There’s an excellent conversation on newgtlds I read on TheDomains.
Here’s the headline by Michael Berkens –
“Shocker: Rick Schwartz Now Owns More New gTLD’s Domains Than I Do”
Michael owns something like 450 newgtlds, Rick owns around 500.
Rick Schwartz replied in the comments:
“This is no endoresement of any gTLD. My views have not changed.
I went mostly on the dark side with keywords like worst, crappy, lousy, sucky, complaints, ripoff, bad, unfair, and see what matched well with the extensions. I bought 57 different .whatevers.
Do I expect to make money with them? NO
Are they good investments? NO
Would I suggest others do this? NO
But some folks lost more at the craps table and since I am not a big gambler……They are mostly for shits and giggles and maybe used like the HallofShame.com as a deterrant and to list bad actors and companies to be shamed publicly and think twice before they do something unethical that they will regret.”
The conversation then shifts to .XYZ with the CEO of .XYZ, Daniel Negari, responding with:
“.xyz is the future; Get in Get in early
…the right domain can change your life. The question is who wants their life changed?”
Both of these views leads to a lot of bashing in the comments, to which Patrick responds with a logical comment and points out that Rick has spoken about both, the pros and cons of the newgtld program.
After some more banter between Rick & Daniel, the latter responds with a blog post of his own –
.XYZ is the Next .COM – BELIEVE IT
In it he says:
“You read it here first – .xyz will be the biggest and fastest growing new domain extension. It is the next .com for the next generation of internet users all over the world.
…an affordable, truly generic, and open namespace … There is only one true generic domain extension that exists on the internet right now, and that is .xyz.
.xyz is the future. It is for your kids, your grandkids, and even your great grandkids. Twenty years from now, the internet landscape will be very different than it is today. “
While I can’t tell you whether he’s right or wrong, one thing I can tell you is that the timeline required to prove it either way is a lot longer than I’m willing to wait.
But then maybe that’s the whole point – the next generation of users.