a newly graduated lawyer in Seattle, I want to register Seattle.Lawyer the price is $60,000 a year. So for $60K a year, which is more than the average American takes home a year, I can get a URL to an intangible asset that can be diluted down by .lawyer .attorney .attorneys .law .legal .solicitors .barrister etc…
Your name (The best brand youll ever own) will be about 35 dollars, attorney or lawyer. Set up a site / email (probably about 5 per month). Btw the seattle.lawyer is actually available for brokerage, not 60k per year (thats a holding price).
With .SITE, .WEBSITE, and .WEB spread out in this fashion, more than a few people are likely to get ambushed.
Right now, developing a site on .SITE or a website on .WEBSITE is like wearing a target on your chest. Whatever registry eventually operates .WEB will have a strong temptation to declare the matching .WEB domains of all prominent .SITE / .WEBSITE sites to be premium.
We already have a pattern of nTLD registries employing variable annual rates — sometimes of staggering proportions.
What stops the .WEB registry from identifying you today and then pricing their matching .WEB at $500 or $5,000 or $$50,000 per year?
Ah yes, .Web, which was proposed in 1994 and should have been in the root since then. Now, however, the original proposal has been stolen and will go to whomever pays ICANN the most in the auction of last resort.
.Web, which was the *FIRST* new registry actually up and running in 1996 at the request of IANA, long before ICANN was even an idea.
Loving the fairness here.