The world of domaining is busy speculating about the outcomes of new gTLDS. And, most of us especially the domaining community is eagerly hoping that it may not become a threat to the power of dot com. Many domain experts opine that new gTLDs will in fact increase tremendously the dot come domain name values and very few who are supporting the new gTLDs expect dot com downfall. Well, only time can tell, but, one thing for sure internet is going to be revolutionized by these new top level domain extensions.
As far as the question is concerned whether new gTLDS will be a threat or not – the answer is a simple ‘NO.’ In the short-run it’s not going to dilute any power of dot com domain names. The short run may be 5 years from now or more. We may witness dot com erosion if there is a massive technology changes may take place but it’s not on cards right now.
As far as my learning concerned I think following are the extensions companies presently are using:
Dot Com: To make their business global and the headquartered business site of all their other domain names.
Dot Net: Just to protect themselves from cyber squatting companies do register a dot net version and most forward that name to the dot com address. Google forwards their Google.net to Google.com
Dot Org: This is the extension which I value as much as I value the dot com. It’s an extension which is non-commercial which companies can use to promote their community-care thoughts. Google uses Google.org just check how this Giant is using this domain name. If your company is not having a dot org version of dot com it’s high time you get the same one. Yahoo and Microsoft presently redirect their dot org to dot com which I think should not be – instead they should build up their social service platform on the dot org and not use dot com to promote any social activities.
Dot ccTLD: It’s also required by the companies to be local along with global. Most companies do have a ccTLD version of their dot com in countries they also have business operations.
Others: Other top level domains such as dot info, dot mobi and few others were also registered by some companies to protect themselves further.
Dot New-gTLD: Now with the influx of new gTLDs companies may also require to register and protect their valuable online properties. In this context – companies may register domains that are pertinent to the industry in which they operate. An example maybe of a company having Hotel business may register its domain names under dot hotel also but will not be much interested to register the same domain name under different versions such as, dot insurance, dot online or dot web.
From above I can assume that as far as big companies don’t start changing their headquartered website from dot com to any other new-gTLD the rest of the online business community will not likely to change their business location from dot com to any other new gTLD. And, as long as this thread continues dot com power will not erode.