From the .BEST to web.Best

Building on the .BEST Top-Level Domain foundation, the team embarked on developing the Best mobile application, which became the cornerstone of web.Best for capturing likes on short-form videos.

Today, web.Best is designed to enhance attraction, engagement and conversion on your own website.

Learn more here.

Project "John Wolley" : the pitch is available for Round 2 of new gTLDs.

Jovenet Consulting is focusing on innovation for Round 2 of new gTLDs and if lots of projects are advertised at the moment, all about the upcoming and awaited "Web3 revolution" and crypto wallets connecting to a domain name, one deals with something completely different.

Project John Wolley offers a new way to search for local content, thanks to city names operated under one single domain name extension.

We are offering to read the full pitch about the project so one can understand about details and read between the lines. You can download the pitch here.

Some idea about .MUSIC

We're all now waiting for the .MUSIC new gTLD to launch and many predict it will be a success. If I was in the music business, I'd definitely consider changing my domain name to one of these. Of course I'd keep my old domain name but changing to a ".music" one would be my move.

Constantine Roussos

New gTLDs are ten years old now and they are here to stay; the "music" sign is universal, it is not French, but it is know from all ;-) so chances are high that such a domain name extension meets with adoption.

I don't follow many people on Twitter, but I follow .MUSIC founder Constantine Roussos. I once met him in the UK and the guy had a strong fight in front of him with seven more applicants who wanted to create this same registry and I was pretty sure that he wouldn't win that war: the guy had Amazon and Google in front of him...

...but he won: the official .MUSIC website says: "Supporting organizations with members representing over 99% of music consumed globally". What a success.

The idea

Since this .MUSIC enters in the history of Internet and Constantine Roussos is probably working hard with multiple partners to guarantee its success, I'd be interested in pushing this idea to his Registry: as a potential consumer of a ".music" domain name (I play the triangle*), I'd be interested in knowing what is the number of the domain name I just created.

Some luxury items enter the history because they are numbered and I would very much like to know if triangle.music (for example) was the number 3 or number 10 domain name created in the history of internet. Domain names are created at the registry in a certain order, I am sure this number must not be a difficult one to extract.  

I hope he reads me.

* please don't register triangle.music, I want to be first to register that one.

New gTLD Project John Wolley WANTS YOU !

2023 is not so far away and to be set up before the next round of new gTLD starts, I look for (a) partner(s) interested in financing new gTLD innovation. 

What is project John Wolley?

The project is a combination of local directories operated behind a single domain name extension: "domain names as a service". In more simple words, project John Wolley is a Universal Directory with plenty of great ideas inside to make this project both a "solidaire" and a lucrative one.

Are welcome:

• Accredited Registrars,
• Existing Registries,
• Backend Registry providers,
• Financial Institutions,
• Experienced Entrepreneurs willing to invent something new.

For a detailed explanation of the project (under NDA), contact Jean Guillon.

Countries interested (as of today):

• United States of America
• Bulgaria
• France
• Luxembourg
• Belgium
• United Kingdom
• Germany
• Mexico

How SKY is improving the use of its .SKY new gTLD

I recently shared with Dawn Shackleton, Head of Online Brand Protection (Sky Technology) at Sky. Dawn is also Vice President of the Brand Registry Group so she often meets with other .BRAND new gTLD applicants. Dawn is also the person to talk to for the .SKY new gTLD.

The .SKY new gTLD

I had read about this job offer: a position related to the .SKY new gTLD and the SKY domain name portfolio (which must be an important one). I dug a little about .SKY and noticed that SKY is one of these rare .BRANDs to do something with its TLD. In France, we have the .ARTE new gTLD but I found no reference using a ".arte" domain name but redirections. I then asked her if anything new was coming and here is what I wrote down:

• The use of dotSKY is building month on month;
• Its primary use is for Corporate purposes and the growth of use stems from the decision to move Sky's corporate website over to skygroup.sky from being a sub domain of sky.com;
• The most recent website is productionservices.sky which showcases Sky first class TV production talent and studio facilities for hire;
• Their biggest success to date is the adoption of sub domains of contact.sky that they use where 3rd party agencies are sending bulk emails out to customers or internal Sky people. This gives assurance to people that the email they are receiving is authentic.

This is why you need your .BRAND

Did you read that sentence from Dawn: "This gives assurance to people that the email they are receiving is authentic". There are other reasons to apply for a .BRAND but this short sentence is one of the main reasons why Banks and other major Trademarks should acquire their own dotBrand domain name extension.

Being able to seal an email is one thing that a personalized domain name extension allows: ".com" or any other domain name extensions do not offer that option.

