Years come and go about as fast as one breathes the precious air of life, so I’ve been told.

While 2018 has sailed on by the domain industry, we’re embarking upon the journey we’ll come to know as 2019.

And just like my wild domaining predictions of 2018, I’ve had some time to think, research, and prepare predictions for what to expect in domaining for 2019.

When I started my journey of podcasting, I knew not one thing about podcasting. I had no clue how to prepare for a podcast, how to find guests, how to achieve an optimal mix, how to record a podcast, or how to host a podcast.

Thank goodness technology has come a long way from the days of having to invest tens of thousands of dollars in the latest equipment to record and host audio and video files on a server and having to custom development a player to support playback.

Imagine how excited I was to discover how easy it was to record a podcast using the Voice Memos app when flying solo, and then Zoom.us or Skype when virtually interviewing parties of one or more.

Then, add in a user-friendly hosting service like Podbean — a podcast publishing and monetization service, providing free and premium hosting packages for individuals and businesses — that fully integrates publishing, management, syndication, and analysis tools. 

It’s been one week since I boarded a plane from Orlando heading back to good ole’ Austin, Texas.

I thought I’d take a moment to share a few thoughts and interactions from my MERGE! 2018 experience.

It’s hard to believe a year has passed since MERGE! burst onto the scene in its inaugural debut.

Many attendees have converged to meet in Orlando, Florida this year at the Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista – Disney Springs Area to pick up where we left off last year discussing an array of digital principles — Domains, Hosting, Digital Search, CMS, Cryptocurrency, IP, Blockchain, eCommerce and Security.

I receive a fair amount of weekly emails from people across the world attempting to sell me on their greatest gem of a domain and how it’ll change my life forever.

Not too often, one of these emails will be legit. Most recently, the email offers have been hyphenated, multi-word, wrong tense, wrong order if any order domains.

Case in point, the following emails just today and yesterday:

• Furniturez.biz
• Downloadz-empire.net
• Downloader-manger.org
• SafeCab.net
• Villerealestate.com
• TheTermInsurance.com
• ACarRepair.com

Most of these reach the spam bin if not already in there to begin with. But then there are a few legitimate domain sales emails that catch my eye.

The one I’m referencing today that caught my did for a number of reasons.

You’re likely a bit perplexed by the title, right?

No worries, because you’re not the only one perplexed by finding out that emoji domain names are a reality. 😮

Yes, the silly 😄, 😂, 😜 and other icons, also known as emojis, you send via text, email and across social networks daily.

They are even included in Google search results! Yes, Google has fallen in ❤️❤️❤️ with emojis, and started having mixed emoji results.

Per Fortune, even GoDaddy is getting in on the act to win over millennials with an emoji search engine for available emoji domains (more on this in a minute).

And if that’s not enough, emojis are set to hit the big screen August 2017 🎥.

Recently GoDaddy hosted a well-attended Hangout about the ins and outs of buying expired domains on GoDaddy’s auction platform.

I registered but didn’t get to attend due to celebrating a friend’s birthday with breakfast. And it was a GOOD breakfast too.

But fortunately for me and now you, GoDaddy recorded the hangout.