Are .com buttons nearing an end with new domain extensions (gtlds) arriving?

(Credit: Jason Cipriani/CNET)

I recently read an article, Apple drops .com button in iOS7, written by Andrew Alleman over at Domain Name Wire. 

A short read, Andrew talks about how his daughter was using the iPad with iOS7 and went to press the .com button, and it was nowhere to be found.

Puzzling if you ask me as I too use the .com button like breathing. I’ve not updated my iPad to iOS7 but I’m waiting to hear the roar of the crowd, if the crowd notices.

One of the first questions that enters my mind is how will the .com button work, if remain at all, when the new gltds or new domain name extensions are released?

With pre-registrations available by various many registrars, there are approximately 1900 new domain name extensions set to be released over the next year. However, only 700 new domain will be introduced due to objections, declines and withdrawal for registry applications.

Knowing there are hundreds of new extensions, how will devices that once had a .com button work? Will the button on the fly account for geographic location and show ccTLDs (country code top-level domains)? Will the button now show new domain name extensions? Only time will tell and answer these questions one by one.

I’m not too certain one should be concerned with those questions although Apple making such a change does make me raise my eyebrow. Typically, when a change like that is made, someone knows something that is bigger than me – as if the world revolves around me.

But joking aside, I think Apple may be taking a page out of the book of the domain registrars, seeing the removal of the extension box from GoDaddy and the latest commercial from 1and1.com promoting pre-reservation of new domain name extensions (no guarantee you’ll get the domain you pre-reserve).

I can’t wait for the release of the new domain name extensions for the sake of seeing which extensions will have success. I’m convinced that the new domain extension party is going to be one of the most challenging and confusing events the internet has known.

But it could also very well bring about the same hype as Y2K, remember that? Exactly, life went on and so did computers and the Internet. But maybe, just maybe, this event could turn out to make .com’s as antique as Model Ts. Who knows? But I digress.

Based on the number of registrations across .com, .net, and .org, I wouldn’t be too concerned with any of the new extensions topping the 110 million registered .com domains any time soon.

If anything, there could very well be a substantial increase in value for .com domains as well as type-traffic from confused web users trying to figure out if it was webdesigner.com or web.designer.com or web.designer.

Either way, .com domains are sure to receive quite a bit of inadvertent traffic for the cost of a latte to keep the .com domain renewed annually. Knowing that, does the disappearance of the .com button mean anything detrimental? Probably not as we’ll adjust, but again, only time will tell.

What are your thoughts about the new domain name extensions and how they will impact web users, online businesses and the internet in general?