Comparing .PAGE and .BEST

The .BEST Registry enters the month of June 2019 with another 1,000 domain names created. I'd suggest to have a look at the progression curve of this TLD compared to the .PAGE new gTLD belonging to Google.

The numbers

1. January 2019: the .BEST had 4,000 domains less than .PAGE;
2. February 2019: the .BEST had about the same but .PAGE had gained +3,500 more;
3. March 2019: the .BEST had almost caught up with .PAGE with 2,000 less domains but .PAGE had almost 14,000 domain names created;
4. April 2019: there's a gap of  less than 3,000 domains between the two registries. 
5. May 2019: the .BEST Registry announces 16,000 domain names created and the gap with .PAGE is reduced to 2,000 domains.
6. June 2019 (end): more .BEST than .PAGE coming ?

.Best hits 16K domains ! Register First your .Best domains in promo from $1.99 : https://t.co/D3gMiitOBJ#best #domains #domain #domainnames #domainname #execution #strategy #tld #icann #investor #investors #seo #digitalstrategy #inta #inta2019 #brand #thebest #brandprotection pic.twitter.com/SjMiD61xuG

— .Best (@BestTLD) May 29, 2019

Why compare .PAGE and .BEST ?
There is a list of domain name extensions that I'd strongly suggest to keep an eye on for any company with a need to secure its assets online. This list is not so long but can represent a danger if a third party, or a competitor, came to use the same extension with the exact same second level domain name.

I compare .PAGE to .BEST since one is just below the other in that list of domain name registration volumes. Also, it is interesting to see that one is maintained by a giant of the Internet (Google) and the other is operated and marketed by a small team of entrepreneurs based in Paris.

THE.BEST Social Network: NamesCon keynote 1

This is the first part of a live introduction to the The.BEST Social Network, by Cyril Fremont. This intro was done during the last NamesCon in Las Vegas.

Reminder: THE.BEST social network is an innovative social network to launch in 2019. It is based on the use of ".best" domain names and will come with plenty more surprises ;-)

Will it be .SEARCH or a .BRAND search engine?

Innovating in new gTLDs is risky and has to be financed, but a strong advantage that a new domain name extension has, is that...it is alone. I like to say that it is some kind of monopoly: the owner of the extension controls...the meaning of the extension and so...all contents created using one of these domain names. If selling domain names through the network of accredited registrars "is the way" to do it today to generate an income for an registry (operator of the domain name extension) there could be a much more lucrative way to operate a new gTLD: what about selling a service based on a ".brand" new gTLD?

Controlling domains
There is a benefit in controlling who can create domain names. If anyone can register a domain name in most domain name extensions offered through the network of accredited registrars, it is impossible when using ".dotbrand" ones since the extension is controlled by the owner of the Brand (let's say a trademark in this example). For example, it avoids one to register a domain name to have a fraudulent use of it. Also, it blocks squatting from happening, phishing, homoglyphs from being created, and other infringements: the Registry "is" the Brand and does not allow third parties to register domain names.

Controlling content
In the case of a trademark selling a service through controlled domain names such as ".brand" ones, controlling content is made easy since the party to receive the benefit of using the domain name has to use it according to the trademark's rules. I like to remind that the new operator of the website is not the owner of the domain name. Controlling the use of such domain names can be done in several ways:

• Through the use of a dedicated platform, developed by the owner of the extension (ie: the .TEL Registry in 2007). In this case, there is no other possible use but to use the domain name platform.
• Through the use of strict written rules (domain name policy). Some Trademarks already offer a such way to proceed to their affiliated but they don't sell online.

Controlling security
The advantage of controlling the "dotBRAND" is the capacity to start a project using HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) so all websites offer SSL. Few registries are "forcing" users to use secured websites: if it has always been an option for website owners, the future now shows that having a secured websites - especially when selling online - will be important in the future.

Controlling location
One Trademark might want to have a targeted worldwide presence on specific geographical areas but not on other subjects. For example, a Trademark could look for an international presence in cities but not on product names or other generic terms. Creating city names can be industrialized on a .BRAND extension: it is just a matter of having a list of city names and creating the exact same second level domain (for example: boston.extension). The benefit is that a city acquires the capacity to operate content under its real generic city name and all of them are available. Operating a www.city.brand becomes possible and has a strong SEO benefit. It also has an advantage in terms of branding: www.city.brand looks nicer than www.citybrandwhatever.com doesn't it? Also, you do not control location over a complete TLD if anyone is allowed to register any kind of domain name for any kind of content: when operating your extension, you are in total control.

