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After
a very rewarding trip
to California (both professionally
and personally) I just got back to our
Florida home today. After Webfest
Global ended in Santa
Monica, Diana and I flew up to San
Jose to visit our son Aaron and
his family for a few days. Aaron, who is a
globe trotting chemical engineer at Apple,
gave us our first tour of the company's
sprawling campus in Cupertino while
we were there. Apple's low rise office
buildings cover a huge expanse of land
encircled by One Infinite Loop.
Webfest
Global was also very interesting again
this year (I'll have a full show review in
our upcoming February Cover Story). As you
would expect the impending arrival of
new gTLDs was a hot topic of
conversation there. Opinions about how
well the new gTLDs will fare were all over
the board. |
An
entrance at the Apple Campus in Cupertino,
CA
(Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013) |
Before
I left for the show, domain pioneer Rick
Schwartz, co-founder of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
conference, shared his new gTLD view with
me while I was conducting interviews for our
January State
of the Industry Cover Story. Some of
his comments were included in that article, but
due to space constraints in that wide ranging
article, I held some others that I can share
with you now.
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Rick
Schwartz on the balcony of his Fort
Lauderdale Beach penthouse apartment. |
Schwartz
said, "The
.whatever registries and registrars may
have internal success. But that’s
the problem and the difference. It
is internal success where .com
was/is an external success. Think
about that. The reason .com is such a
success is the wide use and
acceptance by 3rd parties. 3rd
parties were the big winners. Here
Registries may be the winners but that is
a completely different equation."
"So
in success or failure, .whatever will just
reinforce .com as not only the gold
standard, but THE most sought after
property on the planet," Schwartz
declared. "The domain name is every
great brand rolled into one brand. Your
brand, my brand, their brand. Plus the
location, plus everything else that comes
with it. The intangibles. Like credibility
for example. It is the total lifeline,
heartbeat, main entrance and foundation of
your business and supersedes all other
entry and contact points."
"If
you can hold on to your domains to 2015-2016
I believe that you will see a huge |
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spike
in prices and that is what I have waited
all these years for. I am sorry many don’t
see it. My most vivid example would be
like comparing the salaries of Babe
Ruth and Johnny Unitas with Derrick
Jeter and Tom Brady. Now that
took 70 years. What we are doing is
taking 70 months and that clock
starting ticking about 42 months
ago," Schwartz said. |
"T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
has been the launch pad of .mobi, .me,
.co and .xxx and all have enjoyed
great success at our shows. I think that will
continue as we have already proved that we can
do the job. So I think many of us will benefit
from .whatever. My job is not to talk anyone out
of what they see - just try and separate fact
from hype. Don’t try to value the
corresponding .whatever to the .com. Not a
fair comparison. Those that buy into that
are being fooled. T.R.A.F.F.I.C. will
premiere, offer and promote but we won’t
endorse. And there may come a time where we
see no value in that. Time will tell. We will be
true to what we believe." Schwartz
concluded.
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