posted 04-12-2000 05:00 PM         

---

Update:

Starting Tuesday, HitDomains.com, a Pompano Beach company, began auctioning 3,000 Web names for business and financial services. It says it will set a minimum bid of $7.5 million for pay.com, $5 million for stockexchange.com, $4.2 million for postage.com, $3.5 million for cash.com.

Meanwhile, GreatDomains.com, a Southern California rival, reports it already has received $7.5 million bids each for stocks.com and bonds.com. It says bidders also have offered $10 million for America.com, but the owners are holding out for $30 million.

posted 03-24-2000 06:55 PM         

---

Thanks for the article.
Here's another one... about the high flying prices of domain names.
http://www.emarketer.com/enews/030600_rNames.html?ref=wn

Here's a question... now that B2C commerce is not quite as popular, are domain names as important? Businesses will use the B2B site that is the best, not the one that is the flashiest or has the best name... at least not as much as consumers do.

posted 03-16-2000 07:06 PM         

---

InfoSpace(.com) is bucking the trend and has changed its name to InfoSpace.

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1562413.html

This quote from the article was especially humorous and also true i'm sure.
"According to some industry observers, the dot-com frenzy will soon go the way of grunge rock--an outdated fad that swept by quickly but left an impression."
In a few years (5 or 6 probably) there will be no such thing as a dot-com company. Most every company will use the net for some things, but none will use the net for everything.

posted 01-25-2000 07:32 PM         

---

Update on the most expensive domain names to date:
america.com $10m (current bid)
business.com $7.5m
altavista.com $3.3m
loans.com $3m (current bid)
autos.com $2.2m
celebrities.com $2m (current bid)
express.com $2m
bingo.com $1.1m
taxes.com $1m (current bid)
sportinggoods.com $1m (current bid)

My opinions:
america.com is too expensive.
altavista.com should be ignored, because the buyer (Compaq) made the mistake of building the brand before buying the domain, which is why they had to pay so much.
autos.com is too expensive (cars.com is much better).
sportinggoods.com is too expensive (sports.com is much better).
The others might be reasonably priced, provided the buyers can build their businesses around the names.

posted 01-19-2000 01:06 PM         

---

Here's my main problem with generic names and the money spent on them - they are great and essential in the short term, but rather horrible and inflexible for the long term. Take for example MP3.com. Great domain for the time being, as MP3 is a pretty standard and easy way for downloading music. But what about a couple years from now, when the technology will most probably change to another method of downloading? How will MP3.com alter their business plan to incorporate this new technology? If they no longer use MP3 technology, won't they have to change their name and address completely?

Imagine a company like Intel being named "computerchips.com" or Cisco being called "56KModems.com", which was basically what started the success of each company. Neither would have been able to move as easily (if at all) to the other types of businesses and services they offer now, the key to their continued success.

All times are EST (US)