Like it or not, .jobs domains aren’t going anywhere.
A letter republished by DomainIncite shows how a recent breach notice by ICANN had been rescinded. The breach allegation was originally set forth by a lobby of job board interests in 2010 known as the .JOBS Charter Compliance Coalition.
It included the likes of Monster and CareerBuilder.
“DirectEmployers Association is pleased that Employ Media and ICANN have reached an amicable resolution and we are extremely proud that Employ Media has always acted in a very professional manner throughout the process,” said Bill Warren, executive director at DirectEmployers Association, the caretakers of many .jobs domains like nursing.jobs and us.jobs.
If you’re not familiar with this soap opera, it goes something like this:
When the .jobs domain opened itself up to non-corporate destinations like boston.jobs, as opposed to only corporate sites like att.jobs, the job board community wasn’t very happy about it. A major fear, for instance, was that Google search results would be littered with .jobs domains and make life tougher for job boards to rank for targeted terms, as well as tougher for job seekers to make sense of all the Web pages.
“Resolving this dispute with ICANN means both existing and future registrants of .jobs domain names have won the right to own, operate and invest into their Web sites on the Internet with certainty,” said Ray Fassett, founder and EVP operations & policy at Employ Media, the organization that oversees the .jobs domain.
And here’s why all the hubbub doesn’t even matter:
- Google. It’s the search giant’s job to serve up the best results based on its algorithm. The .jobs domain is no silver bullet to top rankings. You still have to block-and-tackle like everyone else.
- ICANN. If you haven’t heard, the keeper of the domain game has opened up the floodgates for all kinds of domain extensions. Get ready for dot-everything, making .jobs just one of many that will exist alongside .shop, .music, .movie and whatever else marketers dream-up (and pay handsomely for).
- New world. You can argue to the degree that it’s happening, but social and mobile are changing search habits and how consumers get answers. This will continue and domain’s mean less as a result.
- Hard times. Job sites are struggling. Just ask Monster. Dot-jobs is the least of worries when you can’t pay the rent and LinkedIn is stealing your lunch money.
Employ Media’s organization has also applied for .career, in light of ICANN’s new open door. Other extensions filed for approval by the organization include .realtor, .home, .med, .casino and .hot. Click here to peruse all the applications.
“It’s unfortunate that the ‘.JOBS Charter Compliance Coalition,’ led by Peter Weddle and John Bell, has so strongly opposed the .JOBS Universe build-out for almost three years,” said Warren.
I’d add unnecessary too.
