I'm sure all of you will have got at least one or two of the names you wanted from
.info. I don't know if you plan to develop or sell these domains but either
way I am sure you will be happy with the value that will be attatched to them.
I feel sure the value of these domains will soon match .com for a couple of reasons,
firstly, the global reach of these mainly unrestricted domains will ensure they are
well sought after, secondly, the .info extention on the whole gives a better impression
than .biz. In the mind of many it implies that you will go to a site and find
information about what you are looking for, where as going to a .biz site implies
you will be given a sales pitch. People like to decide what they will and won't
buy for their own reasons and many people like to base their decision on the best
information available. Of course this does not mean any .info site will be
any better than a .biz site or give anymore information, but I think the association
with information and the .info gTLD will spread as quickly as the association
between .biz and the corporate sales pitch we have come to loath.The funny thing
is of course most of the top .info domains will be owned by the very people who have
the .biz version and both sites will be geared to sell their product. I would
find it very interesting to see which site sold more best sellers, books.info or
books.biz. I think their will be .biz sites that will do better than their
.info countparts but on the whole I think .info will have the upperhand.
The rollout
of .biz should prove to be at least as crazy as .info.
but with .biz, people will
also have to cope with the corporate scramble for generic names, it promises to get
very nasty.
My last point is this, Afilias must release the names grabbed by the
trademark pirates and hold a mini landrush early next year. This time there
should be no pre-registration fees and there should be no insiders, registrars or
other groupies getting first pick of the names, this would go some way in repairing
their damaged reputation and create some good publicity.
Just an observation.