How will users browse the internet in the future and will domains evolve in lockstep?

[Irish31]

Fellow .CA'ers,



I was browsing last night and came across a few "Facebook and Social Networking will kill the world of domains" article. I have read a few of these and found them to be more or less a paper tiger threat. Even so, I decided to take a read and see if I found any valid points.

I didn't. At least not in terms of Facebook taking over anything longterm. I did however notice a response below in the comments section that caught my eye:



"The entire point of the facebook ecosystem is not that people remember “facebook.com/oreo” as opposed to “oreo.com”. It is that for large masses of people, being on Facebook and being “online” are the same thing. So when they’re in FB, they just type “oreo”, or they click on a “so-and-so likes Oreos” link in their newsfeed, and basically just hit stuff has it propagates virally. It’s a totally different model, but it has a lot of users immersed in it.

I’m not pointing at one particular “killer app” and saying, “this will kill domain names”. I’m saying that as things evolve, the actual contents of a domain name becomes less important. It’s the distinction I try to get across that killer.com vs. killersomething.net will matter less going forward, because other factors will become more important in whether killersomething.net succeeds or killer.com fails (just look at Live Current).

In this particular case I’m positing that applications and meta-layers on top of the domains will have more of an effect in the success or failure of a given venture than what the domain name actually is. (This is the heresy most domainers can’t stomach, but hey, I love great domains as much as the next domainer and I’m pretty proud of my stable. I just don’t confuse map with the territory.)

In general, I think the meme of X replacing Y gets overused a lot. The world isn’t really that cut-and-dry. What happens when you look at various trends, you see X supplanting the importance of Y. Something that was front and center wanes, it doesn’t go away, but it’s less paramount.

In domains we have something that actually underpins everything on the internet: the DNS. But the point is DNS doesn’t really care *what* it’s translating to, a strong keyword generic, a sexy web 2.0 brandable, or an acid-crazed keyboard mashing. It’s the translation process that is the secret sauce, more so than the label or the number on either side of the mapping."


My question to you is:


Is it a possibility that in the short term (5-10 years) we will have evolved technologies and the products to package them to people so that Applications and new meta layers of content will surpass the importance of the "address string" of the domain itself?

Will there be a happy marriage between the importance of a good, brandable home address and how people are getting into your virtual store front (if they will no longer be going through the front door)?

We all have a vested interest in seeing the above scenario either not play out or play out in such a fashion that online property values do not plummet. If they are supplanted by a new technology, will domainers be victims of their own rose coloured glasses? Or will we be the visionaries we are known for and adopt to the ever evolving model that is the Internet.


I'd welcome any insightful comments and feedback on this topic. For reference, the excerpt above came from this article:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...=www.google.ca

Regards,


Jason

[DropWizard.com]

Interesting concept. As a businessman I want as much control over our website as possible and handing control of that to a third party like facebook wouldn't fly with me or any business I know that had it properly explained. One only needs to look at AOL and it's protective walls that people started to ditch in droves to find out what the "real" internet was like. In that respect Facebook is just another AOL.

And look at Yahoo directory. Once people had to start drilling down into directory results rather than just entering a search term (much simpler) they abandoned yahoo for google. A setup that you describe would also suffer from that.

I don't see it as a long term threat.

[hugegrowth]

It might shave some use of domains, but say you start a new website and want to advertise it on tv, radio, or in print. You have to give a domain as a starting point. Most of these new apps and features would probably use a good domain if they could still reg it, but they're likely not available. Savvy business people are still paying 5, 6 and 7 figures for domains, that is a good sign. Plus, it is an ego stroke to have a great domain.

In the Middle East where disruptions are happening some governments are blocking FB and Twitter and other social media sites. If your business is only using FB to market, this is one example of how you could be shut down by surprise. With your own domain and website you have the most control.

Most of these new technologies are like speed dial to phone numbers. No, you don't have to enter the phone number itself with speed dial, but speed dial still has to have an underlying phone number to function.

[katherine]

As a businessman I want as much control over our website as possible and handing control of that to a third party like facebook wouldn't fly with me or any business I know that had it properly explained

Hammer. Head. Nail.

[DomainsInc]

Hammer. Head. Nail.

yeah, you would also be promoting facebook or whatever platform you use for free by doing so.