“New Top Level Domains Are Fools Gold”

I didn’t know Eli the Computer Guy up until today. But he has 258,376 subscribers on YouTube.com and he sure likes to talk. Well he is my hero for today.

His latest video is called “New Top Level Domains Are Fools Gold”: We discuss the ramifications of ICANN releasing new Top Level Domain Names and why it most likely doesn’t really matter that they exist.

I know. The video is two and a half hours long but the part that is about new gTLDs is from minute 6 up to 35. I suggest you watch that part:

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About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

40 comments

  1. This guy is classic, I love him! He totally gets it! This is a must watch for anyone thinking
    of registering a new gtld! Michael Cygor this guy needs to be on the next Sherpa show!

  2. Two hours of ramblings. Thanks for the time pointer. Who is this ‘expert’ again? Read the comments on YouTube for some references about his background and education. I LOLed.

    • I have no idea who he is. I just found him and had a great time listening. He sure is passionate about what he talks about.

    • You do not need to be educated to speak common sense. After taking 20 mins listen to this guy, he sums up many things I have learned in the past 17 years of being online.

      Many people LOL at the crud you write, most of it meaningless dribble that takes up space on DNF & Domaining.com, but you can edit out those comments correct. Just as you are entitled to your say, so is this fellow. Maybe get out, and take a walk more often, instead of sitting on the computer all day.

      • I suppose you are talking to me. I don’t respond to anonymous a*holes but I’ll make an exception: go f**k yourself. I’ve chewed and spat out bigger fish than your anon ramble.

  3. He is a real world guy, with real world opinions, he makes sense.

  4. I love real world no nonsense experiences. Good, bad or ugly.
    Does not matter who he is, he learned the lesson the hard way and is sharing it.
    He’s also an end user with a real world story.

  5. So if someone – a professional no less – speaks positively of the new opportunities arising from the opening up of the new namespace, their testimony is discounted as nonsense, but when a jack of all trades rambler does the same, he is iconified. Sounds like double standard to me.

    • Acro,
      One is proven with real world data and the other is still not proven. That’s all. And the extensions that have come data have not been great investments. That guy is telling his PAST REAL STORY. He is not looking into a crystal ball and saying things he wants to have happen. That’s a big difference my friend.

      I want to hear real world stories on either side. Not what will be. He is breath if fresh air.

      “Dot com is dead” discounted them!! Stupidest sales approach ever! That is why their “Testimony” has been rejected as nonsense. Talk down to professionals? That was the nonsense they brought with them. Many domainers, me included, are open to things but still are allergic to bullshit.

      Their “Opportunity” may not sync with our best interests and you and everyone else should respect that. My wallet is my business and if I choose not to swallow what I believe to be HORSE SHIT, I won’t and I will stuff that HOSE SHIT right back where it came from.

      Facts and numbers do it for me. He gave me both.
      When I see facts and numbers from these guys that is what I will weigh along with my gut instinct. Nothing else! So is that unreasonable?

      • Facts and numbers: .com and other TLDs exist for the past 20 years. If I were married to the same person for 20 years since high school, that’s all that I’d know. My point is, gTLDs are just now made available, so give them a chance; they are an option with a sizable footprint, when it comes down to both establishing a business and brand recognition. Google and Bing will judge the content, not the TLD. So the argument is not *if* gTLDs will be adopted, but *when*.

      • But in the past 13 years there have been many new gTLDs.
        .info .biz .xxx, even .us and .eu and a lot of new or repurposed ccTLDs.
        These didn’t changed much and I don’t expect much to change in the next 5(or more) years.
        People still make money reselling these and a few end users are happy.
        But I don’t see new gTLDs as the second coming.

        Brand recognition doesn’t need Google. Brand recognition needs domains. Content needs google.

      • Kosta – This argument holds no water: this isn’t a trickle, it’s a flood caused by a tsunami. I never invested in those TLDs with more than 20 names max. I believe you registered a good chunk of .info and I understand the sting. I have less than 10 .gr domains, if that matters, my portfolio is 99% com/net/org. So to recap: ICANN opened the floodgates and for the years to come these options will be like introducing the entire dictionary that existed for .com and others, only a few thousand times more. The era of lacking alternatives to .com ends.

