I think '.com' has lost its original meaning of 'commercial website' to basically mean 'domain'. Also, 'www.' is meaningless nowadays but everyone still use it: some website don't even allow to be reahed if you forget the 'www.' part!
I'm compiling a list of all ccTLDs that allow 2nd level domain registrations by foreigners, with URL of registrar and price for 10 year registration. You'll be amazed to see how cheap and 'underpopulated' most of them are and still how many people ignore those.
This, to say that people still scout for .com names - willing to pay $$$$$$$ prices - when the same names (and better) are available under other ccTLDs. Some of these are interesting and match common acronyms.
Many great words (I recently registered 'tax' under one of those TLDs) or very short URLs (my other DN is dr.gs - or Dr.GS) are still readily available under many ccTLDs but still, people ignore those.
But what is better: http://DrGS.com or http://Dr.GS ? Oh, by the way, drgs.com has been (cyber-)squatted anyway so... under the .com TLD my only choice would have been DoctorGS.com or the ugly dr-gs.com ...
More... tax.net is for sale at sedo.com; the owner probably seeks to sell it for quite a few thousands dollars. Tax.md is still open for registration and equally as 'premium-looking' as the other one, but it only costs $59 (including 1 year registration).
Why ccTLDs are not being used to register great DNs instead of clumsy .coms left-overs is still a mistery to me... lack of information? Fear the foreign registrar will change its mind (like the .cf one)? I don't know...
Thank you for you comment. I do not have a definitive answer to your question ("Why ccTLDs are not being used to register great DNs instead of clumsy .coms left-overs is still a mistery to me") but I may have a clue. There might be a risk of DNS instability when you register a name which TLD which is not popular. You perhaps recall the ".tm" ccTLD: It has been closed for months, because the NIC wanted to ensure its stability. There were too many registrations in this space, attractive because the two letters 'tm' also mean trademark... A (big) firm would prefer to have a ".com", to avoid disruptions - and because some consumers are more confident to buy in the ".com" space and not in spaces they don't know.
Your current work (listing the ccTLDs that allow 2nd level domain registrations by foreigners) is very interesting. Let me know when you post it. See you here or on dr.gs!
I'm still working on it, but you can preview the list at:
http://dr.gs/cctld.htm (alphabetically ordered) and http://dr.gs/cctld-p.htm (ordered by cost)
bear in mind that: 1- it's 10y registration cost (some registrar have heavy discount for long periods'registrations); 2- some registrars do not accept credit card and want you to mail/fax the registration; 3- a few need local precence or a local proxy (or a lie ;) 4- i've spent a lot of time locating the cheapest registrars for each tld! The saving compared to 'any' registrar is usually about 50-80%
5 comments:
I think '.com' has lost its original meaning of 'commercial website' to basically mean 'domain'. Also, 'www.' is meaningless nowadays but everyone still use it: some website don't even allow to be reahed if you forget the 'www.' part!
I'm compiling a list of all ccTLDs that allow 2nd level domain registrations by foreigners, with URL of registrar and price for 10 year registration. You'll be amazed to see how cheap and 'underpopulated' most of them are and still how many people ignore those.
This, to say that people still scout for .com names - willing to pay $$$$$$$ prices - when the same names (and better) are available under other ccTLDs. Some of these are interesting and match common acronyms.
Many great words (I recently registered 'tax' under one of those TLDs) or very short URLs (my other DN is dr.gs - or Dr.GS) are still readily available under many ccTLDs but still, people ignore those.
But what is better: http://DrGS.com or http://Dr.GS ?
Oh, by the way, drgs.com has been (cyber-)squatted anyway so... under the .com TLD my only choice would have been DoctorGS.com or the ugly dr-gs.com ...
More... tax.net is for sale at sedo.com; the owner probably seeks to sell it for quite a few thousands dollars. Tax.md is still open for registration and equally as 'premium-looking' as the other one, but it only costs $59 (including 1 year registration).
Why ccTLDs are not being used to register great DNs instead of clumsy .coms left-overs is still a mistery to me... lack of information? Fear the foreign registrar will change its mind (like the .cf one)? I don't know...
Thank you for you comment.
I do not have a definitive answer to your question ("Why ccTLDs are not being used to register great DNs instead of clumsy .coms left-overs is still a mistery to me") but I may have a clue.
There might be a risk of DNS instability when you register a name which TLD which is not popular. You perhaps recall the ".tm" ccTLD: It has been closed for months, because the NIC wanted to ensure its stability. There were too many registrations in this space, attractive because the two letters 'tm' also mean trademark...
A (big) firm would prefer to have a ".com", to avoid disruptions - and because some consumers are more confident to buy in the ".com" space and not in spaces they don't know.
Your current work (listing the ccTLDs that allow 2nd level domain registrations by foreigners) is very interesting. Let me know when you post it. See you here or on dr.gs!
I'm still working on it, but you can preview the list at:
http://dr.gs/cctld.htm (alphabetically ordered)
and
http://dr.gs/cctld-p.htm (ordered by cost)
bear in mind that:
1- it's 10y registration cost (some registrar have heavy discount for long periods'registrations);
2- some registrars do not accept credit card and want you to mail/fax the registration;
3- a few need local precence or a local proxy (or a lie ;)
4- i've spent a lot of time locating the cheapest registrars for each tld! The saving compared to 'any' registrar is usually about 50-80%
Thanks! I will have a look soon, and will probably blog it.
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