<story><title>The .blog Bait and Switch</title><url>http://chrisschidle.com/the-dot-blog-bait-and-switch/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>AndrewStephens</author><text>I have a .horse domain - I tried every permutation horse puns and in-jokes (my.lovely.horse, etc) but they were all taken by squatters or reserved for stupid prices.&lt;p&gt;Eventually I settled for sheep.horse, which is easy to remember but not much else.</text></item><item><author>stephenr</author><text>I wonder how much to buy &amp;quot;my.horse&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Then I can setup a sole mailbox &amp;quot;look&amp;quot;, and have it auto respond to any messages with &amp;quot;my horse is amazing&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I wonder how may will get the joke.</text></item><item><author>echelon</author><text>This seems to have become the de facto pattern with the new gTLD system. A company swoops in and buys a namespace for $200k (or more if there is a competitive bid), and they effectively turn into the cartel equivalent of the domain squatter.&lt;p&gt;You can register your new gTLD for anywhere between $1 and $100, depending on what I suppose they expect their target demographic to be willing to pay. Dot horse is more expensive than dot webcam, for instance, and I imagine dot lawyer is more expensive than dot lol.&lt;p&gt;However, if your domain name uses a word or phrase that happens to be in their &amp;quot;premium domain&amp;quot; dictionary, then they&amp;#x27;ll charge an elevated price based on heuristics similar to what yesteryear&amp;#x27;s domain squatters used. Some simple and concise domains can run hundreds of thousands of dollars.&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  cheap.horse is $25&amp;#x2F;yr
  tiny.horse is $100&amp;#x2F;yr
  internet.horse is $1000&amp;#x2F;yr
  free.horse is &amp;quot;ask us&amp;quot;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
Controlling the TLD is the ultimate form of domain squatting.&lt;p&gt;I wonder what will happen when some of these companies go under because they can no longer afford to pay off their debts? Will those that registered domain names lose them outright? Can someone else buy the gTLD and take them all over?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ajacksified</author><text>When I was first building m.reddit.com, I put it under `reddit.horse`, mostly because I found it hilarious that `.horse` existed.</text></comment>
<story><title>The .blog Bait and Switch</title><url>http://chrisschidle.com/the-dot-blog-bait-and-switch/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>AndrewStephens</author><text>I have a .horse domain - I tried every permutation horse puns and in-jokes (my.lovely.horse, etc) but they were all taken by squatters or reserved for stupid prices.&lt;p&gt;Eventually I settled for sheep.horse, which is easy to remember but not much else.</text></item><item><author>stephenr</author><text>I wonder how much to buy &amp;quot;my.horse&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Then I can setup a sole mailbox &amp;quot;look&amp;quot;, and have it auto respond to any messages with &amp;quot;my horse is amazing&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I wonder how may will get the joke.</text></item><item><author>echelon</author><text>This seems to have become the de facto pattern with the new gTLD system. A company swoops in and buys a namespace for $200k (or more if there is a competitive bid), and they effectively turn into the cartel equivalent of the domain squatter.&lt;p&gt;You can register your new gTLD for anywhere between $1 and $100, depending on what I suppose they expect their target demographic to be willing to pay. Dot horse is more expensive than dot webcam, for instance, and I imagine dot lawyer is more expensive than dot lol.&lt;p&gt;However, if your domain name uses a word or phrase that happens to be in their &amp;quot;premium domain&amp;quot; dictionary, then they&amp;#x27;ll charge an elevated price based on heuristics similar to what yesteryear&amp;#x27;s domain squatters used. Some simple and concise domains can run hundreds of thousands of dollars.&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  cheap.horse is $25&amp;#x2F;yr
  tiny.horse is $100&amp;#x2F;yr
  internet.horse is $1000&amp;#x2F;yr
  free.horse is &amp;quot;ask us&amp;quot;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
Controlling the TLD is the ultimate form of domain squatting.&lt;p&gt;I wonder what will happen when some of these companies go under because they can no longer afford to pay off their debts? Will those that registered domain names lose them outright? Can someone else buy the gTLD and take them all over?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pavel_lishin</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m glad that someone snagged hoarse.horse and is doing more with it than I would have.&lt;p&gt;not.horse is available, too, if someone wants to tell that joke via a TLD.&lt;p&gt;And of course, bad.horse is exactly what you expect it to be.</text></comment>