Note that city names are sometimes trademarked by the cities themselves but there are mutual benefits to find arrangements with cities.

Controlling earnings
Of course, one might wonder why - but WHY - would a trademark let a third party use its name to sell its product without controlling the message sent to customers. And why, it would let complete strangers do that, redistributing them an income (ie: The Universal Yellow Pages). Actually, it is what some Trademarks do with their affiliates: franchises for example. Operating a platform dedicated to selling an online service targeting cities allows to generate a turn over:

• per city
• per domain name operator
• per region
• per country
• per continent
• per product

Search Engines

Search engines all work the same way: some offer a great algorithm that they sometime sell to other search engines; some offer the exact same search field with a different message and philosophy but with less content indexed. In more simple words: they all look alike and it gets back to:

• one front page with a search field;
• a ".com" domain name.

Why not change this and offer one page per city to better identify content for a geographical location? Most search engines already do that but they don't say it and it is unclear. Some users don't even like that since they have not been informed about it. Some don't want their content to match with their geographical location. Isn't it time to innovate and offer an alternative to search on Internet, offering multiple points of entries with a meaning, instead of...just one...which has none?

The .BEST new gTLD Execution Plan

This is the latest .BEST execution plan published by the Registry.

Timeline

• July 2018: .BEST registry acquisition by Cyril Fremont and team of investors;
• August 2018: transition to backend registry solution provider;
• September 2018: strategy for quarter four;
• October 2018: on-boarding of new ".best" accredited registrars;
• November 2018: .BEST promotion;
• December 2018: social media marketing;
• January 2019: strategy FY2018.

Check the official stats on the new gTLD report dedicated to which domain name extensions companies should keep their eyes on. The ".best" domain name registration figures already speak by themselves. 

Reminder
Price of ".best" domain names is below $10 per year at certain registrars. Ensure you register your domain names before the promotion ends on January the 31st, 2019. Check the full list of registrars here.

The .BEST Crypto-Currency

The BestCoin token is the upcoming crypto-currency being developed by the recently acquired .BEST registry.

One could think about "just another crypto-currency" being dropped to consumers on the Internet but the concept here is quite innovative from what we've seen before. The BestCoin crypto currency makes sense because of the "territory" it becomes a part of:

1. a Digital Territory (".best" domain names);
2. a Crypto-Currency (the BestCoin token) and;
3. a Community (a new social network technology).

This combination will allow some owners of a ".best" domain name to generate an income from their reviews and traditional Registrants will also be able to choose to use their domain name in a traditional way for their website.

A detailed article was recently published about the .BEST crypto-currency: "A Mobile Payments Social Network? The Best SAS May Be Working On It".

Which Registry will succeed in...

...selling domain names in supermarkets?
When it comes to paying in a supermarket, you're often offered to buy that “little thing more”: chewing-gums, sweets, alcohol, but it is now also possible to buy “online things” such as Apple and Google music: why not offer domain names too?

Domains names are no BtoC consumer products
Let’s be serious: can you imagine a Registry pushing a Registrar to “do the job”, trying to offer domain names in supermarkets? This just would not work for several reasons:

• Approaching a supermarket chain is a tough job that requires time and the job of a Registrar is to sell domain names and offer services dedicated to domain names;
• What about marketing and packaging: who pays? Certainly not the supermarket chain! Which Registrar has the capacity to pay for all this but one which has a close link to a supermarket chain?
• What about pricing? Is a Registrar ready to drop its price or accept to earn money in year two, when the domain name is renewed?
• What about support...

A blog offered with a domain name is BtoC

Many people want to have their blog: to post their holidays’ photos or just to write the story of their life but they won’t necessary search for this on Internet because it is so difficult to understand and there is so much info to provide, it can even become technical!

The truth is that very few people know what a domain name is so you can imagine when it comes to talking about a “Registrar” :-)

Added to more services, a supermarket has the capacity to address end users and evangelize the process of registering a domain name a complete different way, make things more simple and go straight to the point: deliver what is offered on the packaging and nothing more that what the price says. It does not work the same online when you can offer “options”, simply by clicking on a button. The more clicks...

A supermarket also has the capacity to offer “trust” in the purchase: the seller is already an authority, can Registrars says the same: nationwide?

Why not add the email to this package?

Another truth is that very few people know that an email can be different from gMail or Hotmail so offering the option to personalize an email with a domain name seriously adds to the quality of the offer.

Let’s be honest, what looks nicer: jguillon@hotmail.com or jean@guillon.email ? What about this one for "Jovenet Consulting": www.jovenetconsulting.com or www.jovenet.consulting ?

