We End The Alphabet With .XYZ, We Should End Domain Names The Same Way

npr-logo

It’s official, .XYZ is going after .COM as the next big gTLD with a goal of 1,000,000 registrations in the first year and an endorsement from NPR to over 10 million listeners this morning. Today on NPR .XYZ founder Daniel Negari made his case,

“The way I looked at it was, we end the alphabet with .XYZ, we should end domain names the same way.”

While it might sound far fetched it’s a brave new world we are entering into and short, memorable extensions like this could go mainstream just like TLDs like .CO, .ME and .IO which have all seen incredible growth over the last year.

“Try and forget it, I dare you” says Negari in the interview, and to be honest with you, I can only think of three strings of characters that I can easily remember, ABC and XYZ. Combinations like QRS or random ones like FGS I could never remember but honestly try to forget ABC or XYZ.

I know what you’re going to say now. “But people have been using .COM forever and it will stay that way forever!” People will be using .COM most-likely forever but it’s not hard to see that its role is changing. The interview included a great quote from Tom from .MENU about what he thinks is the most likely scenario for .COM:

“.COM is like New York City, it isn’t going to go away, it’s full, it’s crowded, but it’s also very vital, and these new domains are the wild west and we hope eventually people will build on them.”

I also see .COM a lot like New York City, it can be a great place to live but it’s also expensive, and there are lots of other great cities in the US and around the world. I don’t see .COM going-away, and yes, I think it will continue to be the most expensive/premium Internet real estate, but I think TLDs like .XYZ have a shot at building something very meaningful with the next generation of Internet users.

The original domain name investors back in the 90’s believed that the web was going to take-off. People thought they were crazy, believed that reliable information came from your local library or a good newspaper. That changed, is it really that inconceivable to think things could change again?

You can hear the full interview with Daniel and read more about their plans on the .XYZ blog.

Now it’s your turn. NPR called .XYZ the next .COM, What do you think? Comment and let your voice be heard!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton