How About More Domain Options?

[jmiller]

How useful would a single-letter domain be? Is, for example, Y.com a worthy investment for, say, the YMCA or someone wanting to set up a site that answers “why” questions? How about domains that use the company name instead of .com? Could podcast.mycompany be a craze that gains ground in the domain game?

ICANN is addressing the single-letter domain question this weekend in Vancouver. The other is already a possibility if enough people put it into flight.

At an issues meeting this weekend in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Internet’s governing agency, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will be discussing the implications of making available single-letter domains, which for all but six early-registered domains, have been reserved by ICANN for possible distribution later.

The six single-letter domains already nabbed are i.net, q.com (Qwest Communications), q.net (Q Networks), x.com (PayPal), x.org (X.Org Foundation), and z.com (Nissan), according to E-Commerce Times.

These domains are potentially valuable to companies who are represented on Wall Street by a single letter, like Citigroup (C) or Ford (F), or even to cable networks like E!. Though not everyone is convinced of their value.

In a related story, Dutch company UnifiedRoot is pushing top-level domains that are in sync with companies or brand names. The company’s site uses examples like news.cnn or luggage.schiphol.

While domain names like these may be especially useful to companies, the difficulty lies in getting ISP’s or ICANN to recognize the new TLDs.

Thanks to Dave at PassingNotes for the hat tip.

[ADAM Web Design]

Let's get .off as a TLD so I can register f.off. :)

[JKomp]

I think Y.com says it all if you see what i mean lol

[geoffreygag]

Miller,

There are single character domain names registered in .com

They are names Symbol Domain names. I have them listed together with another person at http://www.symboldomains.com

[connoisseurs]

Pardon me, but while those symbol domains look attractive enough they'd surely be more difficult to enter. Ease of typing is a big factor for me personally, which is why I hate for example, hyphenated domain names.

Single letter domain names on the other hand would simpify life for a lot of folk. Regretfully, we're limited to 26.

[Robban]

i meant to write it here. I am a bit off today..


hey connoisseurs hows that ws thing working for ya.. curious.

I looked into it a while back but it seemed like domain pyramid scheme with people only pushing the opportunity.

[connoisseurs]

It's nothing like that at all. There's a real product (domain name/hosting)which I previously had for about the same cost as with GDI (Still working on my site, so it's not up yet). What's wrong if we gain something by referring others to the service?

The reputable VOIP company (leader in it's class) with which I've had an account for the last year, gives bill credits to those who invite friends to join.

The company gets new customers and the old customer gets an incentive to stay...a very effective use of advertising dollars I'd say.

[Robban]

but isnt the domain and the hosting just for a site to promote the opportunity domain and hosting the page. At least thats how I understood it.

I'd like to know about it. You pay 10/mo and then you find a bunch of others to also pay 10/mo... ?

Sorry if I am taking this thread somewhere else. Maybe you'd PM me. or email.