Added to the domain name, a personalized email is typically what Google and many other Registrars are trying to achieve in their offers but a supermarket could demonstrate that it is even a better place to bring consumers to buy such products: it is faster and does not require to read it all.

So what is the solution then?

I studied various possibilities but I strongly believe that the best approach is with a Registry which operates its own Registrar. The reason for this? A better price and reduced costs to take care of all operations with a limited number of subsidiaries. Note that I will not explain about “a better price”.

A Registrar with the capacity to offer a complete solution and a dedicated path for such consumers:

1. The Blog (without ever mentioning the word “hosting”);
2. The Domain name;
3. The Email;
4. One yearly payment.

A coupon, such as the one offered to buy music, will offer:

• To pay for year one;
• A 3 lines explanation of what the consumer buys;
• A short URL where to:
• Create the domain name which will activate and point to the Blog;
• Create the email;
• Explain and point to the interface to Blog;
• Renew the domain name (renewing should be explained on the coupon).

The entire process should fit in one single page.

Who can do that?

Come on: don’t you see?

;-)

*BtoC stands for “Business to Consumer”, different from BtoB which stands for “Business to Business”

New gTLDs: how they incite innovation

We thought new gTLDs would bring innovation to the world of domain names, but has it been the case? Clearly not...and this for two reasons:

1. It took too long for many projects to be validated by the ICANN and launched;
2. It cost too much Registries to wait and money dedicated to innovation went to...you know...when you have to pay your staff while waiting, etc...                     :-)

We also thought that innovation would be sudden but it appears that it is taking longer.

Is innovation coming now?

Clearly yes.

I see new kind of projects coming which did not exist because of the non existence of new gTLDs. All use and/or focus on new domain names:

• Tools to operate large portfolios of domain names with a minimum number of clicks: some Trademarks now want to find a use for all of these new domains they have to secure*;
• Tools dedicated to the meaning of specific TLDs (.email - .club - ...);
• Directories dedicated to specific domain name extensions: the interesting thing about new gTLDs is that some extensions now clearly mean something and help identify the content of a website directly when reading the domain name;
• Search engines for specific TLD meanings: why not search an info about a Contractor in a search engine dedicated to ".contractors" domain names?
• "Gain sharing" focussing on specific TLDs: a method to help Registries Registrants generate an income from a specific domain name extension;
• Mad scientists projects**.

Some registries are still having a hard time to make their project profitable but this is what is driving creativity today. There are failures with, for example, attempts to flood the market creating new domain names with no content; but little by little, we see that registries are not necessary - as we imagined it - the one to deliver creativity: registrants and entrepreneurs are now the one to take the lead. 

Rebranding is innovation

According to Verisign, it appears that ".com" was originally created to represent the “commercial” intent of a website so now there is a ".search" domain name extension, does it mean that it is time for Google to change its extension to perfectly match with what it is really doing?
What about The Time: isn't it time to change to a ".news" or ".press" to clearly express what it is about, or does it have to stick to that old speech about ".com" domain names and SEO?
Some Trademarks are showing initiatives:

• Bentley announced its http://www.corporate.bentley
• Total developed its Wiki: http://wiki.total
• SNCF will soon change to oui.sncf
• etc...

By the way, what sounds best here: "innovation is branding" or "branding is innovation"? Don't both sound good thank to new gTLDs?

We are interested in talking about your new gTLD innovation, contact us if interested. 

* conceived by Jovenet Consulting

** some are clearly imagined at Jovenet Consulting ;-)

Coming: "oui.sncf"

SNCF coming to new gTLDs with:https://t.co/TnUS3l9NS8 : congratulations!
More in French: https://t.co/7DqKiKI2fq#scnf @scnf #dotbrands

— Jovenet Consulting (@gtldconsulting) May 29, 2017

The new gTLD info of the day (Week-end)

New domain names underdevelopment
Below is another look at a few developed sites on the new gTLDs. Screenshots are linked to the sites if you’d like to check them out for yourself.
http://domainshane.com/new-gtld-development-clearer-link-volo-global-various-property/

After a Record Sales Month .CLUB Will Have a Lot of Domains in Our Next Weekly Report
A day after our latest weekly domain sales report came out Wednesday (December 2),.CLUB announced they had a record-breaking month in November, booking just over$1,622,000 worth of premium domain sales.
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2015/dailyposts/20151204.htm#.VmMQe1gzIt4.twitter

New gTLDs recently delegated:

1. 3 December 2015: ".INSURANCE";
2. 3 December 2015 ".NORTON";
3. 3 December 2015 ".MED";
4. 3 December 2015 ".SYMANTEC".
   http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/delegated-strings

