A couple of days ago I registered a couple of domain names through New.net - they offer extensions like .shop, .mp3, .free, .club, etc.

Only after registration (thanks to my beautiful attention to details), I discovered that only people who download a special New.net plug-in could view the site OR people who use some of the ISPs on the list (there are many of them, including Erthlink, Juno, NetZero, Prodigy, etc).

Currently the number of people who can view domains with these kind of extensions is close to 175 million. The questions is - do these domains have any future at all??

Best,

Doubt it - as far as im concerned its a gimmik.

At the end of the day your really paying for a forth level domain, so for example, if you had www.thisismy.shop

you need to tell people without the plugin to go to:
www.thisismy.shop.new.net

I also wouldnt touch the plugin with a barge poll, from what I have read, it contains spyware.

Actually, the New.net plug in is spyware free The only data that is being sent is the license number of the plug in for number counting puproposes.

So, you think the suffixes like .free and .shop has no future, even considering the number of users being able to access those pages is growing?

Hi

Yeah I stand by what I said - at the end of the day new.net is a gimmick and I doubt it will ever be taken seriously - sure a people who work in the internet industry may get one of those domains but at the end of the day, someone on the street isnt going to be after one, all they want is a .co.uk or a .com, i would be amazed if they knew new.net existed (ill take it back when I see a sole traders van with a url that ends in .shop or whatever within their logo/ branding).

As a rule of thumb we (as in AGCC) steer clear of anything non ICANN such as Net registrar (.uk.co), new.net , gb.com, and usually central nic (.uk.com), for the simple reason that it is either more pricey than an initial .com domain, or you can get burned (for non-uk based hosts, there was alot of contravercy over net registrars collapse after the columbian registry revoked .uk.co meaning alot of peoples domains stopped resolving and alot of customers got "anoyed").

should also add that there *may* be brand confusion and/ or trademark infringement in the UK as there is an ISP / carrier called new net, although nothing has happened yet.

I'm with Andrew on that one... i'd go so far as to say where domain names are concerned, if they're not recognised by ICANN, don't buy them as in the long term you are probably throwing your money away.