I have seen some amazing figures. EG, tens of thousands of dollars a month revenue
generated by generic domain names which have no content and are merely billboards
for advertising or re-direction. The owners make huge sums because punters type in
the domain name as a first try (ie, before they use a search engine), and owners
of sites with content are aware of this. They are prepared to pay the "no content"
domain name owner real money because there are so many hits.

I can't disclose the sources, unfortunately, but no-one I have met who deals in
domain names in any significant numbers has ever disputed the huge value (and even
bigger potential value, as the net expands) attached to certain generic names.
Those who got in first in .com.au are making a very nice return indeed on their
registration costs. Others are unable to register some generic names today,
although Josh's URL shows it is still possible for some to slip through ...
notably big organisations rather than the little guy.

I must say, I have personal attraction to the idea of an auction as mentioned by
kre. The (clearly very substantial amount of) money raised could be put to all
sorts of good uses. It would be unfair to the extent that some already have the
generic names, but the revenue would be substantial, and there're a lot of needy
people in this country. Like others who have commented, the main difficulty I see
is identifying what is generic and what isn't generic. That problem seems
impossible to solve, so I must sadly abandon the idea of an auction and revert to
gross market forces having access to all possible names.

Mark Davidson
Sydney


David_Wise§fhp.com.au wrote:

> >>
> >>I've always thought that your name is what you make of it.
> >>
> >>A generic name might give you a good start, but at the end of day other
> >>factors in the business or enterprise are far more important. I wouldn't buy
> >>furniture from furniture.com, just because it was the first name that sprang
> >>to mind. Neither would a lot of other people, I'm sure.
> >>
> >>We probably need some solid research data that explains the relationship
> >>between a so-called generic name and its contribution to business value.
> >>
> >>
> >>John Southgate
>
> John, Excellent point.
> or example, Amazon seems to have done alright without "www.book.com".
>
> David Wise
> Brisbane
>
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