Rational domain investors and web developers can agree that .com is and will remain king for the foreseeable future since it was the first domain extension to both gain widespread adoption and receive millions of ad dollars in promotional advertising in the form of print and broadcast ads. 

We also know that whatever site that can be built on a .tv domain name can be built on ANY domain name in ANY domain extension.  So why all the hype surrounding dot tv?

Its no surprise that .tv will become the second most preferred extension behind dot com.

What type of website can succeed in the future without video? Very few.

More and more companies realize that delivering a richer Internet experience with the use of video is critical to their company’s future success. The inevitable challenge that companies shall face is how to design their .com websites to accommodate delivering a rich Internet experience while providing all the company information that dot com sites historically provided without diluting a visitor’s overall experince.

In fact, several high profile companies concluded that the rich Internet experience they wanted to deliver to their customers should be separated from the corporate information provided on their dot com websites…

Did you miss me?

Forgive me for going MIA for so long; it was not my intention.  The last few weeks, I devoted my time to consulting on a few development projects, spent some time working on my own portfolio, and sold my first home. 

Some observations I wanted to share involve the future of the dot tv extension.  The extension has incredible promise, but currently the pace that companies adopt the dot tv extension is not as fast as many of us would like it to be.  This should change as the public’s awareness of the dot tv extension grows and understanding of the purpose of those letters that come after the dot in every domain name should mean.  Dot com was first, that is the default extension instilled in people’s heads.  The public was not taught what .com means or stands for nor were they told to question it. 

I imagine that over time and through repetitive visits to dot tv sites (or exposure to dot tv ads), they will either become enlightened that .tv implies interactive content or begin to wonder what in the heck dot com really stands for...leading them to the ultimate question of asking why not use dot tv if delivering video content to the world is the site’s purpose.  After all, video is the future and dot tv just fits better than dot com. 

Recently, Brightcove announced it would be using the dot tv extension…

WHIR TV recently interviewed Richard, but the site only produced a transcript because the audio had some problems.  The interview covered Richard’s history, what Demand Media does, and where its going as a social media company.  WHIR TV described what Demand Media does as clever because it is essentially selling Web hosting and domaining in the form of a social media site for consumers. 

I pulled some questions and responses that I liked in particular.  Check these out in addition to the link to the full interview after the jump!

As video-sharing sites such as YouTube are gaining popularity all over the world, the `.tv’ domain is drawing more attention.

[D]ozens of home-grown video-sharing and Internet broadcasting sites...are using the ``.tv’’ domain as it is easily related to television or video.

According to Verisign, the operator of the `.tv’ domain, about 70 percent of its users wanted to extend their contracts, which is significantly higher than 60 percent of `.com’ users or 10 percent of `.net’ owners.

A total of 1,460 new `.tv’ domains were registered between January and July this year, up from 483 registrations in the same period last year.

These are quotes I picked up from a Korean newspaper, the full text and link can be found after the jump.

You will have to click to READ ON to read this entry because I wanted to preface the entry with this message:

If you think you own a domain name particularly suited to a niche market, then please contact me AFTER you have read the blog entry on the next page.  I have a unique opportunity I would like to share with you if your domain name meets that criteria and you are interested in developing that name.

Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.

Isn’t .tv well suited for this purpose if we are talking about Internet video? 

Estibot.com, a site that values your domain based on 30+ characteristics of the domain name.  The valuation is based on comparing those characteristics with a database of previously reported domain sales.  The site clearly acknowledges that an automated valuation tool such as Estibot is never completely reliable, but that one should use the site as a starting point for researching and evaluating domain names…

One of the reasons I enjoy writing this blog is because it puts me in touch with some people that I might not meet in my daily life.

Either through email or at conferences, I meet some very interesting people and exciting .tv projects they have in the works.  Of course, I am naturally curious about how they got involved in .tv and what was it that finally attracted them to the extension if they previously invested in other extensions.  More specifically, what was the tipping point to invest in .tv…

It seems like generic .com domain names continue to skyrocket in value.  I am no expert, but I find it hard to believe some of the prices being paid for certain domains.

So what domains do those without millions invest in? 

Apparently, a recent trend is to group similar names (often sub-par in my opinion) related to an industry into a single portfolio and auction it off...at least that is what BlogSpot Brands seeks to do, but ARE THEY SERIOUS; 50k for sub-par domains????

While my partner basks in the sun of what VeriSign VP, Ryanor Dahlquist, spouted about .tv, Frank Schilling continues to do whatever he can in his blog to reinforce .com branding and take cheap shots at the one extension that has the power to attract investors away from the .com extension.

The title of the blog in question starts out, “What’s wrong with .biz domain names?”

Frank states, “You can register a .biz name and market the heck out of it, but 90% of the rest of the world is reinforcing the .com extension in branding, advertising and media. It is a dot com world and fighting against that global Internet standard (created by the world’s web site owners) is an exercise in futility. Buy anything but a .com (or the CCtld of your populous country) and make your life unnecessarily hard.”

I bet more of the world recognizes what tv stands for than what com stands for…