Recent Posts
- auDA chair defends $9 million windfall as no-confidence vote looms
- Swiss registry gets more traffic than Google, kinda
- Pritz to be named chair of Whois group
- Donuts confirms six-figure .news buyer used a fake name
- KeyDrive reverses into CentralNic in $55 million deal
- .pharmacy TLD faces action after losing complaint over Canadian drug peddler
- Donuts makes six-figure .news sale to dangerous conspiracy theorist
- MMX gets four more gTLDs approved for China use
- Four more dot-brands call it quits
- Plural gTLDs to be banned over confusion concerns
- Digital archery ruled out for next new gTLD round
- Could crypto solve the Whois crisis?
- Euro-Whois advice still as clear as mud
- New gTLD fees could be kept artificially high
- First-come, first-served for new gTLDs? Have your say
- Fight breaks out as Afilias eats Neustar’s Aussie baby
- .kids gTLD auction probably back on
- Archaeologists protest “televangelist” .bible gTLD
- .co first ccTLD to get China approval
- All Cyrillic .eu domains to be deleted
- ICANN heads to Cancun for Spring Break boondoggle
- GoDaddy signs up for basically unrestricted .travel gTLD
- Biggest TLD handover in history happens this weekend
- Web.com to be acquired for $2 billion
- Has the world’s biggest new gTLD registry gone bankrupt?
- $44 billion company is latest deadbeat gTLD registry
- How ICANN thinks YOU could get full Whois access
- After ICANN nod, MMX buys .xxx
- Donuts buys back .fan, ignores plural .fans
- Domainers could lose their names as .au loophole closes
- In GDPR case, ICANN ready to fight Tucows to the bitter end
- Three-letter .net leads as NamesCon charity auction raises €4,150 for Kenyan school
- Atallah encourages domainers to get involved in ICANN
- US asks if it should take back control over ICANN
- Christians rail against GoDaddy’s six-color gay rights flag
- Can’t get enough GDPR? Come to my NamesCon panel
- Court denies ICANN’s GDPR injunction against Tucows
- Million-euro Tucows GDPR lawsuit may not be ICANN’s last
- How all 33 European ccTLDs are handling GDPR
- After outcry, ICANNWiki to get ICANN funding next year
- ICANN slashes new gTLD income forecast AGAIN
- Sedo’s cunning GDPR workaround
- ICANN board talking GDPR “litigation”
- Failure to launch: 10 years-old gTLDs that are still dormant
- EnCirca partners with PandoraBots to push .bot names to brands
- Donuts freezes .place gTLD ahead of new geofencing rules
- Registrars want six-month stay on new Whois policy
- Lauded domainer arrested over $2.4 million “extortion”
- Domainers not welcome in this Whois database
- ICANN approves messy, unfinished Whois policy
Momentous’ .sucks bid “about creating dialogue”
The CEO of Momentous’ .sucks new gTLD applicant reckons smart brands will embrace the cheeky concept.
I chatted to John Berard, CEO of Momentous subsidiary Vox Populi Registry, this afternoon for a piece in The Register, and he reckons .sucks isn’t the money-grubbing scam many people will say it is.
“If some people think this is just a way to get registration money out of corporations, then those people are either unaware or are being short-sighted about their marketing effectiveness,” he said.
Berard believes smart companies nowadays are embracing social media interactions as a way to improve their marketing, and that .sucks will be a way to facilitate that.
That said, the policies governing .sucks are still not clear.
Momentous is also applying for .design, .rip and .style.
Kevin,
Thanks for putting DotSucks at the top of your list of newsworthy new gTLD applications.
I will grant you it may seem “cheeky,” but the rise of social media, the history of criticism occupying some dangerous Internet backwater and the importance of engagement make it all pretty sensible.
Specific provenance, light of day, dialog may just increase customer loyalty and improve corporate responsiveness. Win-win, eh?
As for the governing policies, we will be assiduous in protecting brands, vigilant in adherence to our terms and conditions and diligent in a take-down process that supports both.
Cheers,
John Berard
John, perhaps I’m a bit confused. Is your goal to sell domains like Dell.sucks to Dell? Or to individuals that want to gripe about Dell?
If the former, wouldn’t something like .feedback make more sense?
Andrew,
My hope is to create a dialog no matter who registers the name, but there will be trademarks deference built into the system.
As for the use of “sucks” over the more prosaic “feedback,” well, I think that is the reason. We need to get people’s attention so as to create the hub we intend. And cutting through the clutter of daily life requires taking some liberties with the language.
The test will be to see if consumers come to believe their comments are being heard and if companies come to rely on the registry to give them access to real points-of-view.
Watch this space!
Cheers,
John Berard
Same John Berard who represents the BC on the GNSO Council? If so, that seems relevant to me and an odd omission, IMHO.
It’s the same John Berard. I didn’t think his role on the Council was especially relevant here. Plenty of applicants and people representing applicants are on the Council.