“.Sucks” Domains: What You Need to Know - The Great American Small Business Challenge | The Great American Small Business Challenge

Article written by Pierre Zarokian of Reputation Stars.

What is going through the mind of someone who purchases and creates a hosting account for a .sucks domain about any brand or celebrity? It’s no secret that people in the search marketing world would find value in these kinds of domains for the sole purpose of page views and traffic. Still, BankofAmerica.sucks and Yahoo.sucks might quickly become real life slander sites from anonymous developers.

The unique suffix is not a one-off phenomenon. It has already been taking place since the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) developed a method to incorporate other domain suffixes back in 2011. The provider maintains records of current suffixes, including suffixes such as “.sexy” and “.cancerresearch”, and contributes to it based on the 2,000+ applications it was given. 500 URL suffixes have already been authorized.

The norm continues to be .com, but ICANN resolved to allow applications for different web address suffixes because the real estate in .com is quite saturated.

The high asking price, and postponed entry to secure these kinds of websites, suggests that smaller companies and communities will likely be out of luck assuming they can’t pay the stiff fees to maintain a website’s operating costs. This starts a different type of trolling. Now we have patent trolls, opinion trolls and before long we may have “URL trolls.”

Are Firms Like Yours Shelling Out to ICANN in the Hopes of Protection?

Anything is possible. ICANN is asking for what most people would consider an excessive cost to register these domains. These unique suffixes may seem like they are making the market innovative, but ICANN is profiting.

Article was written by Pierre Zarokian of Reputation Stars. Worried about a .sucks domain name clouding your search rankings? Reputation Stars can help you!