Tomorrow is a key deadline for .London domain names.
The .London domain name is launching, and it’s very different from previous domain name launches.
I reached out to Antony Van Couvering with Minds + Machines to learn more about the .London launch. One key thing to note: the London Priority Period, which ends tomorrow, is actually open to everyone. People in London will get priority, but this is your first chance to claim domain names regardless of whether you have a direct connection to London.
DNW: .London is running a simultaneous sunrise/Londoner priority/Landrush phase that ends Thursday. Explain how this works and who gets priority over others if more than one person orders a domain name during this period.
Van Couvering: The idea is to give priority to people in London, but be open to everyone. To give Londoners priority over people from outside London, and to give people with rights to a name priority over those who don’t. Deciding what defines a Londoner is tricky, but certainly living in London counts. The way it works is that anyone can apply during the London Priority Period (April 29 – July 31, 2014), and then who gets a name is decided in the following order:
1. Sunrise registration (trumps everything)
2. If you live in London and your applied for-name either matches a trademark (if you’re a business or organization) *or* a variation of your personal name (if you’re applying as an individual)
3. If you live in London and your applied-for name doesn’t match either your trademark or your personal name
4. If you live outside of London, you have last priority
Both an applicant’s address and their claim of rights is validated by a dedicated team. That’s an expense, but one we think is well worth it. The full set of rules and validation criteria are available online (pdf).
The way the London Priority Period is set up that in the event that there is more than one application for the same domain name, priority goes to rights holders, then to Londoners, then to everyone else.
DNW: Because of their status as “world cities”, a lot of people will compare .NYC and .London. .NYC is taking a different approach than .London with regards to who can register domain names. .NYC will always be closed to anyone outside of New York City; .London is open to everyone (after the initial priority for Londoners). Why did .London decide to take this approach?
Van Couvering: Precisely because what makes a Londoner is not simply geography. If someone is born in London, is he or she a Londoner? What if they work in London? Furthermore, London is a global city and is open to people from all over the world. All of this is reflected in the rules — priority to people who live in London, but open to everyone.
DNW: What has been the biggest surprise during this first phase?
Van Couvering: How quickly the word got around. When I travel to London, and I mention what I do, I frequently hear “Oh, I heard about that!” from taxi drivers, waiters, people in pubs. Probably this has something to do with the great pioneers we’ve lined up, which are a mix of well-known brands (Fortnum & Mason, London Symphony Orchestra, West Ham United) and smaller businesses (The Commitments show in the West End, or the All Stars Collective, a group of accomplished musicians). A full list of the .london pioneers is here.
We’ve seen a really great distribution of applications across all walks of London life, and we’re excited that this is going to be one of the larger TLDs without resorting to huge discounting or buying up our own names, as has been rumored in other TLDs. It looks as if .london is really being embraced by the people who live there. To me, that’s success.
DNW: What is your goal for .London registrations a year from now?
Van Couvering: The goal is to have .london be the first choice for a domain name for anyone or any business with a connection to London. We think that’s achievable.
Paul Oborne says
Something just doesn’t feel right about the .london launch.
M&M’s interface has been, at best, clunky throughout the introductory period and it doesn;t seem to be accepting registrations for ANY interesting – or uninteresting for that matter – domains.
For example, M&M’s recent press release suggested that there were scores of applicants for each of apartments.london, property.london and nightlife.london, yet their own website at http://www.mindsandmachine.com don’t accept pre-registrations for a single one of those three. Indeed, you can apply for a whole range of key words and nonsense and virtually none are available. Give it a try.
You can’t have an auction made up of one applicant or less that’s for sure.
I remain to be convinced when we see some figures, but I don’t buy it at the moment, particularly given this late in the day clarification of eligibility criteria.
Andrew Allemann says
Apartments.london works for me. The second one in the press release is properties.london, not property.london, and that one works for me. Nightlife.london doesn’t work on M+M, but I get it to work on GoDaddy. That is strange.
