ICANN has just published the results of its Global Consumer Survey. U.S. public opinion and marketing company Nielsen was commissioned to do the survey, the second of its kind. The hefty 160 pages document examines many different aspects of internet use, including public attitudes to new general domains. This year’s results show an increase in the number of users aware of the new domains’ existence. Sixteen-percent of respondents said they know about these new domains, compared to 14 percent in 2015.
But at the same time, the number of users visiting sites in the new domain zones has dropped from 15 to 12 percent. More noteworthy is that users also seem to have less trust in the new domains. A year ago, 49 percent of users said they trust the domains, while this year’s result has dropped to 45 percent. By comparison, 90 percent of respondents said they trust sites in the domain zones .COM, .ORG and .NET.
The survey included the new domain names .EMAIL, .PHOTOGRAPHY, .LINK, .GURU, .REALTOR, .CLUB, .XYZ, .NEWS, .ONLINE, .WEBSITE, .SITE, .SPACE, .PICS, .TOP, .BANK, .PHARMACY and .BUILDER. It is interesting that domains that have registered the largest number of names - .XYZ and .TOP – had the lowest recognition rates among respondents: 9 and 11 percent respectively. Recognition rates were highest for the domains .NEWS, .EMAIL and .ONLINE, which, paradoxically, have not yet set any records for registered users.
