Thursday, September 13, 2007
My prediction for the highest valued domain extensions for the year 2012.

For these predictions I am considering only today's most popular extensions and I am taking mostly a North American point-of-view.

(1) .com: Score = 100. Will continue as the gold standard and the end will not be in sight. .com is the commercial choice and first thought for online shoppers. Its hard to imagine online sales as the main purpose for typing in a .us or .info, for example. They have strong traffic potential but the selling will always be secondary to the "information".

(2) .us: Score = 15. May score higher for patriotism, US elections, USA GeoDomains and other strictly USA references. Will score much lower outside the USA. Also, .ca and .mx will continue to do well also in their own countries

(3) .info: Score = 11. The claim of international appeal is true and may eventually drive this extension to #2.

(4) .mobi: Score = 8. When mobile really takes off mobi will be there to represent mobile access for those who already have the .com. The unacknowledged reality is that mobi users will be even more task-focused than those accessing from desktops and notebooks. When combined with the smaller screen size that means less commercial value.

(5) .net:  Score = 5. The most vulnerable extension to give ground to new TLDs. Still, not to be abandoned by network related companies and ISPs who will also have their .coms in full use.

(6) .org: Score = 5. Org is perfect for professional groups, non-profits and many other applications. Org will hold a steady position into the future.

(7) .TV: Score = 3. Will always be valid for television, entertainment, and related purposes. (#4 in 2017)

(8) .biz: Score = 3. It just hasn't worked out so far and its hard to imagine what will propel this extension above any of the others. However, biz does continue to offer options for those who just discovered the net.

   --Bob Ducker