Web 2.0.11562 beta

Japanese web surfers have long complained that remembering English-language URLs was difficult. I can imaging if I had to try to remember some Kanji domain names! Since we are involved in IDNs, we have begun to publish some Japanese language sites with good results. We published a group of themed sites around food domains: http://納豆.jp (natto), Mochi http://もち.jp (mochi), http://ウニ.net (uni), http://みりん.jp (mirin), http://拉麺.com (ramen)

The clickthru rate is terrific, 20-25% and the clicks range from $0.20 to $1.50 – a resounding success! Let me get busy with cranking out some more….

THNIC, Thailand’s only registrar selling .TH domains will have competition soon, and plans to promote use of this little-used extension. Here is the article. Oddly there is no mention of IDN.th – what’s up? The only domains that can challenge .com are country codes; locals learn over time to seek out local businesses by using their local ccTLD. Let’s go THNIC, push IDN.th already!

Now selling city and state specific, mortgage-related domain names – all reasonable offers accepted! See the current list of domains here: http://www.namepros.com/domains-for-sale-auctions/267944-us-home-loans-domains-blowout.html

Great example of a smart registry in action! Many sequences of digts were reserved by Neustar (the .US registry), including 5-digit domains, 5-digits-dash-4-digits (zip + 4) and all possible US 10-digit phone numbers. To see the complete list of reserved domains see this zipped doc.
They are in a stronger position than Marchex with their incomplete collection of zipcode .coms and .nets. But Marchex has a head start with myzip.com which they plan to use as their portal.
Are these guys smart or what? The next competitor – .TEL extension, who aim to bring a souped-up version of the same basic funtionality to a worldwide userbase.

OK so I’m following Kevin Murphy’s lead again, but I’m intrigued by the nation of Cameroon’s inevitable rise to type-in traffic stardom. I’m referring to their change in policy to allow any requests for any unspecified .cm domains to resolve to a PPC page that they can make money from. I remember the outcry when Verisign tried it, but as pointed out Cameroon does not fall under any jurisdiction that has any power to make them stop. Even OpenDNS can not help here, since HTTP requests to .cm domains may in fact be legitimate. Well OK, I may never have gone to a .cm site before today, but the point remains valid.

In other news, Moniker.com was apparently bought by Kanoodle. When you look at some of the ethically-challenged registrars operating today I think they picked a winner! Elsewhere it was noted that iREIT purchased some additional portfolios consisting of some 40,000 domains including CreditReports.com and FarmLoans.com. Nice.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have some ratings system from a not-for-profit group in order to provide some guidance for would-be investors in country code TLDs. Of course it’s important to study the aftermarket sales for that extension to set your expectations for ROI. But remember that assessment also involves judging the stability and competence of the national government and the individual registry associated with a given ccTLD.

AAA ratings could be awarded to the gold-standards, like .de .uk .us .ca etc. But for those registries with troubling incidents that could be documented, lower ratings could be published. Communist or totalitarian governments could also qualify as a criterion for awarding a lower rating.

Ratings criteria, appeal process and the ratings assignment process itself should all be documented of course. This would provide a basis for more standardized financing of domain portfolio investing. It should also increase the levels of investment in domains from, and development of sites in high-rated ccTLDs. Anyone interested in providing this service to the global ccTLD investment community?

Apparently the .im TLD has been opened up for second-level registrations as of the beginning of July. Their pricing is unusual – �40 for normal registrations, �495.00 for “Premium domains with two character names”, and �995.00 for “Premium domains with one character names”. That would explain why “wh.im” is still available.

Still, in the spirit of the numerous http://del.icio.us copycat domains, clever wordsmiths can come up with some good domain names. Similarly I think .ag (Anguilla) still offers plenty of semantic opportunities. Some clever folks will think of many more .in (India) names than the two I mentioned, but I think it’s reasonable to assume far fewer names have been registered in these extensions.

There seems to be a building frenzy over the upcoming public “land rush” registration period. After an impressive crescendo of money chasing .eu names this spring, .mobi looks poised to surpass it. If industry insiders are right there should be a couple million names registered by the end of this summer, making .mobi one of the top five domains in the market.

Why does .mobi have such momentum? It’s because the big players in the telecomm and mobile device industries are so hot for this sponsored TLD. It’s thought that if the phone manufacturers make some small changes to the browsers used in these devices, .mobi will be the default site served up when a user simply enters a word into the device.

The .vn ccTLD has languished, racking up only 17,000 sales since it’s launch in 2001. This compares to .com which has well over 50 million registered names. Registrations have been restricted to third-level domains only until now. The “opening up” of second-level domains represents a mid- to long-term investment opportunity that we believe will yield substantial returns for those not adverse to risk.

Here is the schedule for the launch of second level .vn registrations:
• 1 June (2006) – Vietnamese trademark holders (already active)
• 15 June – Applications from non-Vietnamese trademark holders
• 1 July – Applications from the pre-registered (like Boca Names)
• 4 July – Open to public – first-come, first-served

I tried to register one trademark name today and found, much to my chagrin, that the going rate for early trademark registrations is apparently $200. That is a lot to ask for names that may not have a real market valuation for another 2 or 3 years!