Numberplates and domain names in the 90's
Numberplates and domain names in the 90's
Author
Discussion

yiannimize

Original Poster:

14 posts

150 months

Tuesday 4th March 2014
quotequote all
Did anyone purchase domain names or number plates back in the 90's? I wished in the 1990's i took note of domain names in particular. I was one of those fools who laughed at thought it was all a waste of time. Crazy how names like cars.com pizza.com clothes.com and so on could of been purchased for a few quid when first available to the public.

Since then, I am always on the look out for anything worth investing in, whether it be tangible or non tangible goods. My mate suggested me to invest in bitcoins but i wouldn't touch that with a barge pole. That bubble will burst soon.

If only there was a time machine, if only...

rxtx

6,050 posts

239 months

Tuesday 4th March 2014
quotequote all
Got one of mine in 1997 but it's a .dk (I was living there at the time) and not a .com or .co.uk because I wasn't that bothered.

I enquired about my surname.co.uk a couple of years ago and the domain-sitter wanted to either rent it to me for £1500 a month, or sell it for £25,000. It isn't a particularly common surname but is a proper noun. I laughed. He still owns it.

GTIR

24,741 posts

295 months

Tuesday 4th March 2014
quotequote all
It doesn't make any difference to Google listings.
If you type in "Pizza" it comes up with everything but pizza.com, for example.

In terms of people remembering it then maybe it'd worth having but then people generally type in the name in Google/Bing.

Even if you had taxicambridge.com it doesn't mean it'll get more hits.

rxtx

6,050 posts

239 months

Tuesday 4th March 2014
quotequote all
The domain name certainly did make a difference to SEO a few years ago, but that is entirely down to how Google or any other search engine ranks pages, and that can change obviously. It's certainly not the only factor though. "Branding" and how the domain relates to the content can affect it. Pizza.com for example is an expensive domain name, but with no actual content relating to what people are after when they search for it, same for cars.com.

robuk

2,512 posts

219 months

Tuesday 4th March 2014
quotequote all
There is still direct search benefit, likewise on social media which all adds to the mix.

.uk is being launched in June and will be the final thing possible so will be a settlement of the 'local' market.

Basically if you have piston.co.uk you will be entitled to piston.uk , those with .org.uk .me.uk etc wont.

There are of course loads of new .stuff being released as well, but I am sticking on the same shelf with .mobi .tel .info .biz and the like smile

Going back to the OP, good stuff in the 90's is good stuff now in both plates and domains. Much like most things really.


yiannimize

Original Poster:

14 posts

150 months

Tuesday 4th March 2014
quotequote all
very true about domain names, but then again when it comes to domain names and business's branding it is important.

Take pizza.com for example. Many well known pizza companies out there like Pizza Hut, Papa Jones to name a few, whilst their own domain names like pizzahut.com papajones.com are important you have to understand proper generic domain names such as pizza.com, cars.com attract ALOT of direct traffic. And many companies would pay thousands and millions to buy these domain names and redirect them to their websites.

A friend of mine has a decent portfolio of domain names and he parks them, doesn't have to work. Lives comfortably off the income receive for domain parking. 90% of his traffic comes from direct type ins.

Couple of years ago pizza.com could of easily ranked on page one due to it's direct name which had a good weight with google but due to it's algorithm changes you would have work hard to get it righr at the top. content and user friendly sites is king these days,

Made some decent buck off adsense for my websites, when google rolled out panda, my sites got hit hard. Sold up quick, too much hassle trying to work out what needed to be done to recover rankings.

rxtx

6,050 posts

239 months

Wednesday 5th March 2014
quotequote all
robuk said:
.uk is being launched in June and will be the final thing possible so will be a settlement of the 'local' market.

Basically if you have piston.co.uk you will be entitled to piston.uk , those with .org.uk .me.uk etc wont.
That is just Nominet trying to make more money, it actually causes more trouble than it is worth for existing co.uk customers and shouldn't really be happening.

yiannimize

Original Poster:

14 posts

150 months

Wednesday 5th March 2014
quotequote all
Hopefully i am not second time wrong, but I am not buying this .shop .music crap

The best in .net .com .co.uk .org are all gone.

rxtx

6,050 posts

239 months

Wednesday 5th March 2014
quotequote all
You're not, they're worthless. The only people that will say it's a good idea are those that sell domains.