        Google is what drives your visitors here, and Google is a big investor in gTLDs. Wishing gTLDs to go away, won’t change anything. I know, it took me 18 months to have an epiphany about it, just like Mike Berkens did.

      • I own xxxx .info and xxx .gr.

        I never wished that gTLDs go away. I just wish that people don’t waste all their money buying worthless and expensive new gTLDs.
        Paying $3,164.99 today for a .guru domain…

  6. I think it is far more interesting to listen to normal people in the real world talk about this, than a handful of new gTLD proponents spewing their nonsense.

    It is clear that the majority of domain investors have very little interest in new extensions. When domainers failed to embrace their sales pitch the new gTLD hucksters attacked the domain investors as not embracing “innovation”.

    All they have left are end users, which are dominated by normal people and small businesses.

    I think this guys opinions are far more representative of where the general public is than the “.COM is dead” crowd.

    Brad

    • “Spewing nonsense” is most likely a biased statement; I assume you didn’t read nor learned anything recently about how this gTLD world will affect everyone in the coming years. NamesCon was an eye-opener, with a balanced agenda.

      Domain investors have the option to not invest in gTLDs. I don’t see what is the problem; just because some dude with 250k followers decides to share his personal opinion about how gTLDs aren’t his cup of tea, doesn’t mean he is right. But it’s entertaining, regardless.

      In fact, such an approach is remarkably working *for* the gTLD supporters, because ignorance is magnified and enlarged, and can be used just nicely.

      I suggest you read Morgan Linton’s post today, he covers it pretty nicely.

      • “I assume you didn’t read nor learned anything recently about how this gTLD world will affect everyone in the coming years.”

        Somebody got sucked in by marketing, then you tell people to go read Morgan, who got sucked in bidding on .xyz domains. Listening to suckers has never been gone business.

      • The real suckers echo exactly what you are saying, anon: nobody shoved a domain down your throat. I don’t have a use for an .xyz or a .ventures but I sure am looking into .photo and others. Marketing worked just fine for .com, time for a little bit of variation.

    • Brad,
      You nailed it and I am SICK of getting insulted by the likes of Paul Stahura and other domainers with agendas and skin in the game. A game I have no interest in because they are incapable of persuading the majority of domainers with logic. It is really sad and I am stunned by what appears to be desperation. “Give me your money or you are stupid” that is basically the pitch.

      • Rick, you know I love you man. But who *doesn’t* have skin in any game? Intelligent people don’t get swayed by anything, they make decisions based on potential.

        The way I look at it is, comparing a ‘special of the day’ dinner with something a la carte: sure, the latter costs more, but you get to choose the type of steak, salad and wine you need.

  7. It is not so much what he said but the way he said it. He made real life arguments.
    Some of the “pros” that talk about new opportunities they are really talking about their own opportunities.
    And also these pros are talking about the distant future that no one knows. Real people don’t care about 20 years from now.
    They care about today. e.g In Greece I have heard nothing about new gTLDs and I don’t expect to.
    So yes I prefer the real world experience guy and I am not against new gTLDs.
    I don’t like most new gTLDs and I do like a few. But trying to discount .com all the time has become tiring.
    News article after news article…

    .horse and .xyz might be the stupidest things I have ever heard. .online is great. .onl is stupid and desperate.

    I like .info for 12 years and I own a lot and make money from it. But you never heard me say that .info will take over the world
    and that .com is a thing of the past. This is not winner takes all but not anyone can be number 1 and not anyone can be play in the same league with the big boys.

    • A great example of OPTIONS. You don’t like .xyz – I don’t either – but someone else will, based on the research Negari did. Who am I to bring his business model down??? And as mentioned earlier, this is not an one in a blue moon TLD arriving; this is an orchestrated beachhead of several thousand TLDs. How can you say there are no options there, when every single string in this initial group was backed by a business plan with more than $300 million dollars in application fees alone?

