Where's The Skepticism About High Priced Domain Names?

from the wonder-where-that-article-came-from... dept

Over the weekend, some tech blogs were buzzing about a USA Today article from late Friday evening, discussing the return of high prices for domain names. Considering the recent obsession with the online advertising market, the fact that domain names are selling for more money isn't all that new or surprising. In fact, we've some similar stories lately. However, it's interesting to note that the article doesn't bother to find anyone even remotely skeptical about buying up expensive domains with plans to resell them at a higher price down the road. The reporter apparently didn't bother to search out anyone who got burned the last time around, when domain names were regularly selling for thousands... and then you suddenly couldn't give them away. Instead, they quote someone who's clearly biased (he's a domain name broker) insisting "a patient speculator can buy a name for $30,000 and, a few years later, sell it for a windfall." Do people really have that much difficulty understanding these things can be cyclical? Especially in an age of "search," where people often discover sites based on where their search engines point them, rather than by simply guessing random domain names -- it would seem like specific URLs might not have as much value. In fact, the whole article feels "placed" by a PR agency -- perhaps for domain name registrar GoDaddy, whose president has a couple of choice quotes in the article talking up the importance of buying domain names. Good timing for a company that may soon announce plans to go public.

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