Philip says
“Late in the day eligibility criteria” Really!!
Where have you been? Those eligibility criteria have been known for months. You might “get it” if you keep yourself suitably appraised on the subject matter.
Atb
Paul Oborne says
I wouldn’t have been registering domains as a non-Londoner if it were the case that I didn’t get it.
If the fact that multiple people can’t register the flagship domains is representative of the buying experience that many others are having (and theres no reason to think otherwise), first day numbers will be really disappointing, something that the registry will have to answer to.
To be unable to take registrations at this key stage in the marketing cycle is, frankly, unacceptable. If you think otherwise, it may be you that doesn’t “get it”.
Philip says
You obviously don’t “get it” if you think the eligibility criteria have been late, when they were clearly stated at launch some months ago. What do you find confusing about that with relation to your initial comment on it?
Regarding ability to register the domains refered to, refer to Andrew’s earlier reply to you. It was pretty succint and to the point.
Bear in mind M+M are only one Registrar of many offering the .London domain and certainly not the biggest. To suggest the success or not of .London will be based on one Registrar’s perceived issues, albeit your complaint has been clearly exposed as false, is ridiculous.
The reason you “don’t get it” is pretty obvious when viewed in the context of the above points.
Take your head out of the sand!!
Philip says
And how do you know “the first day numbers will be really disappointing”. Really? Is that based on your wonderfull insight and research as evidenced by your previous posts?
Grow up paul osborne!
Paul Oborne says
Neither of us was able to register all three of these domains via Minds and Machines, with neither of us being able to register nightlife.london, which was the domain that M&M said was their best one. The night before the deadline.
Go back and read it.
You seem very emotional about this old chap. You might want to have a lie down.
Philip says
So your whole basis of the domain failing lies in not being able to register nightlife.London with M+M, the other points about inaccuracies & choice of Registrars being totally overlooked.
It’s not about “getting emotional” but more about exposing imbecilic comments 😉
Atb
Paul Oborne says
Writing them on a bulletin board certainly achieved that.
Philip says
I’m glad you accept the gaping holes exposed in the rationale, underpinning your assertions. Glad I could help you.
Atb
Domaingel says
i wasnt able to apply for nightlife.london either
Philip says
That’s curtains for .London then 😉
Doug says
can i suggest those who do ‘get it’ buy some shares in MMX
this could be big … very BIG
cheers
Doug
Bul says
You guys trying to register keyword domains today must remember there has been preregistrations happening for months. I find it appalling that early adopters; the guys that believed and did their early pre-registrations shouldn’t be rewarded by their loyalty to the .london cause. By letting them have to line up again and compete with sleep ins, you really put “priority” to meaningless.
Lets keep it civil. To much fighting and hurting in the world lately…
jane says
Doesn’t matter about first come first served as it is all abut where you fall in the approval process and whether or not you end up in a bidding war…now…nightlife.london was it? 😉 I think I will avoid that one
Paul Oborne says
I think the way they have established the priority system is good in principle. Its just a waste of time having any kind of priority system if your main interface to the customer doesnt work. Its doubly embarrassing if it doesnt work on the day your CEO does an interview with one of the leading blogs in the field. I wonder how many sales the registrar side of the business lost because of this?
Bul says
umm something to think about. Questions is. What about all the registries out there promoting preregistrations on their behalf? Such as Uniteddomains?
Paul Oborne says
Doesn’t change my point. They either lose the customer completely as a result of their problems or they lose the registrar element of the registration fee, which is where most of the margin is.
I’d change the headline on their website to include a couple of extra words:
“The (Not So) Smart Place to Register Your Domain”.
Philip says
Refer back to the previous replies posted for your benefit.
Jim says
ALL THREE WORKED FOR ME……
Andrew Allemann says
They work now.
Jim says
I see broker.london is very popular..