.uk is a waste of everyone's time in particular because it seems important, but isn't. It just forces everyone that cares with a .co.uk to pay for the .uk in order to protect their brand/site. Nominet's cash cow.

Terminator X

20,590 posts

233 months

Wednesday 5th March 2014
quotequote all
Gold would have been worth a punt in the late 90's:



TX.

rxtx

6,050 posts

239 months

Wednesday 5th March 2014
quotequote all
Completely on topic TX, the thread was moved incorrectly purely because of the initial content. Not sure what number plates have to do with computers, gadgets and stuff smile

gpo746

3,397 posts

159 months

Wednesday 5th March 2014
quotequote all
Knew a bloke in Preston who did that.
Used to buy mobile phone accessories off him for a few things for a shop. He was down in a basement on Priorgate I think in Preston. Had loads of them printed out round his desk. Big John he was called. Had a merc with a keyring engine start fitted, remember him showing me that.

rxtx

6,050 posts

239 months

Wednesday 5th March 2014
quotequote all
The "Pistonheads re-login bug" strikes again for the millionth time (I think) smile

Engineer1

10,486 posts

238 months

Wednesday 5th March 2014
quotequote all
rxtx said:
You're not, they're worthless. The only people that will say it's a good idea are those that sell domains.

.uk is a waste of everyone's time in particular because it seems important, but isn't. It just forces everyone that cares with a .co.uk to pay for the .uk in order to protect their brand/site. Nominet's cash cow.
But .uk may also cause those of us with a little knowledge and understanding but who aren't following the news to assume it is a typo, the same way an email address without an @ or .something is obviously wrong.

anonymous-user

83 months

Wednesday 5th March 2014
quotequote all
There was a share in the early 1999 dot come boom, that went up 75k% in one year, xcelaera.com

'In 1999, an obscure Cayman-Islands based realty firm refashioned itself into Xcelera.com, a dot-com holding company. The stock immediately skyrocketed--to a peak value near $12 billion (in Mar. '00).

The magnitude of this runup is truly staggering, and perhaps unparalleled. In articles such as NY Observer journalist Christopher Byron wrote [boldface added] "...Xcelera’s stock price soared from 30 cents per share to $223 per share--which is to say, rose by more than 74,000 percent in value--which is, I would suspect, the "greatest one-year rise of any exchange-listed stock in the history of Wall Street."1

To illustrate, a lucky shareholder with an initial $100 investment would have seen that amount quickly balloon to $74,000!'

http://georgenichols.com/publishedwritings/xla/ind...


AmiableChimp

3,674 posts

266 months

Wednesday 5th March 2014
quotequote all
I bought www.sucksqueezebangblow.co.uk years ago and haven't done anything with it since.

I think it appeals to multiple target audiences biggrin

I don't expect to retire on selling it but it's a good conversation piece.

I am glad that I bought my own name in .co.uk format,I also own both .com and .co.uk versions of my company name.

ManFromDelmonte

2,744 posts

209 months

Wednesday 5th March 2014
quotequote all
Aren't you just saying you want to have more money? Inventing a time-machine to go back in time, buy some assets that you know will appreciate, whizzing back to the present and then selling them seems a bit of a hassle to me.

Fetchez la vache

5,902 posts

243 months

Wednesday 5th March 2014
quotequote all
Among others, I've had a .biz domain since 2002 (just looked it up as I couldn't remember).
The number of websites that reject a .biz email address as invalid is still absurd - I can only assume all these other new fangled .cobblers names will have the same problem...

Agree that most of the people that but them will do solely to protect their existing domains, and have them forward to their existing one used by their business. Cash cow then.

robuk

2,512 posts

219 months

Wednesday 5th March 2014
quotequote all
rxtx said:
You're not, they're worthless. The only people that will say it's a good idea are those that sell domains.

.uk is a waste of everyone's time in particular because it seems important, but isn't. It just forces everyone that cares with a .co.uk to pay for the .uk in order to protect their brand/site. Nominet's cash cow.
I agree the .what .ever .next that are coming out are worthless.

.co.uk to .uk move is more significant and due to the nature of it will gain traction and in time will become defacto like .co.uk is now.

I totally agree its a pain in the arse and a £ generator for Nominet though!

rxtx

6,050 posts

239 months

Wednesday 5th March 2014
quotequote all
It's not a move though, it's an as-well-as and exists purely to make money. .co.uk won't be going anywhere.