Reader writes: "Hey Frank, have you noticed that the quality of expiring names getting worse lately, do you think the registrars are holding good names back? Whats going on there?"
There is certainly some "holding back" occurring at certain registrars. I spoke to that concern here and some of the other reasons for the dry-spell on Aaron Wall's blog recently:
"We are going through a seasonal dry-spell at the moment.. There is still an annual echo effect of expiring domain names which results from the dot-com bust when millions of folks in 2001,2,3 let their domain names expire.. the expiring name echo-period runs from November through April, so we are in the quiet season at the moment."
Another colleague pointed out that the "expiring name echo" period coincides with (and is exacerbated by) the the "initial domainer land-rush" echo which happened in the autumn months of 1998, 1999 and 2000 as millions of domain hobbyists and techies poured themselves glasses of wine, rolled up their sleeves and tried their hand at registering available generic names on a first-come, first-served basis (pre-bust).
The stock market has its own version of this phenomenon summarized with the oft-spoken line: "Sell in May and go away".
Could also be in part to a growing sophistication in the market.
Man used to be nomadic. In those days dwellings would just be abandoned when he moved on to fresh pastures. How that contrasts with the cut throat Real-Estate markets of today!
The bottom line is that as more and more people become become aware of the value of names and as the secondary market becomes more efficient, the likelihood of really good stuff going down diminishes. Registries abducting the names is only one part of that pattern.
When you are talking about waves, there have been big waves in the Domain Markets. One of the biggest, and perhaps the last really big one will be the IDN wave. Don't miss it.
Posted by: David Wrixon | May 23, 2007 at 06:51 AM