Night.club
Nine "Category Killer" .CLUB Web Addresses Including Strip.club and Fitness.club to Be Offered January 11, 2016 in Las Vegas
http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/-2079436.htm

Now Available In Chinese!
State of the Domains, the magazine that is published by the Domain Name Association, is now available in Chinese. It was translated from the original English version that was distributed at ICANN 54.
http://onlinedomain.com/2015/12/06/news/state-of-the-domains-magazine-now-available-in-chinese/

The Nameshield Group: Registry, Corporate and Retail Registrar

Most recent Trademark Clearinghouse Sunrise Period announcements

Innovation: the .UNO solution to increase registration volumes

Today, innovation in new gTLDs seems to work hand in hand with sales results and if it has been difficult to finance while the ICANN and the GAC were spending applicants' time and money to (try to) solve problems, it is possible that this innovation has now become the key to reach financial expectations and develop new domain names adoption.

Read my complete article on gTLD.club.

Reminder: you can register your .CLUB domain name with Uniregistry.

New gTLDs innovation and registration volumes: the .UNO solution

New gTLD innovation
Hasn't it been a little disappointing to see absolutely no (or very few) innovation coming with new domain names?
One would have expected a .EMAIL new gTLD to come with a little plus something related to fighting spam or a .HELP coming with a dedicated platform to offer help on demand (is this what Google will offer with its .HOW?), a .DIRECTORY already set-up to login and create a directory, or a .INTERNATIONAL with a special partnership with a multilingual CMS?

I heard good ideas from Mind + Machines years ago but so many delays in launching the ICANN new gTLD program seem to have killed innovation.

Today, innovation in new gTLDs seems to work hand in hand with sales results and if it has been difficult to finance while the ICANN and the GAC were spending applicants' time and money to (try to) solve problems, it is possible that this innovation has now become the key to reach financial expectations and develop new domain names adoption.

The .UNO initiative
The .UNO Registry (".UNO has universal recognition for being number one, first, unique and the best") is about to have sold 10.000 new domain names and giving domain names away seems to be a new way to "deliver" names on the market.
If some Registries like the .XYZ, .BERLIN and .SCIENCE are giving domain names, the .UNO Registry is bringing innovation to this new trend giving the domain name for free with the Hello.uno new social platform.

Hello.uno
Hello.uno is a free service not owned by the .UNO Registry but which allows anyone to create a complete webpage on which the Registrant can show his LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and many other social networks feeds. All this in just a few clicks.

The increasing number of subscribers is a demonstration of success. I wanted to go through the process and created a jeanguillon.uno. It took me less than five minutes for a complete page. I also received the email which confirmed the domain name registration:

I checked a little later to find my webpage online. It is basic and I will probably dig a little more into it to see what more can be done with it.

Of course, "free is rarely free" so I checked the WHOIS database to see if the domain had been registered in my name and it had. As a result, a newcomer to this platform gets everything the Google Blogger platform offers but with a super clean design and a free domain name. Blogger - which I already find very cool - will charge you for the domain name and Wordpress will charge you even more.

In the case of this platform, "free" seems to be definition I have of this word, not the one which comes with adds. If someone finds the trick here, I am interested in a feed-back.

Registration volumes
A lot has been told about poor domain names renewal (read here too) but...is this so true and...does it really matter?

From where I stand at Jovenet Consulting, one of my weekly tasks is to check domain name renewals and what I see is not negative at all. If results are not the one expected, renewals are there: there are less domain names on the market than expected by Registries but Registrants (those to register domain names) are renewing their domain(s).
One year (more or less) after launching its first TLDs, the last report from the largest multiple Registry Donuts tells us one truth about renewals.

So regarding registration volumes, the repetitive and negative speech I often read from Domainers and "pro .COMs" is ... just wrong :-)

What about increasing new domain names registration volumes? If I now have very small doubts about the renewal rate from a Registry who is giving domain names away, I have even smaller ones about one giving a little something with its domains for two reasons:

1. When you start to use a service like Hello.uno, chances are high that you will keep using it:
1. Choices of designs offered are:
1. Really nice;
2. Free.
2. The domain name is Free and registered in your name: you normally pay for this.
2. A platform like Hello.com can become addictive: you get everything in one single place: no need multiple logins and passwords... Internet users also like it when it is simple.

In the case of the Hello.uno platform, the thinking seems to be done a different way: the message sent to me is more a: "use our platform and we will give you a personalized address with it" rather than a: "register this domain for free then decide what to do with it".