Jim says
Hada look at the company Doug, I see the BOD have a lot of experience in the domain filed, Ilike the synergy with TUCOWS.
Richard says
I have just registered for nightlife.london no problem at all.
Andrew Allemann says
Yes, it’s working now. Wonder if there was a glitch related to the scrapped pre-order system.
Doug says
yes Jim
a class act indeed
7 new names coming through next month including.London
should get quite exciting
this company is going places imo
cheers
Doug
Domaingel says
all seems to be working now , must only have been the night before the deadline that minds and machines and makeit.london were functioning incorrectly x
Paul Oborne says
Deadline time and for the second night in a row, neither makeit.london nor mindsandmachines.com are working properly. You couldn’t make it up.
Philip says
The landrush registration period is over as of today, with the actual cut off time designated by the relevant decision makers. Any further applications will have to wait for GA now. Lack of basic knowledge on the subject matter again!
Philip says
Regarding ‘not working properly’ yesterday, refer to the helpful comments by andrew and others for the less informed.
You couldnt make it up 😉
Paul Oborne says
You know what they say: a picture paints a thousand words.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/b4vlfUd.png[/IMG]
In case that doesn’t work, the screen shot is hosted here:
http://imgur.com/b4vlfUd
As you can see, mindsandmachines.com asks you to Pre-register the domain (which sounds like the right thing to do, it would be downright STUPID to turn away pre-registrations) and then can’t handle the pre-registrations.
I assume you work for them or something, Philip, as you are quite irrational about the whole thing. Please declare your interest if you want to continue in this discussion without people becoming suspicious.
Philip says
Your earlier points refered to registering relevant domains during the active landrush period. They were comprehensively addressed by andrew, myself & others.
The following from dotLondon supports and clarifies the points made to you previously. Note the specific points re: end of landrush, beginning of GA and the applicability of pre-registration.
http://www.dotlondondomains.london/domain-availability/
Philip says
This isn’t about Minds + Machines but about the irrational assertions you make on the success or failure of the actual .London TLD, based on your inability to register a specific domain at a specific time.
That’s just being rather silly along with your unequivocally stated, unsubstantiated proclamation that “first day figures will be disappointing”
Based on what exactly?
thebrigante says
Hey bonum – how goes it? Just when we’re about to get some actual results, you’ve gone missing on the LSE share discussion board about MMX! So positive for so long and then some results are due and theres no sign! How did that meeting that you arranged between the directors and private investors go last week? Have you told them that the process for http://www.makeit.london is crap today? I hope so!
Trolling me is good sport, but trolling a potential customer and trashing someone elses blog is a different matter entirely you fecking oddball x
Philip says
Thank you for the comments brigante. I’m not following the discussion or posting on LSE for certain personal reasons, which some are aware of.
Domainamewire gets sent directly to my inbox, albeit I’ve recently stopped offering comments here also. I’m not sure making an exception for this particular individual benefits him at all and probably wont bother in future.
I hope that satisfies your curiosity.
thebrigante says
bonum
The bit of curiosity you didnt satisfy was:
“How did that meeting that you arranged between the directors and private investors go last week?”
I think that people would find that enlightening. It would certainly give some context to the rather dismissive way you dealt with that gentleman earlier who raised a perfectly legitimate (and mostly accurate) concern about minds and machines system on a blog. You probably owe him an apology.
On a brighter note, the mindandmachines.com website is no longer falling over when it does lookups for a .london domain. Instead, it is just pretending that anything you search for is unavailable. I guess you’ll take little comfort in that, given that according to you, last night nothing was wrong with the system, today nothing has been wrong with the system and, ultimately, mindsandmachines.com isn’t doing that when it searches for pre-registration because they dont do pre-registrations in spite of asking you to on the website.
