1and1.com which started a multimillion dollar national television advertising campaign which seemed to start around the first NFL games three weeks ago, just crossed the 2,000,000 mark in new gTLD pre-reservations.
Unofficially I tracked some 70,000 pre-registrations today alone.
To their credit and unlike other pre-registration services, 1and1.com is only accepting one pre-registration per new gTLD domain name.
If someone’s selected new gTLD domain name is the person trying to pre-register the domain is so informed and allowed to be put on a waiting list.
This week I got an email from someone who said he represented some clients and their domain properties with the subject line “gtld pre-reservations panic” the same topic was opened up for discussion on Linked in:
“I noticed that 1&1 is offering “pre-reservation” for many of the new GTld’s”
“I tried to grab some geo+professional domains for clients, but many were already “taken”.
“Should I be worried or are there alternatives, as I would think that 1&1 isn’t the only place we can do this, no?”
I’m sure there are lot of people that have gone to 1and1.com only to find that 1st choice for a new gTLD domain is already pre-reserved by someone else adding to the “i missed it” fear.
So back to the email we have a guy who is in the domain trade who is confused and concerned that he is not protecting his clients in the new gTLD space due to the 1and1 commercials.
So what does someone who isn’t in the domain name space think about all these new gTLD’s and what they maybe getting by “pre-reserving a New gTLD domain.
While 1and1.com is dong a great job with an excellent commercial to bring awareness to the new gTLD program, you can see that their site would be confusing to anyone but a very experienced domain industry insiders as to what people maybe getting and will not getting by pre-reserving a domain.
If you just look at the top 20 most pre-registered new gTLD domain extensions on 1and1.com they are:
.APP
.BLOG
.BUY
.CAR
.CARS
.CHURCH
.EAT
.HOTEL
.INC
.MAIL
.MOBILE
.MUSIC
.NEWS
.ONLINE
.RESTAURANT
.SCHOOL
.SHOP
.SITE
.TECH
.WEB
Of course each one of the top 20 extension has more than one applicant so no one knows at this point what company will be running any of these registries.
Amazon for example who has an application for .APP, which is the 4th largest pre-registered new gTLD, is going to operate it on a closed or highly restricted basis so none of the pre-regisrations could wind up ever being available.…
