Recent Posts
- Bumper batch of dot-brands off themselves for Friday 13th
- .org price cap complaints more like “spam” says Ombudsman
- Botterman is new ICANN chair
- Another victory for Amazon as ICANN rejects Colombian appeal
- Kafka turns in grave as ICANN crowbars “useless” Greek TLD into the root
- Sorry, you still can’t sue ICANN, two-faced .africa bidder told
- Why you should never let a pizza joint apply for your billion-dollar dot-brand
- More than 1,000 new gTLDs a year? Sure!
- Paranoid ICANN opens another root server in China
- A third of the top TLDs are shrinking
- These two ccTLDs drove two thirds of all domain growth in Q2
- .blog registry handover did NOT go smoothly
- Donuts slashes prices on a million domains
- .tech gTLD startups “raise $2 billion”
- Whois killer deadline has passed. Did most registrars miss it?
- CIRA replaces CORE as emergency backup registry
- The Amazon is burning. Is this good news for .amazon?
- China’s MySpace trainwreck sells its gTLD
- Second-level .au names delayed
- ICANN names new directors, replaces Facebook exec
- After getting acquired, bank scraps its dot-brand
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- Registrars could be held liable for US gun violence
- Three-letter .com owned by hospital “hijacked”
- “We’re Irish!” claim Brits as .eu shrinks yet again
- Mystery .vu registry revealed
- Berkens says new gTLDs mostly suck but geos suck hardest
- .gay gets rooted
- Neustar takes control of two new gTLDs
- Epik will sponsor 8chan’s domain, but will not host its site
- EFF becomes second to appeal new .org contract
- CentralNic to pay $3.4 million for iwantmyname
- Google has big, innovative plans for .new
- Amazon and Google have been BEATEN by a non-profit in the fight for .kids
- After more racist shootings, take one guess which registrar 8chan just switched to
- Radix releases huge amount of premium domain data
- ICANN dumps the “Whois” in new Whois tool
- Now auDA loses its CEO too
- Porn blocks could be worth millions to MMX
- Cryptocurrency firms to be banned from .bank
- Cybersquatting cases down a bit in the UK
- Looks like .fans has a new Chinese owner
- Can NameCheap reverse .org price cap scrap?
- Neustar to keep .us for another decade
- MMX to pay $5.1 million to get out of terrible .london deal
- ZADNA boss canned for “misconduct”
- ICANN’s new conferencing software has a webcam security bug
- ICANN explains how .org pricing decision was made
- CEO lost millions on Manhattan apartment deal just days before AlpNames went dark
- Zimbabwe wants to rebuild its domain market from scratch
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.