I wonder what problems tomorrow will bring in the real world.
atb
ps. If I need to handhold you, go to makeit.london (the main .london marketing site, of course, not that obscure thing you referenced earlier) and search for a domain (because, of course, it DOES let you search for a domain) and then marvel at the mindsandmachines.com search engine as it returns a not available message for anything you search for whilst pressing you to make a .london pre-registration. If you want to copy me word for word, I searched for mysausageisabanana.london and eujhduehd.london, as I didnt expect them to be either taken, on a collision list, or premium priced.
Philip says
I suggest you ask the people present at the meeting.
Regarding the gentleman’s questions, andrew allerman corrected him on his points, with only the nightlife.london being an issue for a short period of time. The main issue was his assertion that application criteria were only just released when we know they’ve been out for months.
As andrew also mentioned, the issue of the site stating pre-registrations is possibly a glitch from the open platform. Certainly not something most if us are hung up about and not the issue originally raised by the gentleman under discussion. I’m much more interested in the major Auction coming up where a bumper number of gTLDs will be up for grabs.
I’m glad I had the opportunity to set the record straight regarding the gentlemans complaints regarding application criteria for .London etc. though.
It wasn’t my intention to contribute any posts, albeit the article in my Inbox with the .London headline warranted a read. On the same basis, I certainly wont be prolonging any discussion with yourself, due to my original reasons for discontinuing posting for the forseeable future.
I will extend my deepest respect to those who attended the meeting and those who continue to research and post on the subject matter.
Please don’t expect any further continuation of this discussion.
Atb
Paul Oborne says
I guess I’ll have last word given it was my comments that were referred to.
1. You accused me of lying about domain availability
Nothing I said was untrue. The system was suffering with issues on Wednesday. As it was clear that fixes were ongoing throughout the evening, you have no good reason to err on the side of mindsandmachines and call me a liar. Even you yourself accept that they were, at the time of other peoples testing, unable to take registrations for key domains. The facts are there to see.
2. You accused me of not knowing about the landrush programme
You twisted my words about this article being a “clarification of eligibility criteria”, having the gall to falsely misquote me as saying they’d introduced “late in the day eligibility criteria”. So, not only did you accuse me of being uninformed, you then went out of your way to spin that by essentially misrepresenting my accurate statements in a way so as they were incorrect. You probably haven’t noticed that the bulk of the article WAS about eligibility criteria too, by the way.
3. You claimed that I was uninformed as customers were not being asked to undertake Pre-registrations and that my attempt Pre-registration was false.
As can be seen from makeit.london and mindsandmachines.com and the screen shots I linked to prospective customers are actively being asked to Pre-register their Domains now. Further, the system was not able to process those requests, telling prospects that the Lookup had failed, later changing process to return a non-availability message for any domain you look up (even if they will in fact be available come GA).
In short, you’ve taken every opportunity to call me a liar when all the hard evidence proves that it was you who was being “false”. Now I know how close you are to the company, I better understand your disgusting behaviour. You even have the temerity to call me out by my full name without giving your full name or relationship with the company. Where’s your integrity?
I won’t hold my breath for an apology from you as you clearly have an agenda at work.
For my part, I have made comments about a domain sales website which has been faulty over the past couple of crucial days for the registry, which is what this blog is about after all. If you have an interest in them, you should be appalled by the problems, not ignoring them.
Philip says
I’ll make this quick, its getting tedious.
The issues were transitory as pointed out by others, although you decided to blanlet condemn the conpany on that basis unequivocally stating the .London figures would be “very low” – based on what?
You seemed unaware the landrush had closed, hence the inability to register domains, irrespective of any ‘glitches’ that M+M might have had and desregarding the stated registry position on pre-regs.
You completely ignored the fact that the success or not of .London isnt dependent on only 1 registrar ie Minds + Machines.
You comments on late eligibility criteria, with reference to the actual article itself, are clear for anyone to see.
If you really think the success or not of .London is solely based on your ability to register nightlife.london at that particular time, your sadly wrong Im afraid.
Im glad I had the opportunity to address those points and provide a balanced petspective to the actual situation.
