Te Kete o Karaitiana Taiuru (Blog)

Social networks usernames – more valuable than a domain name ?

We have almost become conditioned to the fact that we need to protect our domain name and that if we have an organisation of any description we need to secure a domain name for our online identity. Often conglomerates will register their identity across many TLD’s.
ICANN will soon make it possible to create new gTLD’s to more fairly represent the Internet users community.
The financial wealth available from purchasing prime domain names and selling at a large profit are all part of the domain name game, whether we agree with the practices or not.
Yet in this time of social networks, YouTube, blogs, Twitter and the various other Web 2.0 technologies and Instant Messaging many organisations are failing to consider registering their names in these areas, making the possibility of ID theft, competitors taking advantage of others ignorance an easy opportunity for almost anyone competent at surfing the web.
It does not take too long to sign up at various Web 2.0 sites and register your organisation or personal name. In terms of branding the cost of ignorance far out weighs a few hours securing your names on the sites.
Again this makes me consider the new landscape of domain names in the future and what the domain resellers strategy will be in the future. Perhaps they will sell prime Web 2.0 user names. A generic username for YouTube could provide a lot of publicity for a web site selling services and goods as could a generic Twitter ID.
With technology for ever changing i believe generic names for Skype too will also be a valuable resource as we will one day just use Skype to make phone calls. So if i need a plumber i will just type in the username plumber.
While this all may seem a little far fetched to some, i encourage you to take a look at the first 100 domain names registered in the .com as seen below and sourced from http://www.pcworld.com/article/155743-2/the_internets_100_oldest_dotcom_domains.html .
Who could have ever imagined at this time the value of the humble domain name in the .com space ?. There was a lot of potential to be a multi billionaire with a small investment of a few hundred dollars.

 

1. symbolics.com: March 15, 1985

2. bbn.com: April 24, 1985

3. think.com: May 24, 1985

4. mcc.com: July 11, 1985

5. dec.com: September 30, 1985

6. northrop.com: November 7, 1985

7. xerox.com: January 9, 1986

8. sri.com: January 17, 1986

9. hp.com: March 3, 1986

10. bellcore.com: March 5, 1986

11. ibm.com: March 19, 1986

12. sun.com: March 19, 1986

13. intel.com: March 25, 1986

14. ti.com: March 25, 1986

15. att.com: April 25, 1986

16. gmr.com: May 8, 1986

17. tek.com: May 8, 1986

18. fmc.com: July 10, 1986

19. ub.com: July 10, 1986

20. bell-atl.com: August 5, 1986

21. ge.com: August 5, 1986

22. grebyn.com: August 5, 1986

23. isc.com: August 5, 1986

24. nsc.com: August 5, 1986

25. stargate.com: August 5, 1986

26. boeing.com: September 2, 1986

27. itcorp.com: September 18, 1986

28. siemens.com: September 29, 1986

29. pyramid.com: October 18, 1986

30. alphacdc.com: October 27, 1986

31. bdm.com: October 27, 1986

32. fluke.com: October 27, 1986

33. inmet.com: October 27, 1986

34. kesmai.com: October 27, 1986

35. mentor.com: October 27, 1986

36. nec.com: October 27, 1986

37. ray.com: October 27, 1986

38. rosemount.com: October 27, 1986

39. vortex.com: October 27, 1986

40. alcoa.com: November 5, 1986

41. gte.com: November 5, 1986

42. adobe.com: November 17, 1986

43. amd.com: November 17, 1986

44. das.com: November 17, 1986

45. data-io.com: November 17, 1986

46. octopus.com: November 17, 1986

47. portal.com: November 17, 1986

48. teltone.com: November 17, 1986

49. 3com.com: December 11, 1986

50. amdahl.com: December 11, 1986

51. ccur.com: December 11, 1986

52. ci.com: December 11, 1986

53. convergent.com: December 11, 1986

54. dg.com: December 11, 1986

55. peregrine.com: December 11, 1986

56. quad.com: December 11, 1986

57. sq.com: December 11, 1986

58. tandy.com: December 11, 1986

59. tti.com: December 11, 1986

60. unisys.com: December 11, 1986

61. cgi.com: January 19, 1987

62. cts.com: January 19, 1987

63. spdcc.com: January 19, 1987

64. apple.com: February 19, 1987

65. nma.com: March 4, 1987

66. prime.com: March 4, 1987

67. philips.com: April 4, 1987

68. datacube.com: April 23, 1987

69. kai.com: April 23, 1987

70. tic.com: April 23, 1987

71. vine.com: April 23, 1987

72. ncr.com: April 30, 1987

73. cisco.com: May 14, 1987

74. rdl.com: May 14, 1987

75. slb.com: May 20, 1987

76. parcplace.com: May 27, 1987

77. utc.com: May 27, 1987

78. ide.com: June 26, 1987

79. trw.com: July 9, 1987

80. unipress.com: July 13, 1987

81. dupont.com: July 27, 1987

82. lockheed.com: July 27, 1987

83. rosetta.com: July 28, 1987

84. toad.com: August 18, 1987

85. quick.com: August 31, 1987

86. allied.com: September 3, 1987

87. dsc.com: September 3, 1987

88. sco.com: September 3, 1987

89. gene.com: September 22, 1987

90. kccs.com: September 22, 1987

91. spectra.com: September 22, 1987

92. wlk.com: September 22, 1987

93. mentat.com: September 30, 1987

94. wyse.com: October 14, 1987

95. cfg.com: November 2, 1987

96. marble.com: November 9, 1987

97. cayman.com: November 16, 1987

98. entity.com: November 16, 1987

99. ksr.com: November 24, 1987

100. nynexst.com: November 30, 1987

 

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DISCLAIMER: This post is the personal opinion of Dr Karaitiana Taiuru and is not reflective of the opinions of any organisation that Dr Karaitiana Taiuru is a member of or associates with, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

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