Especially in an age of "search," where people often discover sites based on where their search engines point them, rather than by simply guessing random domain names -- it would seem like specific URLs might not have as much value.I completely agree. Besides, this "domain name" obsession is not limited to "name" but there are also "extensions". You pay a fortune for "someimportantname.com" and after a few weeks somebody registers that domain "name" with a new-born extension just for a few bucks, like: "someimportantname.info" or "someimportantname.biz" etc. Is it meaningful to chase all these domain extensions and purchase all available alternatives for your "very valuable" domain name? This is nonsense. I pointed this very fact out to my brother in law last week. Hell, even when I know the name of the company I usually pop into google and search it first. This came up because my brother in law has a business who's name is generic enough for some squatter to have grabbed. When the URL is checked it is registered but there is no site there. So, he contacted the guy asking how much he wanted to turn the name over... "$,8,500 and not a penny less" is what he was told. The guy is on some real bad crack! So we're going with a more generic name. $8,500? This guy must be thinking that money is earned very easy with just a snap of fingers.  There are more horrible examples. Suppose you have a brand, named, for example "True Blue". You are selling jeans and t-shirts. Then you purchase the domain name "trueblue.com" for your web presence. After a short while, a guy appears and tells you he has registered the domain "trueblue.ws" and gives you an offer for some thousands dollars. If you refuse, he begins publishing very negative messages about your products and company at that web site. Since he skillfully registered the site to the leading search engines, people searching for your products at Google often come across that fake site. ... GoDaddy is really starting to bug me. Try to buy a domain name there and you get what seems to be an infinite number of "STOP! ADD THESE DOMAINS TO YOUR ORDER OR ELSE!" type messages. Cyber-squatting makes me think of developers who buy up an inner-city lot, let it rot for 5 years while gentrification sets in, then put up condos to pull in the big bucks. For those 5 years that lot could have been used for housing or a park or some other positive neighborhood force. It's like anything else - if people are willing to pay - there will always be people charging. $8500 expensive? How about $7million the guy paid for business.com? All of you guys are right that it's absurd to charge that kind of money for a name that more and more gets found through a search, not by direct entry... heck, most of my customers actually type in the URL in the search box instead of the address box when they do know it. But there must be some value in this, otherwise people wouldn't be paying that kind of money and continue to pay it. I don't and sounds from all of your remarks that you don't either, but someone must be... or the prices wouldn't be what they are. |
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