That’s my last post on the subject to you as the other genrleman is already on ‘ignore’
Atb & watch the developments linked to this company.
Jim says
Eh Brigante, why are you so abusive….
Doug says
brigant
how can anyone get so upset over a .London domain name ?
have you been stockpiling .com names, worried now that they will lose their value ?
oops
cheers
Doug
thebrigante says
Paul.
You won’t get an apology from Philip/bonum as he is always right in his own mind, and is hell bent on making everybody else believe that he is too even when there is hard evidence to the contrary. Even Im surprised he couldnt muster up a begrudging sorry this time though, as he has clearly been extremely rude.
Theres a coterie of forum posters that include him on lse.co.uk who arent good at objectively assessing criticism of a business that some of them are too heavily invested in by the sounds of things. Having posted on there occasionally Im reasonably sure that one or two use multiple IDs as well.
Good luck with your domain purchases, even if you wont get nightlife.london after all! Im off to play.golf!
Paul Oborne says
I’m sure it will amuse certain individuals to know that the mindsandmachines site is now taking pre-registrations just fine.
That’s right – they are taking pre-registrations.
Hope you like the taste of egg Philip, as your face is covered in it.
Philip says
The good people at Minds + Machines clarified the situation yesterday. Yet again, your behind with keeping up with whats happening.
Refer to the link from the registry re: pre-registrartions and the parameters associated with the M+M pre-regs ie they’re not guaranteed but give the applicant an advantage in the firsr come, first served basis.
You still havent clarified why you unequivocally state “first day numbers will be really disappointing” based on your comments in the relevant post or your ignorance of the eligibility criteria having been released many months previously etc etc
Do something constructive with your time like research. It beats making the sweeping judgements you’ve been so guilty of…
Paul Oborne says
I’m glad you found their clarification that they are accepting pre-registrations (which work the same way as pre-registrations at every other registry) helpful. You can add it to the list of things that you ought to be apologising to me about.
Philip says
??
Bul says
Same pre-regs like everywhere else. Theirs will NOT put you any a head or anything than any other registry would. Now stop beating each other up. 😉
Andrew Allemann says
Minds + Machines was offering a different type of pre-registration called “Priority Reservation” that would allow people to reserve the domain ahead of launch on its own TLDs.
It canceled this program due to concerns from registrars and ICANN. Now the Priority Reservations will revert to standard landrush orders.
https://domainnamewire.com/2014/07/18/minds-machines-nixes-priority-reservation-system-after-registrars-complain/
Bul says
Well said Andrew thanks
Paul Oborne says
They have never offered Priority Reservations on .london, which was canned before the TLD was open for applications, it has only ever had the SunPriorityRush and subsequent pre-registrations.
Andrew Allemann says
Correct, I believe Priority Reservations were also only on their “owned” domain names. .London is a partnership.
Philip says
M+M statement on the subject,
“Pre-registration will not guarantee you will get the domain name. Pre-registering a domain reserves your place in our queue for that domain. The instant the registration phase opens, which is on 9th of September we will submit our Minds + Machines registrar list of registrations electronically using our industry-leading technology to give you an edge. Therefore, the benefits of the pre-registration is, that the registrar will do the job for you when the general availability starts.Â
There are no auctions for pre-registered and general availability domain names. It will be first come first served basis.
For the moment the pre-registration will be available only for the .london domain.”
Hope that ‘further’ clarifies the issue.
Paul Oborne says
For someone who seems to relish in positive PR for mindsandmachines, you seem to know remarkably little about the subject in hand.
The above statement simply confirms what I said in the opening of this fairly laborious comments thread – that their system said it was open to take pre-registration after the priority period, the system should have been taking pre-registrations at that time but the system was unable to take pre-registrations as it was not working properly.
We can only speculate as to how many customers were lost as a result and how much goodwill is lost after this embarrassing comments thread that you have actively prolonged, Philip.