      • “Who am I to bring his business model down???”

        You would be somebody with common sense, since it’s one of the more ridiculous new extensions coming down the line. A lot of the stuff you’ve been posting here, has been taken apart already on the forums. There is no real market for these new extensions. You can already get great keywords in other off extensions for a low price. The great keywords with these new ones will all get snapped up just like they do with any other extension. So end users would have to pay a good price to get them as well. Most people will never see them, since usually the only way is thru a website. Won’t be enough quality development for that to happen. It’s dumb for a new business to use these, since that’s going to be the primary target, based on all the problems already gone thru to death.

      • Johnnie or Robbie or whoever you are; I think you come from a hobbyist domainer background. Sorry pal, $300 million in application fees don’t just get excreted without a reason. Forums? I don’t think you’re listening really, while you’re debating the validity of the business model brought forth by industry giants, things are already rolling. It’s not up to you or me to change anything. Sit at the sidelines, if you want, I am not stopping you. But you sure as hell won’t stop others from making it happen.

      • I actually do this for a living. Do you even realize you’re running around the blogs sounding like some GoDaddy or Donuts commercial? Don’t care about “industry giants”, I pay attention to the market. There is no real one out there, just some imagined one that you got sucked into, hook, line and sinker. If you took some time and maybe familiarize with that market, maybe you would then understand. I’ll hand out on the sidelines some, but it’s to watch in amusement as a lot of domainers that should know better are going to end up looking silly and making rookie mistakes.

      • Theo, Johnnie and Robbie are 2 different people.

      • Just because there are 1000 gTLDs it doesn’t mean that all will succeed or fail as a group.
        Business plans fail every day no matter how much money they have behind them.
        There will be new gTLDs that WILL fail.

      • I don’t see where we disagree here. That’s exactly the beauty of the new system: each gTLD is a product, backed by its own registry. It’s up to them to make it succeed. The difference is, there will be a change in how domains are perceived by the general public: just like any brand, gadget or product. Having options is the driving force behind this model, people will get what best fits them.

  8. Kosta, Greece isn’t the best example here, there is no cashflow to stimulate investments and no strategy to implement change. I love my country but it’s still in the dark ages regarding innovation and progress. Thank the corrupt and greedy politicians for that.

    Nobody said the .com will die a quick death, if any at all. But for Christ’s sake, going to the opposite extreme to discount how this ICANN-mandated change won’t work at all, is ludicrous.

    • “Nobody said the .com will die a quick death, if any at all.”
      Yes they did and they keep saying it. Mind+Machines etc.

      And don’t forget the New part in New gTLDs. They are 22 already and hundreds in ccTLDs already.
      Some new gTLDs will work but over excitement is not a good guide. New gTLDs will not change the world. They will make small changes here and there in the next 5 years. Later? Who knows.

  9. This is funny, 2 Greeks and a Jew going at it in a triangular fashion. 🙂

  10. If history has taught us anything, it’s that there will never be a shortage of suckers that will flock to new TLD’s that come out

    End users don’t need nor do they care about the new TLD’s

    The registries/registrars know this. That’s why they gave you Namescon LOL

    That’s why they’re hyping them up on forums and blog comments so aggressively to the point of them looking desperate

    They WILL make money on this (and there’s nothing wrong with that). All they need is a few suckers here and there who will buy a few of each extension “just in case”

  11. Eli has a ton of great dot com’s and has never spoken out publicly in the past – he’s afraid of what is going to happen.

  12. Chris Hughes (@chrishughesuk)

    The premise of his first argument is based on his learnings from 1998. Since then, there are 1 billion more people in the world, the third world has blossomed to become global economic leaders and broadband has become ubiquitous. Plus, the human race has progressed a bit, including significant advances in the online world.

    If all of the above does not represent a change of landscape that is enough to make that experience reasonably irrelevant, then we might all as well all pack up and go home.

    .com is today’s default, and understandably so given the dearth of other relevant options.

    It isn’t tomorrow’s.

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