{"id":124,"date":"2016-03-11T15:32:53","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T15:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/designations.info\/?p=12"},"modified":"2018-04-30T14:43:45","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T14:43:45","slug":"owning-up-to-i-own-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2016\/03\/11\/owning-up-to-i-own-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Owning Up to “I Own It”"},"content":{"rendered":"

In stark contrast to my previous post<\/a>, let me point out that there are plenty of dictionary-word domains that are extremely successful in the dot com TLD (“top-level domain”). Indeed, some (such as Johnson & Johnson’s baby.com) are so successful, that the company (in this case J&J) even registered the proprietary top-level domain (.baby).<\/h3>\n

Nonetheless, the impressively vast majority of strings registered in dot com are not words, but brand names (trademarks, etc.).<\/h3>\n

Let me now delve a little deeper into how natural language works… — in particular, how we use words<\/em>. Making something your own is a matter of accepting it into your environment \u2013 it’s an agreement to think about, it, care about it, being concerned, etc. When we decide to use words (or not), it is always of our own choosing.<\/h3>\n

We don’t need<\/em> or have to<\/em> use particular words. There are many many millions of strings I couldn’t care less about (if fact, the number is ca. 1 Googol per \u201etop level domain\u201c [TLD]). Some of these strings are words in languages I neither understand nor speak, but by far the vast majority are simply completely random gobbledygook.<\/h3>\n

Once I was at a domain conference where Bob Parsons was a speaker. He explained that there are still<\/em> many many millions of unregistered<\/em> strings in the dot com TLD 10 characters or less<\/em>. After his speech I walked up to Mr. Parsons, who was then surrounded by dozens of domainers wanting to ask questions or whatever. I showed him a slip with some such a random 10 character string and asked him how much he would be willing to pay for it. He replied: \u201enothing<\/em>\u201c. I feel I made my point quite well. \ud83d\ude09<\/h3>\n

About a decade ago, I noted that domains are really only valuable IFF (\u201eif and only if\u201c) they are exact matches<\/em> for what someone wants<\/em>… \u2013 or rather types in<\/em>. Someone may actually want a coffee table<\/strong>, but if they type in furniture<\/strong>, then it’s the string \u201efurniture<\/em>\u201c which is actually valuable<\/em>. In the meantime, such domains have acquired a name: such a string is now referred to as an \u201eexact match domain<\/em><\/strong>\u201c.<\/h3>\n

Another thing I noted about a decade ago \u2013 but which still remains \u201eundiscovered\u201c by most \u2013 is that noone really ever \u201eowns<\/em>\u201c a string. If people decide to no longer want \u201efurniture\u201c, and instead choose to want a \u201ecoffee table\u201c, a \u201edesk\u201c, a \u201echair\u201c, a \u201ecouch\u201c or a \u201esofa\u201c… then these strings become more valuable and \u201efurniture\u201c plunges in value. Strings such as \u201ehouse\u201c or \u201ehome\u201c or \u201egold\u201c or \u201eoil\u201c are not valuable in and of themselves \u2013 they are only valuable if and only if (IFF) they are in demand by other people<\/em>.<\/h3>\n

As an example, take the string \u201egoogle\u201c. Many people have made a huge fuss over it \u2013 as far as I know, the string is even listed in some modern dictionaries. I don’t know how they have defined it, but I would define it as \u201eto use a website in which the second-level domain is ‘google’<\/em>\u201c. Similarly, \u201eto twitter\u201c may now be interpreted as \u201eto use a website in which the second-level domain is ‘twitter’<\/em>\u201c, and so on. I no longer use such websites (see e.g. \u201eretard media<\/a>\u201c), so these strings are essentially worthless<\/strong> in my book<\/em>.<\/h3>\n

The important takeaway from all of this is: It is possible to muck up<\/em> a domain<\/strong>. If you try to sell donuts at sex.com, you will undoubtedly ultimately be punished by the market forces of natural language working against you<\/em>. People are always free to choose another<\/em> word, to create new words, to route around<\/em> a language problem… — if you don’t believe that, then just dictionary<\/em><\/strong> it! \ud83d\ude09<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In stark contrast to my previous post, let me point out that there are plenty of dictionary-word domains that are extremely successful in the dot com TLD (“top-level domain”). Indeed, some (such as Johnson & Johnson’s baby.com) are so successful, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[470],"tags":[49,50,134,471,472,473,477,19,91,478,479,481,482,191,483,484,21,102,485,486,69,248,491,22,192,492,493,494,495,496,497,498],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w79D-20","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":123,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2016\/03\/08\/dot-com-domain-names-are-almost-all-brands\/","url_meta":{"origin":124,"position":0},"title":"Dot Com Domain Names are Almost All Brands","author":"nmw","date":"March 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"While it is true that nearly all dot com domain names are brands, this does not mean that all brands must be dot com domain names. I would not advise against choosing a dot com domain name for a brand, but there is very little sense in registering a name\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "designations"","block_context":{"text":"designations","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/info\/info-designations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2016\/03\/08\/every-domain-name-is-equally-unique\/","url_meta":{"origin":124,"position":1},"title":"Every Domain Name is Equally Unique","author":"nmw","date":"March 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"There are many factors to consider when choosing a brand name, yet one of the most widely repeated fallacies is that online brands need to be identical to dot com domain names. To a computer, every domain name is equally unique. To a human, the significance of domain names is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "confer"","block_context":{"text":"confer","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/biz\/biz-confer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2016\/08\/12\/global-languages-andor-classification-schemes-generic-top-level-domains-tlds\/","url_meta":{"origin":124,"position":2},"title":"Global Languages (and\/or Classification Schemes) + Generic Top Level Domains (TLDs)","author":"nmw","date":"August 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Whereas traditional classification schemes (such as the Dewey Decimal Classification [DDC] or the Library of Congress classification scheme [LC]) have primarily been oriented towards topical segmentation of publications published by individual persons or corporate entities, I feel it is now a pretty safe bet that the landscape of generic top-level\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":234,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2021\/02\/11\/in-what-we-trust\/","url_meta":{"origin":124,"position":3},"title":"In What We Trust","author":"nmw","date":"February 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"You may recall a post I made a few months ago .. in which I mentioned that \u201cI am not at all proud of the species I apparently belong to\u201d (\u201cI understand that this is very important to you\u201d). Another way of putting this idea is that I have little\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2016\/07\/26\/auctions-markets-for-domains-domain-names-tlds\/","url_meta":{"origin":124,"position":4},"title":"Auctions + Markets for Domains, Domain Names + TLDs","author":"nmw","date":"July 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Several years ago, one of my friends (who is not a \u201edomainer\u201c per se) made a very insightful remark... \u2013 a remark that I have carried around with me ever since and also pondered over all this time (and indeed, I continue to do so). He noted that domain names\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":248,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2021\/10\/04\/the-relationship-between-the-validity-of-natural-language-expressions-and-the-statistical-concepts-of-accuracy-and-precision\/","url_meta":{"origin":124,"position":5},"title":"The relationship between the Validity of Natural Language Expressions and the Statistical Concepts of Accuracy and Precision","author":"nmw","date":"October 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"As you may be aware, I recently started reading a book that was quite the bestseller a few years ago (see e.g. my initial reaction to the quote: \"The problem is that the pervasiveness of technology and mass marketing is screwing up a lot of people\u2019s expectations for themselves: the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}