The Dot Com Paradigm

By Duane J. Higgins, ceo
xtradot.com

 

Dictionary.com defines paradigm as a:

a. framework containing the basic assumptions, ways of thinking, and methodology that are commonly accepted by members of a scientific community.
b. such a cognitive framework shared by members of any discipline or group: the company’s business paradigm.

So what is the "dot com paradigm"

The dot com paradigm is this:

"All domain name extensions are and will continue to be adjuncts to .com."

What do I mean by adjuncts?

From Dictionary.com: Adjunct- ad·junct [aj-uhngkt] Show IPA noun
1. something added to another thing but not essential to it.

So I wanted to present some of my thoughts on what I'm calling "the dot com paradigm" in this blog post. However, as I've often noticed, many good ideas are often swirling around the Internet at the same time. I've posted credit to my counterpart at the end of this blog. But, first I wanted to mention a few things.

I've written extensively regarding the continued .com domination of all domain extensions and the Internet. However the design of this post has more to do with the rest of the domain name extensions. To show how the new domain extensions will fall neatly in line behind the .com behemoth.

This table of (global top level) domain registrations is from the Whois.sc (Whois Source) Domain Counts and Internet Statistics Website.

gTLD Overview for March 01, 2014

All	New	Deleted	Transferred	TLD
149,171,743	159,905	127,352	160,569	All TLDs
113,105,456	124,147	94,711	125,785	.COM
15,267,470	14,542	12,838	15,366	.NET
10,453,473	10,179	8,365	9,108	.ORG
5,790,637	6,236	7,269	6,032	.INFO
2,679,999	2,448	2,414	3,033	.BIZ
1,874,708	2,353	1,755	1,245	.US

This table of course does not include country code domain names, the new native language character set names, and new gTLD domain extensions such as .guru and .holdings.

Not to mention the upwards of 1300 new domain name extensions that are in the process of being released onto the global marketplace.

It's clear to see the patterns that are evident in the current domain registration paradigm from the above table. There are over 113 million .com domain names registered and .net is in second place with just over 15 million. One tenth of the registrations of .com.

Will any of the new extensions ultimately challenge .com for dominance in the domain name marketplace?

.guru? .web? .shop? .wiki? .blog? .app? .free? .link? .tips?
Some think that one of these extentions or even another could challenge .com and unseat the extension from its lofty perch above the Internet. However, it's not likely and the reason is that all of the new extensions are going to be adjuncts to .com in one way or another. Just as previous domain extenstions have been as such.

Now for the credit for my counterpart.

Below are examples of the types of "adjunct uses" that I see for the (upwards of 1300) new domain extensions as they are rolled out over the upcoming years:
From: telegraph.co.uk
By Sophie Curtis 3:00PM GMT 28 Feb 2014
"As the internet continues to develop new features, many companies plan to set up their own apps, blogs and wikis - so obtaining their own .app, .blog and .wiki domains is a logical step. The .feedback and .contact domains will also provide an intuitive address for particular web pages."

"The era of the singular 'web identity' is over," said Crawford. "As companies increasingly recognise the internet as the single largest source of new customers, even small businesses have moved beyond the position of buying one domain name for their website."


I couldn't have said it better.