Barack Obama Earns the 2009 Domainer of the Year Award

It is no secret that Obama is great at public speaking, building a fan base, working the press, and leveraging new distribution channels, but one of his most overlooked marketing achievements is...domain name selection. Anyone who has watched Idiocracy should appreciate the domain names that government programs are now launched under.

Before Obama was sworn in, he launched Change.gov under The Office of The President-elect. Change is an easy concept to grasp after 8 years of crony capitalism and fraudulent wars built on lies from international war criminals. But "change" in and of itself is a tool, not a destination...where is it going?

While launching a plan to increase government spending by nearly a trillion dollars to "create" millions of jobs, upgrade infrastructure, and computerize the national health care system (what hidden costs might come to individuals from that "change"?), Barack announced that his plan to spend this money will be tracked under Recovery.gov.

Part of Obama's spending plan is to "expanding broadband access to millions of Americans so businesses can compete on a level playing field, wherever they are located." But the playing field has never been level (just look at how the bankers rewrote the consumer bankruptcy laws to shaft consumers a few years before the banks were begging the government for trillions of dollars of handouts).

Investments in the web will increase the value of web assets, but the increased competition will make it harder to gain attention and exposure unless you have capital to invest, and invest it wisely. Just this week a corporation worth $10's of billions put one of our core keywords in the page title of their home page! We still outrank them, but for how long?

I thought it would be at least a decade before the United States government started domaining. Many large corporations are sure to catch on soon, increasing domain prices and closing off a great investment opportunity for smaller players. I have been busy over at BuyDomains looking for good names to hoard and build, picking up another 3 yesterday. SEO Book members have access to a coupon code to get 15% off BuyDomains domain names on our member discounts & coupons page.

Published: January 25, 2009 by Aaron Wall in domain names

Comments

Standout
January 25, 2009 - 2:54pm

I didn't know they offered coupons... thanks! But I have heard they're more willing to negotiate on names these days.

I watch BuyDomains take domains everyday off the daily domain drop and at auction at Snapnames -- aggressive portfolio builders!

Maybe you can find some good names for reg fee over at my site http://godrops.com. I host the live domain drop every day and have been able to pick up some real beauties!

mattmorr
January 25, 2009 - 3:55pm

You are right about this "change" with wild government spending. The marginal cost will be greater than the marginal benefit resulting in a situation where we are worse off than before. Assume that the government created 2 million jobs. It doesn't sound as good if it causes the loss of 2.5 million jobs. If politicians used the simple economic formula of "MB > MC then do it", we might start getting on track for progress.

geriatrix
January 25, 2009 - 5:00pm

I have appreciated your previous posts in areas where you have distinguished experience and insight. But, your 2nd graph today is getting in the way for me. There are appropriate forums for the sharing of political opinion. That isn't the common denominator for people here. Choosing to do so here is discourteous. Surely, you have some friends in one of your other networks that would appreciate your perspective.

January 25, 2009 - 9:04pm

If being honest and stating truth (not opinion) costs me readers then I don't think that relationship was a good match anyhow. If people let their political biases blind them to reality I would rather not help them.

TKStom
January 25, 2009 - 8:42pm

Aaron - I'm not sure I'm following your argument here. Is the government using domains beyond the .gov gTLD? If not, is it bad for the government to start using memorable domain names, within their own namespace?

Regarding increasing broadband access, it seems to me this would increase the number of customers more than the number of competing sites. Or are you proposing that there are large numbers of designers waiting for a DSL line so they can finally upload their sites? Where is the competition going to come from? Wouldn't adding random populations (currently underserved surfers) to the Internet tend to improve the site:consumer ratio?

Aaron, your second and third paragraphs seem a bit off-topic to me - sorry...

Tom
TechKnowSys

January 25, 2009 - 9:02pm

is it bad for the government to start using memorable domain names, within their own namespace?

I was trying to point out that they were using domain names as brands. That is a big shift. What next, they register FreeCollege.gov as a military recruitment website?

TKStom
January 25, 2009 - 10:18pm

Aaron - it is a big shift, but is it a threat? If the government can increase its efficiency by making sensible use of its namespace...isn't that what we want them to do? By the way - I think that's an excellent idea for the military - but isn't the general thinking that it would benefit the individual who owns freecollege.com? Is it interesting that recovery.com just forwards to a thin site?

Tom
TechKnowSys

January 26, 2009 - 1:36am

If the government had the will of the people behind it then sure it would be a good thing. But unfortunately my belief is that the government has the will of the opulent corporations behind it...to them we are just cogs to produce economic value, gather debt to pay interest on, and then eventually die.

Ronald Jones
January 26, 2009 - 6:05am

No matter what you may think about the guy's views, you've got to admit, snagging these domains was a brilliant move if they can capitalize on it. Just goes to show what intelligent, motivated people can accomplish.

The last 8, 16, 20 years...heck my whole adult life...has saddened me. Ultimately it is what drove me from an otherwise enjoyable career in the Marine Corps. MajGen Smedley D. Butler wrote "War is a Racket" in 1935 (ISBN: 0922915865) and it hasn't changed much since. Though I disagree vehemently with his proposed solutions, the problems are all too familiar.

January 26, 2009 - 6:33am

I agree Ron. That was the point of this post. (and also to say that if the US Government is already getting it, then corporate America can't be far behind).

This also scares me in a way, because I can already see into the future with it. The odds of this president fixing 30 years of finacial decay are quite low given our current debt to GDP ratio (coupled with increased debt and a slowing economy and lowering asset prices). He will probably be out of the White House in 4 years...and a year or two after that justice.gov and/or freedom.gov will be a website about plans of racial profiling and so on. Peace.gov will explain why constant war is necessary, etc.

EricDoggett
January 26, 2009 - 3:55am

Aaron - man - you just lost a follower/customer with your:

'after 8 years of crony capitalism and fraudulent wars built on lies from international war criminals.'

Whether you feel that way or not, you did your article and community a disservice with that back-of-the-hand comment. It came across as childish and petty in a discussion which could have easily just focused on Obama's excellent technology initiatives.

Eric

January 26, 2009 - 4:19am

There is nothing childish about sacrificing one's paycheck to speak out against unjust murder and economic terrorism. You actually can't get much more patriotic than that.

Like I said above...if you support war criminals then I would rather not help you.

hugoguzman
January 26, 2009 - 3:40pm

While I don't necessarily agree with Aaron's political stance, I welcome the opinion.

After all, this is a free country, right?

Actually, that's one of the big problems with this country. Folks are unable to argue topics, whether trivial (like football) or important (politics & government) without allowing personal opinion and emotion to get in the way.

Evan
January 27, 2009 - 5:49pm

Aaron, lots of people compromise their values when it involves money...I respect that you don't.

I have turned down a job that didn't support my values...I wouldn't take one that goes against my values.

But the irony is that I am a plastic solar cell researcher at UCSB and my grant is funded by the army...so the work supports my values but the people from whom the money comes doesn't.

So my work will contribute to inexpensive plastic solar cells for things like laptop and cellphone chargers. Down the line there may even be serious gigawatts produced by this technology. But also the military wants to make tents made out of plastic solar cells.

For me the choice is easy...take their money, buy organic food with it, etc. But it is so not black and white!

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